Pregnant stray Kitten......

A heavily pregnant tiny cat jumped in through our cat flap this morning, demanded food and then curled up on my lap. She is so tiny I am worried, she seems to have a very large lump across her tummy. I can feel nothing moving and yet her nipples are enlarged and a little crusty. Just how early can young cats get pregnant? There is a cat problem in the village but we are a mile from the village so she has either been dropped off at our farm or she was desperate to move into a house where there are already 7 cats and 2 dogs.
She is quite bossy and obviously a survivor I want to give her a chance. I am experienced with animals but have never had a pregnant one as all my animals have been neutered. We have goats, llamas and tortoise but they are all boys.
I will take a photo and post it here tomorrow but I didn't want to frighten her today by sticking a camera in her face.
I have got so much info from this wonderful site I feel I can cope for a couple of days but I am going to take her to the vet simply because she is so small. Do cat ever have to be aborted because they are too young and too small to deliver? I have made her a box and a basket with pillow cases in them following all the advice from here, but she just wants to curl up on my lap. I am not too sure what to do with her tonight, but at least she knows about the cat flap, and I do not want to shut her in, mind you I think I will have difficulty in extricating her frm my lap...!!LOL
Anyway I will keep you all informed and if anyone has any advice re size etc. I would love to hear it.
Thanks for a great site.
Washy in France

Depending on how far along she is, she can be spayed while pregnant. But most vets won't spay if they're fairly close to delivery. The only thing I can suggest there is to take her to your vet and ask his/her opinion.
Cats can get pregnant very young (4 months or so). But she may just be small. I have had two pregnant foster cats that were on the petite side (about 5 pounds pre-pregnancy weight) at about 1-2 years old each and they gave birth with no problems. One had 5 kittens and the other had 4.

Thanks for the reply I will ring the vet in the morning but terminations while spaying are not the done thing here in this part of France I have heard but I'll see what the vet has to say. We have a 150 mile round trip to the vet.....

I would say she is smaller than 5lbs, absolutely tiny, except her tummy!!! I will put my hand or a can of drink in the picture as a frame of reference, but it was reassuring to read your comments. She is so very tame, my husband came home about an hour ago and I just lifted her onto his tum when he was laying on the sofa and she just cuddled in and slept.

Although we are a mile from the village I feel I ought to put up a notice in the farm shop and ask around as she is so used to people.
Night, night it's midnight here and I am off to bed.

just a quick thing, if she is heavily pregnant please keep her indoors she may have them outside otherwise.
i hope everything goes well at the vets, and thank you for not throwing her back out on to the street.
keep us updated please.

I've encountered several cats that are naturally very small. The mother of the kitten I just adopted was roughly 5 pounds. The cat I had while growing up was only ever 4-5 pounds, but she was healthy (she lived to be 19!).

I think its very kind that you've chosen to help this cat! I hope everything works out well.

Spitfire disappeared on Saturday and then came back minus her transvers bulge. She ate loads until her tummy was very large again. Now I was in a quandry.....had she had a kitten somewhere, in which case I could not confine her. Her tummy was definitely 'baggy' when she came back and her nipples enlarged but no milk flowing when I gently squeezed. She went off again after rushing up to and spitting and swiping at my very large Akita dog. He is very used to all our cats and only wanted to sniff her but they are an unpredictable breed to say the least. She came back that evening and again ate a large amount.
Could I have completely misread the situation? Could she have already a litter of kittens which she is desperate to feed? I still find it unusual that she spends so much time with us if she has a litter. Maybe she gave birth and it/they was/were dead, who knows.....
The food bulge she gets felt very different from the sausage shape she had across her tummy when she first came to us.
Anyway I have decided not to confine her in case she has kittens somewhere, but we are keeping a close watch on her for infections and handle her every time we see her. She is a feisty little thing and makes her presence known to all our animals by spitting fiercly which is so funny to watch as she is so tiny.
We have tried following her but this is almost impossible as we have a large ruined water mill with barns and many little hiding places and she is so quick.
She may of course just be an opportunist eating with us and come all the way from the village. So we are leaving her to be a free spirit while watching her for bad signs and if she decides to stay we will take her to the vet then and have her neutered.

She probably was nursed dry by her kitten(s) and was out of milk and came to you to eat and refresh! Bless you for keeping an eye on this girl! No doubt,in a few weeks,she'll be bringing those babies to meet you!! She sounds like she is full of spunk!!