persian cat labour

Question
i have 2 persians, a male and a female.my girl fell pregnant for the first time.she delivered before her due time and the kitten (1) died the next day. the second time she fell pregnant she delivered normally, had 3 kittens but she didnt clean 2 of them and they died in their membrane. i thought the third one was doing well i helped to drink milk from its mother but on the second day it showed it had no strenght to drink milk at all, it couldnt lift its head and after a while it died. unfortunaly i couldnt take to the vet because it was a national holiday and my vet was abroad.it was devastating. my vet told me it might be a genetical problem of persian cats. whats your opinion?

Answer
Oh, how awful. My heart goes out to you.  But it's hard to know where to start here. Before attributing any genetic problems to a breed as a whole, you first need to establish whether there is a genetic problem in a particular line and then trace the line to see how widespread the problem is. And you can't do THAT unless you have pedigrees, understand how to look at them, and are working together with other breeders.

It doesn't sound to me as though you have any contact with other breeders. Do you have any sort of a mentor? You need a mentor as much as you do a vet. Especially if you are going to work with Persians. An experienced cat breeder has much more in-depth knowledge of breeding and birthing than the average vet and would have helped you figure out when the kittens were coming so you could be present at the birth. I don't want to make you feel bad, but it is possible that if you had been on hand and/or if you had cleaned the 2 kittens that came out in their sacs and used the proper technique to get the fluid out of their lungs, they might have survived. A mentor could have helped with this. She/he could also have showed you how to tube-feed the 3rd kitten so that it could keep up enough strength to nurse.

Even with a mentor's help, you still might well have lost the litter. Persians are incredibly difficult to breed and birth, probably the hardest breed there is. So don't blame yourself. But if you really want to do this, here is my advice.

Go to the CFA web page -- www.cfainc.org -- and investigate the Mentor Program. See if they can hook you up with a mentor. Have that person look at your cats and their pedigrees to see if they are from known lines and of good enough quality for breeding. It might be better to try to breed your female to someone else's male for her next litter. Your mentor could help with that.
While you are waiting for them to find you a mentor, order the book, "Breeding Purebred Cats" by Moore (don't recall first name) from the CFA website and READ it. It will give you literally TONS of vital information and help you decide whether you want to continue with this.

Good luck, and I hope this helps you.

iris