Siamese Kitten Death

Question
My siamese girl had one single kitten on Wednesday last week. He was a good weight, 4 ounces and appeared healthy. I came home from work on Monday lunchtime to find him dead in the kitten box. Mum was agitated and was trying to rouse him. I noticed that he was lying in a little sick which was greenish in color. What do you think may have caused him to die. I have been a breeder of Siamese for 20 years and have never lost a single kitten. I am also worried about mum as she seems very depressed and keeps looking for the kitten. She sits outside the bedroom which was hers and her babies and cries. Do you think it best to mate her again on her next but one call or should I leave it a little longer.
Thank you
She has had a litter previously of 3 kittens and although not a good mum at the start proved herself to be a good mum.

Answer
Hi Debbie.  I'm very sorry to hear about the baby, how awful for both you and your queen.  These first days are always touch-and-go.  Kittens can appear so spectacularly healthy on the outside, but we don't know what's going on inside.  The kittens develop wonderfully while they have the help of their mothers in the womb, but in the first few day of life, when they are finally completely dependent on their own organs to support themselves, suddenly it is found something just doesn't work.  With humans, these things are found before the babies are born or before the baby leaves the hospital, but we just don't have this opportunity with kittens.  You have an amazing record for having bred Siamese so long without losing a kitten, and it certainly speaks to the care of your cats and the health of your lines.  Sadly, it's not uncommon to lose a kitten for uknown reasons, and nearly all breeders find themselves in this unfortunate situation sometimes.  It's simply part of nature.

I suspect the vomit you found around the kitten probably occured after the kitten passed and leaked out as a result of the kitten's stomach valves relaxing.  Since it was greenish in color, that would indicate that it was bile, a digestive liquid that you generally wouldn't be able to notice unless the stomach was very empty, so it may indicate that he hadn't eaten in a long time.  Of course, note the word "may".  Newborns can go fatally hypoglycemic if they don't eat for a stretch of just 8 hours or less.  If you had noticed him nursing that morning for sure, then I wonder if mom is producing adequate milk, as this can sometimes be a problem with single kitten litters.  Without the stimulation of a full litter, milk production may suffer.  But this is entirely speculation, just something to keep in mind should you run into a single kitten litter again.

As for breeding her, since she only carried one kitten and didn't go through nursing a litter, I think it would be okay to breed sooner rather than later.