what may have been cause of kittens dying

Question
My nine month old kitten gave birth to 6 kittens 1 month ago within a week all six had past away she looked after them well but I noticed that all of the kittens had a white liquid coming from there bums while they were still alive .It looked exactley like milk. could this have something to do with them dying.

Answer
Jackie,

I am not a veterinarian so I won't be able to give you a definitive answer to cause of death. I am guessing that there may have been some sort of birth defect in their digestive systems that didn't allow them to digest their mom's milk. They also sound like they may have had rather severe diarrea and that will usually kill a newborn kitten relatively quickly. My advice to you so that you can avoid such heartache in the future would be to spay your cat. As I am sure that you are aware your kitten is still a kitten and there are serious pet overpopulation problems, so it will be best for you to avoid your cat becoming pregnant again with the possibility that either the kittens will die or there will not be enough permanent homes to take care of them. The euthanasia rates for mixed breed kittens in animal shelters is staggering and spaying and neutering can prevent all of those unnecessary deaths. The anesthetic risk is fairly minimal in most cats. The new anesthetic agents are the same as those used on human patients in most vet clinics. There is always a risk for something going wrong with the anesthetic, but the risks are fairly small. Hopefully that answers your question. If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me again.