New Heavily Pregnant Foster Cat

I am involved in purebred hybrid rescue and as such, I don't deal with pregnant cats very often. In the last year, this will only be my 3rd. On Wednesday, we had a mother to be surrendered into rescue. She is a beautiful Chausie cat who is an unknown amount of time pregnant. We took her to the vet yesterday and we believe there is 4-6 babies inside her huge belly with the vet believing she is not far off from having them.

 I am a little worried. We know she had a litter at the end of October, but she was kept outside, so it's quite possible that she got pregnant again right away. Tonight I noticed her belly is bulging less on the side and more underneath of her. My fear is that having a litter back to back could be detrimental to the current pregnancy. Does anyone have any experience with this?  I also noticed from her litter box that she hasn't pooped since she came in. I know constipation can happen in late pregnancy, but is there anything I can do for her? My vet is closed now unfortunately and won't be open until noon tomorrow.

I have attached some photos of her.


  This is her upon intake Monday


  Her bowling ball belly on Wednesday


Her belly today, Friday. I almost thought she had the kittens

but I can still feel them in there.

Sounds like she's very close to having them.

If she retained condition after the last pregnancy a back to back litter won't affect her, not the best situation when the kittens were still so young and nursing. Hopefully she's also had proper nutrition along the way.  

Never had constipation issues with my girls, could also be her settling in 

I thought it could be settling in and I added a little tuna oil into her food as a vet tech foster suggested and voila, she has now pooped and peed. I feel very relieved.

 She seems fairly healthy, is slowly warming up to me (and nobody else). I have her in a bedroom all to her own as I own a foundation Bengal that would be very jealous if she were in my room. I plan on sleeping in her room with her the next few nights, as I've noticed she's more relaxed with me in there with her.

I don't think her nutrition has been the greatest since she was outdoors, so I've placed her on grain free, high protein canned adult and dry kitten food with as much as she wants to eat. I've also been supplementing with nutrical to make sure she's getting all she & the kits are going to need.

Good idea sleeping in the other room, as you need to be present for the birth to make sure all goes well. 

Hopefully all will be ok and kittens all healthy. 

SSBCR said:

I don't think her nutrition has been the greatest since she was outdoors, so I've placed her on grain free, high protein canned adult and dry kitten food with as much as she wants to eat. I've also been supplementing with nutrical to make sure she's getting all she & the kits are going to need.

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Yes, I think too you should be on the safe side with high quality nourishing food. It is always important with high preg and moms, but double so here.  I think this here is one of the cases where extra calcium is advised.  There are different sources for extra calcium, use that you do have experience from and knowledge about.

Even if she is sound and in decent condition, her reserves must be thinner than usual with two litters so extremely tigh one after another.

Welcome to our Forums

Good luck!

She spent most of last night and early licking her private areas and stomach, and I mean for hours, though I did not notice any discharge. I did not notice any contractions, though her stomach is very hard today whereas yesterday it was not. I can see visible movement when I look at her, so I know they are very active kits and it seems to be annoying her a little bit. I'm assuming we're less than a week out based on the vet saying he thought she was. So it'll be a week of sleeping on the floor next to her I suppose.

SSBCR said:

She spent most of last night and early licking her private areas and stomach, and I mean for hours, though I did not notice any discharge.

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This is for 1. taking away excessive fur  2. Massaging these parts, thus training them and getting ready.

The count down continues!

Good luck!.