Is this cat pregnant, or already given birth?

Hi,

I picked up a young, maybe 5 month old kitten from the airport near Baltimore. If she's got kittens I want to take her back so we can find the kittens.

A week ago a neighbor saw her at a parking lot, told me, and I brought her food. Today she looks smaller, and she's scratched up from a fight with another animal, and her nipples are fully extended. Her belly up by her rib cage is very tight; my other girl cats (all spayed) are loose here. I picked her up and brought her home. She looks like a football - big around the rib cage, small everywhere else.

She's only about 6-7 pounds and ate a full can of wet food and a bowl of dry food, so I don't know if that's why her belly's tight. Allegedly she was being fed dry food by employees of a parking lot; she gobbled up every bit of food I gave her.

When I push around her nipples and squeeze them I don't get any milk. I was told that if she was nursing I could just push here and see milk come out.

I'd be grateful for anyone who could help me determine if I need to go back for kittens.

Thanks for your help, and may your good little friends live long and happy lives.

Rick

Also - I stayed with her for about 90 minutes before taking her home. Would a mom cat with under-a-week old kittens eat a can of food and sleep for an hour without going back to her kittens?

Thanks,

R.

Hi Rick. Welcome to TCS.

It's hard to tell just from your description, but my guess would be that she is still pregnant. Can you post pictures?

You need to get her to a vet as soon as you can, both to make sure she's healthy and to find out for sure if she's pregnant.

Originally Posted by RickH301

Also - I stayed with her for about 90 minutes before taking her home. Would a mom cat with under-a-week old kittens eat a can of food and sleep for an hour without going back to her kittens?

Click to expand...

If she was enough exhausted she could and would.

Sorry, I dont know the answer for your first question me neither....


Tx for helping her, and lotsa of
good luck and vibes for you and your protegÃ[emoji]169[/emoji]!


btw - the last days before delivery, the fetus change postion, and thus the belly does looks a little smaller.
So it IS fully possible she still has them.

It's difficult to know...if you do have pictures, we might be able to tell you if she is pregnant. If she really does have a large belly(it probably wouldn't be body fat since you said she was so hungry and skinny) she most likely is pregnant. Idealy, the best thing would be to get her to a vet, and they would be able to tell you, but if that's not an option, then just keep her in a room for now. If she did have kittens, she would most likely have a very skinny belly and you probably would be able to express some milk from her nipples. She may start whinning like she's calling for her kittens too, but not always.
Another thing(and I really hope this is not the case), is that she could have some kittens AND be pregnant, or she could have worms.
Anyway, try to lay her down and gentilly feel her belly for bumps that could be kittens( if she's in her last 2 weeks you may be able to feel them move too).
Thanks for helping this girl!

If she is that young its not good to be pregnant. I'd take her to the vet and have them spay her immediately. She could die or have serious complications if she is pregnant.

You can go back and look for possible kittens, but more then likely they will probably be dead.

Kittens can breed as young as 4 months old, so its possible she is pregnant and therefore needs to be spayed immediately.