cat just had a stillborn kitten...

Ok we have 3 female cats in our house 2 of them already had kittens 2 are 7 weeks old and 4 are about 5 weeks old.
I woke up this morning to my one cat freaking out she took me to her kitten and it was dead I didn't know when she had it so I took her to the vet they did and xray and there was no more kittens
the other kittens are eating from her and she is now taking care of them too and when they start moving around she starts to freak out and pick up the kittens but she can not pick them up she seems very stressed out when they starting getting up and moving around will she be ok since she doesn't have her little kitten that would lay there with her. I'm just worried about her she is such a loving cat. Any advice?

So... the mother of the stillborn kitten is feeding kittens from the other female cats' litters, and attached to them emotionally so she is clinging to them? I just want to make sure I read the post right.

That doesn't seem like entirely abnormal behavior in the sense of anxiety, since most mothers are nervous about their kittens getting too far away from them, but if they are another cat's kittens, it makes me wonder where the other two mother cats are and why there hasn't been some sort of 'reclaiming' of litters, if they were taking care of them before this happened and they haven't been separated from the kittens?  

Maybe you could split up the 4 kitten litter - keep two kittens with the original mom and let your mourning mom adopt the other two.

Or put the word out to local shelters and rescue groups that you have a lactating queen who lost her kitten - do they have any very young kittens who lost their mom.

It would be a wonderful thing if she could mother them, not just for the kittens but is sounds like it would be great for her too.

I agree with the advices above.  contact also the vets around for orphans or big litters where relieve is needed.

A reflection is, there seems to be lotsa of cat moms.  Are you a breeder?

If not, please, please do consider to spay them.

The only reason for waiting now is if you let her help some orphans.

Good luck!

Edit- this here post is / was my 6000: thousend post!      

All the cats are pretty close so they all take care of all the kittens the mothers always take care of their babies very well.
I love the idea of seeing if there are any small kittens she could take in that's a great idea. Now to talk my husband into that lol we already have 6 kittens and 4 cats and its very hard to find homes for the kittens here. I will try that tho
and we have 3 females and one male so we got him neutered because it was cheaper to do one cat instead of 3 but it took a month to get it that's how we got the 6 kittens and the females never go out but the one that had the still born got out so looks like she will be getting spayed
thanks for the great ideas everyone

shilene92 said:

I love the idea of seeing if there are any small kittens she could take in that's a great idea. Now to talk my husband into that lol we already have 6 kittens and 4 cats and its very hard to find homes for the kittens here. I will try that tho

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If you help someones kittens, you are usually NOT responsible for finding new homes, nor nobody waits you adopt them yourself.

The usual, their owner is still responsible, be it the shelter, or the owner of the queen who died or has too many kittens to manage them all.

You can of course assure yourself before you accept care of the kittens.  Get a written contract.  You can yourself prepare the contract while you wait.

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Unneutered females do tend to sneak out when in heat, esp if they feel there is a tom outside... Where did Houdini learned his tricks, do you think??  This is why so many unspayed home girls  happen to sneak out, just once...  Unluck?  Nay, biology.  

Besides, to go in heat many many times without results isnt no healthy. Risks for pyometra and cancer is higher year for year.

Getting pregnant each year is of course has also risks of course. And twice a year way higher.

Spaying is not totally riskfree either, to be completely honest, but still, the risk of spaying by a decent skilled vet is lesser than the other risks.  

Try to find a decent, and cheap vet. Or you can perhaps negotiate a group rebate, if you come with them when he has time and unused patient time.  Say he phones you if somebody resigned their time, and you come in within one hour....  You have 3 females, so some of them is surely NOT at heat.

It will be tricky just with the last.

Good luck!

Thanks for the info a lot of things I didn't know
it is a lot harder to find kittens without a mother that's less then 5 weeks than I thought

shilene92 said:

it is a lot harder to find kittens without a mother that's less then 5 weeks than I thought

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motherless orphans arent that common is a good thing.  

Another difficulty is of course, your opening is just a few days, after it she dries up.

So the seek must be done quickly, and you must have luck.

And vice versa, such kittens are also in hurry, unless they do have a dedicated caretaker.  they do sometimes have....

Good luck!