Please Please Please HELPPP!!! Possible pregnant stray found, possibly taking her in

My husband and I are moving into a new apartment just down the street from us.

We noticed a stray cat outside of the building that would follow us and was just begging for love and attention. We gave her some food and inquired with other neighbors and apparently the people in the building next door had her and just abandoned her.

We think she may be pregnant, one of the other neighbors that has been feeding her on occasion said she is pregnant and checked her ears for mites to make sure she didn't have any.

My question is this:
We cannot afford to take her to the vet right now, finances are WAY too tight...but we do want to take her into the new place, give her her own room and let her have the kittens, if she is pregnant.

How do we tell if she is in fact pregnant??? My husband picked her up and felt that her belly was bottom heavy and swollen....How long are cats pregnant before they give birth and is there a sure way to tell that it's not worms or something?

Also, we obviously don't want to bring fleas into our home (we have two other healthy cats), so is it safe to give her a flea bath? I picked her up to inspect her claws and she doesn't seem like she'll be difficult to bathe and such because she's DESPERATE for touch and affection.

My guilt is rising and rising about this cat...I want to help.

Please give me advice on what to do!!!

Thank you for taking her in.
Others with more knowledge wil be here soon.

But I have learned from reading here, do NOT use flea products on a possible pregnant cat as they can cause birth defects. I would consider bathing her with Dawn dish soap and combing her out with a flea comb.

It is critical that you keep her separated from your cats as we don't want her to transmit any illnesses to your cats.
Would your vet consider some sort of payment plan? Or what about a low cost vet in your area? My vet gives a discount for rescues...

I've been looking into low-cost programs for rescues and it's just not in our budget right now, maybe next month....I'm not sure, but I have to do something.


I just read that bathing a cat will drown out most fleas....I'm hoping this is true, thanks for the tip on the dawn dish soap....I want to bathe and groom her immediately, give her one of our soft kitty beds, some towels, her own litter box and food.

I mean, this cat is so desperate for attention it makes me cry when we leave her. I just want to make sure it's pregnancy and not worms or something, I have to figure out what to do here.

When my parents took in a stray pregnant cat, they just let nature take it's course and didn't go to the vet until after the babies were born (I know a lot of people here won't recommend that, but if you have no money for vet care, it's better than ignoring the cat). Basically, they just gave the cat a cozy and sheltered place to sleep and have her babies on the back porch (with three yorkies inside, the cat would have probably been upset) and fed her. Shortly after they were born, mom moved the kittens underneath the porch.

Once the babies were born and old enough, my parents had all of them (including mom) fixed then adopted them all out.

Yeah, if we had the finances, we'd be rushing to the vet, but right now we're going to just do all we can.

give her a bath, give her her own room with litterbox, kitty bed, maybe some towels, food and water.

I just want as much advise as possible.

For the fleas, I would recommend giving her Capstar tabs(you can buy them on Ebay for about $15 dollars for 6 tabs). They are 100% safe for pregnant and lactating cats/dogs. I used them on my cat when she was preggers cause I didn't want the kittens getting fleas when they were born.

Capstar kills the adult fleas in a couple hours and is effective for 24 hours, so that gives you enough time to give mama cat a bath and get her ready to be moved indoors and will help prevent the fleas from getting in the house. You could also follow up with another pill the day you bring her in, just in case any survived the first pill.(over 90% effectiveness)

Hope that helps.

I love Capstar, but it will take several days for it to arrive. And honestly, with all of the fake meds out there, I would be afraid to buy it (or any other meds) online. There's no way to know what it does or doesn't contain. Bathing with Dawn, and a good rinse please, should take care of it immediately.

Just in case the cat is pregnant, I would suggest a good quality kitten food for the extra calories.

Don't use any over-the-counter flea or worm meds. Ever.

Can you check the nipple area? Any enlargement or swelling?
Can you feel any movement in the abdomen? A hard abdomen could be worms or kittens.

Good luck and keep us updated. And maybe some pictures?

Ok she is definitely pregnant, I inspected her nipples and they are about three times the normal size.

She seems overall healthy, she's only been outside for two months.....we estimate she's six to seven months old because the woman next door said they threw the kitten out when she went into heat (and she obviously got pregnant quickly thereafter).

We got some Dawn and we were going to give her a nice bath tonight...I wanted to bring her in for good tonight but we couldn't find her, so we gave our number to that woman and she said she'll call us when she comes out of hiding. (It's raining here, so that's probably why she's hiding somewhere)


Also, we bought some kitten food for her, I'm going to mix up some soft and dry food daily for her, washed both of our cat beds in the washer/dryer and put them in the room we're going to put her so she'll have a choice of a place to get comfy.


I was very eager to get her bathed and inside tonight but she went into hiding when we were at the store buying everything for her because the thunder and lightning started. Tomorrow morning she should get hungry and come out and then we'll get her in.

I've named her Lily. (because apparently I *AM* indeed a 25 year old cat lady....haha)


Pictures to come eventually I'm sure...any other advice would be great!!!!

Originally Posted by DaniMarie

I've named her Lily. (because apparently I *AM* indeed a 25 year old cat lady....haha)

Click to expand...

Don't worry, I'm a 28 year old cat lady....I always tell my husband we should just forgo having children and just have cats. For some reason he never agrees. Can't wait to see pics!

hopefully she didnt go into hiding to birth the kittens.

Good Luck!!!

I know!!!!

We went to look for her today and we couldn't find her again!!!!!

I am seriously regretting not just taking her in on day 1 or 2 when she was following me around.



I really hope she's ok......I'm trying not to worry too much about it, but of course I'm worried about her and kind of mad that when we went there this morning, one of the neighbors had already put out food that she obviously ate and then went into hiding again.


How would I be able to tell upon inspection if she DID have the kittens somewhere and was just coming out to eat??? I've only inspected her once so I'm not completely familiar with her body and how it may have changed!!! I don't want to end up taking a mommy away from her babies.

SHE HAS BEEN FOUND!!!!




Ok she had way more fleas than I imagined, I gave her a long, very unwanted (on her part) bath with dawn and rinsed her clean.....but how can I be sure the fleas won't become an issue?

Our funds are tight until Friday, on which date we could get something to give her to kill anything that may be left. I'm thinking we might have to treat all the cats (we're bringing the other two into our new home on Wednesday and although we are keeping the new kitty separate in her own room, we do want to introduce them all and don't want our other two kitties getting fleas).


Any advice on this?

And how can we tell when she's ready to have the kittens? I tried making her comfy spots, there was a closet she was showing interest in so I put a kitty bed wrapped in a towel in there hoping she'd choose in there to have the babies......but I guess that's her decision, and I really could use more advice on this as well.

Other than her being a little scared and needing time to adjust to her new home, she seems to be alright, rubbing up against us for attention and meowing A LOT (probably because she's scared though).

Thanks to everyone who's been there for advice...in the past six months I've needed so much advice and this has definitely been a reliable source, I can't thank you all enough!!!!!!

Congrats on finding her. Wasn't that bath a fun thing to do?

I would keep her away from your cats until she is checked by a vet. You don't want her to pass anything to your cats.

Sorry, but using Dawn to kill the fleas is the extent of my cat-with-fleas knowledge. Fortunately.