Newborn with strangled foot

Question
QUESTION: HI, I thank you in advance for responding to my very important question. My DIL breeds cats.   Over Christmas my son and DIL took a vacation and I watched their 5 cats.  One cat had kittens a day after they left. I came downstairs early in the morning and heard a loud cry, ran to the living room and saw the cat with three kittens.  One kitten had the sac still over its face which I removed, a second kitten was very very tiny and another one had a purple foot.  I immediately knew that something had gone very wrong like the umbilical cord having wrapped itself around it in the birth canal since nothing was around it now.  Two of the kittens died, and this other kitten with the discolored foot ended up losing the foot.  I am devastated.  To make matters worse, my DIL is livid and holds me totally responsible, and it has just about severed our relationship.  She keeps telling me how angry she is at me, and is very accustory.  I took the premature kitten to the vet, and the other one with the foot, I was told to go to a Emergicare Clinic 30 miles away.  Since I am not familiar with the area, I felt too unsure of myself of getting lost since I am a senior citizen, and was not even sure if the kitten could survive such a long trip.  My DIL says it is impossible that this happened the way I am saying it, and I do not know what to do to redeem myself, since it has been two months now and she just goes into a rage everytime I call her.  My question is, have you ever heard of a kitten newborn with a strangled foot due to the umbilical cord having wrapped itself around in utero.  Please help me.  I am desperate.  Thank you so much.

ANSWER: I'm very sorry you had such a bad time with this cat and these were situations that a novice would not really have had the experience to deal with.  People think that cat births are so natural but in reality they are no different to human births in that things can and do go wrong.  It is definitely not unusual for the mother to fail to remove the sac from the face and I find my Birmans feel its beneath them so have to do them all myself.  It sounds like the mother was the same or inexperienced.  Regarding the foot, its always possible for the cord to be wrapped around any part of the kitten - I have known it to be wrapped around the neck as well, just like it can happen in humans.

I must say here that I am surprised that your daughter in law went away on holiday when a cat was due to kitten as I know that I would not be enticed away for any reason when one of my girls is due.

I am sure your daughter in law will calm down in time but in some ways she is probably angry with herself for leaving you to deal with it as much as anything.

Marcia.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I thank you very much for your very kind request.  I just would like to know if you ever heard of any cases where a kitten had the cord wrapped around its foot IN UTERO, in the birth canal and when it was born the foot was already dead from being oxygen deprived.  My DIL keeps saying it happened after the kitten was born because I "neglected" them,  but she does not believe me. I know of a cat breeder and have also spoken to her, and she told me  that something like this once happened to one of her kittens.  But my DIL keeps insisting that that is not possible, and it happened AFTER the kitten was born.  What do you say?  Thank you Marcia. This situation is aging me by the day.

Answer
Hi Norma

I really feel for you that you are having this hassle.  Unless someone is actually there at the time they cannot say what 'actually' happened.  Its not a situation I have encountered in over 30 years of breeding so I think you can now guess how rare it is.  From what you said in your original email, I don't think it was a case of you neglecting the kitten.   The kitten had already been born by the time you got up and I guess from your email that you hadn't expected these kittens to be born at that time, especially as you mentioned taking the 'premature' kitten to the vet.  In those circumstances it is impossible to say whether the foot got tangled before, during or after the birth.  I think you need to mention to your daughter in law that as the cat gave birth unattended then it is not possible to say at what stage this happened.  I have known it happen where the cord is wrapped around the neck in utero or in the birth canal, so it is not impossible that this could have happened around a foot.

Marcia.