very pregnant cat

Question
QUESTION: Hello,

My cat is pregnant.  We noticed her getting fat about 5 weeks ago.  I felt the kittens moving about 3 weeks ago and we have been watching those kittens moving inside of her for 9 days now (since Friday May11, 2007).  This is her first and only litter and I am starting to worry.  I have seen no signs of pre-labor or labor.  I haven't even seen signs of nesting.  How much longer can she possible go?

Thanks

ANSWER: Angel,

The difficulty, as I see it, is that you do not know when she was bred.  Gestation is normally 65-67 days with 63 days being a normal minimum and 69 days being a normal maximum.  We start counting from the second day of breeding.

When she is closer, her milk will come in, she will start nesting behavior and grow very restless.  She may even have a mucous/bloody discharge form her vagina.  These signs can mean birth is imminent or up to a week away.  Every queen is different.

If the cat is not distressed, than you should not be either.

Just be diligent and keep watching the signs, you will know when she begins pre-labor (and I have seen pre-labor go on for a few days!).

Best regards... Norm.



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

QUESTION: Good morning,

Thank you so much for your advice.  I learned something very important this morning.  Sometimes your cat will give you no signs before she has her kittens.  When I went to bed last night at midnight, she was still eating and drinking and acting normal.  I woke up this morning at 6:30 and to my surprise, I have 6 beautiful baby kittens.  My daughter and I are so excited.  

I just have a couple more questions for you.  When I first checked her, I only saw 3 kittens.  Then about 15 minutes later she had moved and I counted 6.  I just took my daughter to school and when I got back, I checked on her again.  I can't see any of the kittens.  It looks like she might be laying on them or curled around them so tightly that we can't see them.  Is she just doing this to keep the kittens warm?  Should I worry about this?  I have turned the heat up to see if that might help and if I need to I will go buy a heating pad.

When I had gone to check on her the 2nd time the kittens were all seperated.  Three of them were nursing and the other three were laying closer to momma's head and crying.  While I was watching, she layed her head across the top of them.  Was this also to keep them warm?

My last question is what signs do I look for that I might need to intervene and feed one or two of them?  All of the kittens have been cleaned.  I do need to take out a couple of the after births that are in there and maybe put some clean sheets in there, when she seems to be a little more settled (I don't want to disturb her just yet).  When I first went to check her, she seemed a little nervous and wide-eyed.  This is after all her first (and only) litter.  I'm new to this too, so any advice would be helpful.

Thank you,
Angel
ANSWER: Angel,

I am sorry for not getting back to you sooner.

In general, the mamas always seem to know what they are doing.  Kittens at this age need to be kept warm by mama since they cannot regulate their own body heat as of yet.  As to nursing, all kittens want to nurse and are usually pretty good at it by day 3.  To check whether or not you need to supplement, you need to weigh the kittens every day to see if they are gaining weight.

Be careful with a heating pad, as you can make it too hot.  We put a heating pad on the lowest setting half under the box, so, if the heating pad is too warm, she can move herself and the kittens to the part of the box where there is no heating pad.  In the summer, we do not use a heating pad.

If there are kittens that are not gaining weight, you can try supplementing.  At this age you can do tube feeding and your vet can show you how.  I would use Just Born or KMR feline milk replacer diluted 1-1 with unflavored Pedialyte.  For every 4 oz of body weight they will need 8-10 ml of formula per day split into 4 feedings (2-2.5 ml per feeding):  7:00 AM, Noon, 7:00 PM and Midnight.

If kittens are off by themselves and not part of the pile for any length of time, this is a bad sign.  You can try supplementing them, but I have not had lots of success in doing this.  If the kitten is weak and being dislodged form the nipple by the others, supplementing may help.  If there is something wrong with the kitten internally, mama will know it before you do and not encourage the kitten to nurse.

A good book to get hold of is "Hand-Raising the Orphaned Kitten" by H.L. Papurt, DVM; Barrons, 1999.

Please let me know how it goes.

Best regards... Norm.



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

QUESTION: Some things happened the day my cat had her kitten that were really strange.  Well first of all there was one more kitten (so there were 7 in all).  I found her a little later behind and kind of under mamma.  I thought that all the kittens were clean, they looked clean from just first sight.  Then I noticed a kitten still had it's umbilical cord still attached to the sack.  So I tied it off and cut it.  Then I noticed another one with the same problem, only his problem was slightly more complicated.  His cord was tangled with 3 other cords, that weren't cut short enough, and all 4 kittens were somehow tangled together around mammas' tail.  After gently untangling them and cutting their cords, they are all doing great.  Mamma cat (Tigger) is a great mom and has taken great care of her kittens.  They are all healthy and active already.  They climb all over her and around her.

Sometime that afternoon between 2:30 and 3:00, Tigger was up eating and I noticed a sack hanging out of her.  Upon taking a closer look, I notice a little tiny paw in there.  I called the vet and took her right away.  Not long after we got to the vet's office she passed this last kitten.  Well, it wasn't a fully developed kitten yet.  According to the vet it was a fetus, with no hair or anything.  You could see the shape of a developing kitten and it was about the size of a quarter.  The vet said the most likely explanation, was that while she was pregnant, she came into heat and got pregnant again, thus delivering a developing fetus with her very ready and healthy kittens.  I had never heard of any such thing before and he said it is very rare, but does occasionally happen.  So my questions is, Have you ever heard of such a thing before?

Answer
Angel,

What your vet said about being impregnated again during the initial pregnancy is not unheard of.  It is not uncommon for a female to have a litter sired by more than one male or for a male to sire kittens in the litter days apart (we just had a litter of 3 kittens with one kitten about 5 days younger than the other two.  With tube feeding for the first week and some bottle nursing the second week we were able to get her to where she was nursing properly, and you can hardly tell the age difference now that they are 10 weeks).

Congratulations on properly handling the knotty situation of the twisted umbilicals!!!!!  It sounds as if all is going well.

You still may want to get that book on Hand-Raising the Orphaned Kitten as it has good advice on weaning and the like.  Mama may or may not wean the kittens, so you may have to.  We like to have our kittens weaned by 6 weeks and away from mama.

Please let me know if you have any more questions.

Best regards... Norm.