Watery brown smelly discharge?

I recently took in a pregnant cat who I thought would have a least a week more before due date. She's not very big yet, but she looks young enough that this could be her first litter.
She's not started to nest yet and her mammaries haven't started to swell yet either.
However, I've just picked her up and noticed that my hand was damp. The cat had a watery brown and quite smelly discharge from her vagina. I wiped her up and left her be, but she's been licking herself for the past 10 minutes. I took her temperature which is 100.02 F

The babies are moving about well and mum is still eating well and no loose stool as of yet.

She has now just walked into the wardrobe where I've made her a comfy bed and where I hope she'll have the babies.

I'm a little concerned that the discharge was smelly. Is this normal? Is she closer to giving birth than I anticipated?

Discharge is normal before birth, but it doesn't usually smell. It could be a sign of some sort of an infection. Keep an eye on her for now- if she starts acting sick or gets a fever, get her to a vet IMMEDIATLY.
Hopefully it's just the kittens coming, and that will be it
Good luck!

It's not possible to say without actually seeing or smelling it, but it sounds like an anal gland discharge to me.

Originally Posted by CuteKittenKat

Discharge is normal before birth, but it doesn't usually smell. It could be a sign of some sort of an infection. Keep an eye on her for now- if she starts acting sick or gets a fever, get her to a vet IMMEDIATLY.
Hopefully it's just the kittens coming, and that will be it

Good luck!

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I'm keeping a very close watch on her. She's bright and happy, she's just lounging on the chair at the moment

Originally Posted by Skippymjp

It's not possible to say without actually seeing or smelling it, but it sounds like an anal gland discharge to me.

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Now that's something I hadn't thought of. There was quite a bit of it though and it wasn't as thick as you'd expect for that. It was quite watery. However, it did smell bad enough for it to be anal glands. If it is her anal glands, could this indicate a problem in that area? I've never heard of a cat passing anal gland fluid like that. It was all over her trousers!!

Originally Posted by Jannet

I'm keeping a very close watch on her. She's bright and happy, she's just lounging on the chair at the moment

Now that's something I hadn't thought of. There was quite a bit of it though and it wasn't as thick as you'd expect for that. It was quite watery. However, it did smell bad enough for it to be anal glands. If it is her anal glands, could this indicate a problem in that area? I've never heard of a cat passing anal gland fluid like that. It was all over her trousers!!

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I'm afraid I don't know, that's something you may want to ask of your vet.

Peanut Butterum discharges from her glands very, very easily; just picking her up wrong can get you a lil' smelly. And in her case, it's always very thin and watery.