Disapearing kittens

Question
A friend of mine has 4 cats, I think they are burmese. 1 male & 1 female approx 6 years old. She breeds the female. the last 2 pregnancies have seemed to have dissolved. The kittens were there she felt them moving around and a week before due she started to call again and the belly went down in size. Definately not phantom pregnancies. She is an inside only cat. She is kept separated from the other cats from half way through pregnanccy. There is no way they have been aborted, there would be signs, as well as smell. Her vet had not heard of anything like this. Wonder if you have any answers. The other 2 cats were kept from previous litters. thanks Mira

Answer
Hi Mira, Thank you for the question. My first guess would be that the cat was never pregnant. From your description it sounds like your friend was feeling movement at the 5-6 week point and then the cat is back in heat when she is 8 weeks since the breeding date. Your friend may well be thinking she is feeling movement when in fact it is just movement from the cats digestive system. It can also be deceiving when you are palpating a cat as it sometimes feels like movement when in fact it is just you moving the organs around a bit. We had a client come into our clinic once that was bringing in an alter for booster shots and a female to get checked for pregnancy. The vet confirmed the pregnancy for the owners and said that it felt like a large litter. At that point the owner had to tell the vet that he was feeling the alter.. not the female. So, don't feel bad, even vets make mistakes !! The second possibility is that this cat was pregnant and has reabsorbed her kittens. This is more common in dogs than cats but it can happen. She could have actually been pregnant and then the kitten(s) died in utero and the cat's body mummified them. This normally happens quite early in the pregnancy (4-5 wks along) and sometimes it only happens to 1 or 2 kittens or puppies and the rest of the litter is delivered normally. Now, I would be surprised if this is happening to your friends cat with entire litters and two times. That would be quite unusual. More likely the cat has fibroids (lumps) in her uterus and your friend is feeling them and really believing she feels movement. If she is positive the cat was pregnant and really sure about the movement then most likely the cat has aborted the kittens and has eaten all the afterbirth and mess before your friend saw it. It could be a very small area with only a dark wet spot that would be hardly noticeable. In any case I would recommend spaying the cat. She is 6 yrs old which is probably about the maximum age for breeding a cat and she is apparently having some problems. When she is spayed it is likely the vet may find a reason for these disappearing kittens.
Teresa