Underfed Pregnant Queen

I just aquired a very pregnant queen. She is young, less than a year old. Her stomach is huge bulge we have determined she is between 5-8 weeks pregnant. The problem is she has been underfed. She was only give a single can of the 74 cent wet cat food a day, the cans are tiny and the cat doesn't have fat anywhere, her stomach is tight and she has loose skin around her chest and legs where I keep reading she is suppose to be filling out. I am on the Gulf coast so the vets are closed until Thursday at least. I put her on solid kitten food mixed with tuna, for high carb and high protein. I need to know if there is anything else I should do for her? I'm going to get her to the vet as soon as I can.

Too much tuna can cause a vitamin E deficiency, so go easy on that. Chicken would probably be a better choice.

Personally, I would leave her a big bowl of kitten kibble at all times and feed her canned food 3 times a day. And add some boiled or raw chicken breast or thighs to one meal.

Ask the vet about de-wormers that are safe for pregnant cats.

Almost any wet food is OK, they usually do also contain quite much fats. (here = enough of fats).

Kitten kibble if she eats.

Tuna isnt so bad if you dont exagerrate, and in short term you wont get much negative results. If you can find a source of extra E-vitamine with this tuna, would be swell!

Good quality olive oil contains lots of E-vitamine, some other food oils too. Although not all cats do like oily food.

Here in Sweden we do have a cat treat, essentially yeast containg much B-vitamines, this is enriched with E-vitamines.   I use this for my residents, both as treat and as extra E-vitamines.

Good luck!

ps. I presume you have quite stormy now? Hurricane winds?  Good luck for this too.

ps.  As she is underfed, dont give her too much at once!

Better small portions but often!

misfitrabbit said:

 for high carb and high protein.

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Wait, high carb?  She doesnt need no high carb, althoughSOME carb is OK, and perhaps even good.

High protein and high fat, preferably all or at least mostly of animal sources, is what cats needs.

Do you happen to have access to goat milk?  Much safer than  cow milk.

Although youghurt or cheese is OK.   Low lactose milk should be OK if it is the only you can get.

Common cow milk ONLY if you are sure she manages this. Say you know her previous owner gave it to her, without diarrheas or other side effects.  some cats do manage cow milk, many do not.

You can melt in some butter almost into anything else.  This is an important tip.

The only Im a little afraid off if she is so gravely undernourished, too much too quick is dangerous. So try to increase stepwise, and think little but often.

Oops, sorry, I wrote my last message sounding too harsh*.  After all, dry food of good quality, and kitten style, is after all no bad food.  We do recommend it to queens, if dry food is what they do eat.

My residents dont like wet food, so it is dry food for them...

But my point is true, although it fell too harsh*. Dry food of qood quality works not because it has high carb, but although it has high carb.  It is the protein and fats there, preferably of animal source, which do 98% of the work.  Carbs are mainly fill up.

Continue please with this kitten dry food, if it is what you do have and what she eats.

But if you do have wet food, and she eats it, use it too.

Good luck!    *vibes*

*ps  speaking the truth, the word  "rude" is in place here.  Sorry!

Poor girl, I'd be putting her on wet or raw 4-5 times a day and dry kitten out all the time. If possible do get her vet checked when you can, she'll also need to be wormed. 

She went to the vet yesterday, he said let her eat, eat, eat! She is 8.4lb, a weight the vet would have approved of if she was in first trimester. I have her on raw AND wet food. The x-ray says she has 4 kittens with a possible two more, all still growing with no visible issues.

I mean high fat, carb was a mistype.  Thanks for the correction or misinformation could be carried on.

Great the kittens are doing ok, despite mums poor condition. I'll never understand why US vets do x-rays over ultra sounds on pregnant girls though, but it's done now. 

Still waiting on babies. Could be any day now. She isn't gaining weight as quickly as I would like. She does eat like a pig and appears to have put herself bedrest, she barely moves past her litter box anymore. I was worried at first about her not moving but I know she can cause I moved her food one day and she got up and ran to it, glad to know she isnt hurt. So keeping fingers crossed on healthy kittens.

One question though, if she starts losing weight to an unhealthy point while lactating or the kittens don't appear to be growing as fast as they should (7-10 grams a day), should I help momma out with KMR?
 

Has she been wormed?  Worms will make it hard for her to put on or hold her weight.

misfitrabbit said:

One question though, if she starts losing weight to an unhealthy point while lactating or the kittens don't appear to be growing as fast as they should (7-10 grams a day), should I help momma out with KMR?
 

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Yes, you shall be prepared for it, anyway. Moms care and moms milk is the best, but if there is not enough with moms milk - there is not much choice.

KMR or goat milk if you cant get a good brand of kmr.

Good luck!

thank you, I keep KMR around, with bottles and various sizes of nipples, all the time because I also breed rabbits and a doe's maternal instinct can be skewed easily.
 

OrientalSlave said:

Has she been wormed?  Worms will make it hard for her to put on or hold her weight.

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She was wormed at the vet last Thursday, I don't think she had worms before hand because she had already put on 2.5oz in the 2 days from when I got her and weighed her, to when the vet weighed her.