Oops, Kittens

stephanies

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My cat Sosha is still not spayed, my fault. We adopted her from a family who's kids were allergic to her and couldn't care for her. Right after we got her she went into heat for the first time. Ever since then she goes into heat every other sunday and goes out of heat on the alternating sunday. I can time her heat cycles to the hour. I have been meaning to get her spayed but I still don't have the funds to do so.
Well last Saturday she escaped through a broken window in our rented house and didn't come back until 2:00a on monday morning. Needless to say she should have come home in heat and she didn't. She has also become very affectionate, hungry and she preens constantly. I'm positive she is pregnant, but I don't want to terminate the litter. I've never had to deal with a pregnant cat before and don't know what to do when she goes into labor. I know I'm supposed have some type of birthing box, but I know how large to make it. Also I don't know what to do if she needs help with the babies' sacs. I have tried to educate myself on this stuff, but there isn't a lot of information on the internet (that I could find) on feline midwifery. Does anyone know of a website or have any advice that will help me when the time comes. Anything would be very helpful.
 

miyu

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you better start doing some reading if she is, get books at the libary, we cant just train you here. you should study. but just because she got out she may not be preg.
 
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stephanies

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stephanies

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Well its been a week since she's been home and she still hasn't gone into heat. Unless by some strange occurance getting out will change her cycle, which I've never heard of. She's acted like she's going to go into heat, but every time I start to think she is going to she doesn't. She's also been sleeping in small dark places lately which is completely out of character for her.
 

elkhart007

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Wa wa, that sounds like preggers to me! Yay for kittens! Momcat will usually know what to do. When we were coming down to the wire when ours was having her kittens I was looking for her because we wanted her to have them in a bedroom. I went in the kitchen and was like "if she got in the damn cabinet", and I opened the cabinet and there she was. So I finished my sentence, "then she can have them in there since she opened the door." During the birthing don't intervene too much, she needs to bond with the kittens as much as she can. Things get difficult if she rejects any of them. When our cat, Bebe, had her litter we didn't touch them for like a week. They all came out fine and lived. Although we just lost one to flea anemia.
 

jennyr

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Obviously, it is your decision, which we would all respect, but you may want to consider getting her spayed now, whether or not she is pregnant. Most vets will do it, and she is very early in the pregnancy. Cats do not 'know' they are pregnant, and you would be saving her a risk and yourself a deal of money in t he long term, as you will have lots of expense if she has the kittens, not to mention finding them homes. The vet would also, if you didn't want to know, not tell you if she were pregnant. Something to consider now before things go too far.
 

goldenkitty45

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I know you don't want to abort and its your decision; but honestly if you don't have the funds to get her spayed by now, how in the heck are you gonna afford to feed/care for a litter of one to seven kittens for 10-12 weeks (the ideal time to keep them before finding new homes)?

Plus what happens if your female has problems delivering and needs an emergency c-section in the middle of the night? What if she can't nurse them or won't nurse them - you have to bottle feed the litter every few hours and do all the things mom would have done.

IMO its better to go get her spayed/aborted right now before she gets too far along.

You will have a lot more expense to put out by raising a litter of kittens then it will cost to get her spayed!
 

jen

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Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

I know you don't want to abort and its your decision; but honestly if you don't have the funds to get her spayed by now, how in the heck are you gonna afford to feed/care for a litter of one to seven kittens for 10-12 weeks (the ideal time to keep them before finding new homes)?

Plus what happens if your female has problems delivering and needs an emergency c-section in the middle of the night? What if she can't nurse them or won't nurse them - you have to bottle feed the litter every few hours and do all the things mom would have done.

IMO its better to go get her spayed/aborted right now before she gets too far along.

You will have a lot more expense to put out by raising a litter of kittens then it will cost to get her spayed!
Very good points, I was going to say the same thing. It is EXPENSIVE to feed and raise a litter, the mother eats a lot more (and she should be on high quality kitten food, no grocery store unhealthy brands) the kittens will eat a ton once they stop nursing, the litter they go thru is very expensive. Plus vaccinations and deworming for ALL OF THEM. Kittens need about 3-4 rounds of vaccines starting when they are young. Vets are extremely costly.

That is just the necessities. Then you get into the idea of what is she needs an emergency c-section at 3am at the ER vet? What if she doesn't take care of the kittens and you have to buy KMR ($$) and bottle feed them all every 2-3 hours, thru the night and all day long (taking all the babies to work with you). What if they are diseased since you don't know anything about who your cat mated with and what disease he may have (FeLV is most common in intact roaming males which is what your cat mated with).

Just keep all this in mind. I am going broke right now because I rescued a female brought to the pound to be put down. Her and her 5 babies are using up all my extra money for food and litter. I would have aborted them but she was a few days from having them, I couldn't find a vet to terminate it that late unfortunately.

So good luck and start putting a LOT of $$$$ aside to raise this litter. You will need it!
 

kittylovinkrys

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I too also know the expenses that go into raising a litter. I paid $226 dollars yesterday at the vet to get all the kittens checked out, their initial vaccines, deworming treatment and follow up deworming treatments for them and Mom. I now have to take my resident cat into the vet to get checked up and dewormed because he's been exposed to the roundworms that my kittens have.

That was just the vet bill for yesterday. I've also paid around $150 to have Mixi dewormed and FELV/FIV tested BEFORE she gave birth.

I've paid around $150 dollars for food for my pack of cats. Not to mention the extra litter boxes and different litter. I honestly cannot wait until they've all been placed into their homes.

Nearly $600 to raise them this far! I could have had Mixi spayed 3 times over, but she came to my doorstep 5 days away from giving birth!

Sure having kittens and raising them is fun, but it's expensive, it really is.
 
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stephanies

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It is expensive to raise children too, but I still wouldn't have an abortion. I am not against abortion in any way but if I couldn't do it myself, I couldn't do it to my cat (whether she "knows" she's pregnant or not). Raising this litter is not about having fun, its the fact that they are living creatures.
I will find a way to pay for the kittens. I have plenty of family who can and will help me out in the event that Sosha won't nurse them. I go to a feed store for my pet food, which means I get a higher quality of food for a lower price. There are low income Vets all over and I'm sure I can find one near my home. An Emergency Vet would not charge me right then and there to help with a c-section for her, they didn't when they tried to save my last cat who died of internal bleeding due to a box falling on her. There are plenty of reasons to get a pet spayed and abort the littler, but I couldn't do it. Sosha and her littler will be spayed and neutered. They will all get their shots, and they will all have homes. I'm not worried about finding her Kittens homes, I'm worried about her giving birth because she is only 10 or 11 months old herself. I read an article on the internet about young Queens having problems with birthing and that feline midwifery would sometimes be neccesary. There was a link to another article with instructions for feline midwifery, but the page was not found. That is why I came here, because I thought that maybe someone would know where I can find an article about it.
Please don't think that I'm being ungrateful for any advice you may offer, and I'm very sorry if that is the way it sounds. The thing is, at this time I am unable to have children so I consider my animals my children. I thought that everything would be okay until I could get Sosha spayed because I never thought that she would make a whole in a broken window bigger and get out of it. We have lived here for 5 months and she hadn't gotten out so we never pressed the issue of the broken window.
 

goldenkitty45

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Well I guess were were concerned because you stated you could not afford to have her spayed before this happened. So how in the heck can you put out all the expenses at this point for a litter?

And keep in mind that she needs to be spayed as quick as you can because she can and will get pregnant while nursing kittens!

Doesn't "add up" in my book - you have what ever number of kittens she has to now neuter and spay x the initial cost of getting her spayed.
 

keisha

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I also have a litter of kittens, and i do konw that you have been told this before, but they are very expensive. I mean this is even before they hit 4 weeks when they get checked by the vet and wormed. So just be prepared. And start putting money aside for them.
 

brittany_nicole

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I agree with all of your points, but it is a little risky to attempt to raise kittens when you are on a budget. I have one kitten and her vaccinations are costing me at least 150 dollars. Imagine having a litter of 8. It will cost you at least 1,200 dollars, that isn't even including the money to spay/neuter them. Then if the momma cat needs an emergency c-section, although you won't have to pay at the time, it will definitly add up. If a kitten gets really sick at 2:00 in the morning, you will have to take it to an emergency vet and once again you will have to pay for that.

I'm not saying you wouldn't be able to do it. I know if you are extreamly determined to care for the kittens you can successfully raise them and send them to great homes, but I just wouldn't want to see you over your head in vet bills.

Just think it through. If you aren't 110% sure you can take care of the kittens, I would recommend aborting her litter. Trust me, I am against it too, but I don't want to see anymore kittens out on the streets or in shelters due to the owner being unable to pay the costs to raise kittens.

Please think it through and let me know what your decision is.
 
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stephanies

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Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

Well I guess were were concerned because you stated you could not afford to have her spayed before this happened. So how in the heck can you put out all the expenses at this point for a litter?

And keep in mind that she needs to be spayed as quick as you can because she can and will get pregnant while nursing kittens!

Doesn't "add up" in my book - you have what ever number of kittens she has to now neuter and spay x the initial cost of getting her spayed.
She has not gotten out of the house since. She is an inside only cat and the fact that she did get out was accidental. She got out of a broken window that we were told would be fixed and never was. The window was repaired while she was out and she has no point of exit that we don't know about. So there is no way she can get out and have this happen again. I had the funds to get her spayed when she got out, but I check out Vets the same way I check out Doctors. I research them to find the best possible match for care. Now that she is Pregnant we can budget our money to be able to get her and the kittens fixed as soon as they are old enough. I had to help my stepmother bottlefeed kittens whose mother had them and ran away. I do have experience with Kittens. This is not something I'm jumping into without knowing all the options. I have never had my own cat go through this is all I meant to say.

I will no longer be posting on this website. I came here for help, and some of you have helped a lot. The rest of you have done nothing but critisize me for my beliefs on this, so I bid you farewell and I hope all of your cats are safe and well. Good Bye.
 

goldenkitty45

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I'm really sorry you are mad about the fact that some of us pointed out the expenses that you may incur.

I don't see where anyone has been mean or hurtful to you at all. None of us really likes abortion; but you shouldn't put people and animals on the same level. I just hope nothing really bad happens to you, the kittens, or the mother. Most of us are being pretty sensible about things.

Why strap yourself and family financially over a pregnant cat? But its your money. Some have to learn the hard way I guess.
 
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stephanies

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I apologize for my previous post, I guess I just felt a little ganged up on. I have decided to get pet health insurance. I found an article about it and I'm going to research it tonight. I did read about one that covers the cost of spaying and neutering. So that will also help me a lot. Plus it will reduce the cost of shots and vaccinations. For momma and the kittens. So after I get it I won't have to worry about the dollar signs as much.
 
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