is she pregnant again?

So I come to you all with head hanging in embarrassment.... because I think my cat who adopted me 9 weeks ago by giving birth on my patio might be pregnant again. We never really let her out of our sight when we had her outside... but my brother watched her for two weeks while we were on our honeymoon during post-kitten-birth-weeks 3 and 4. I didn't warn him about not letting her really go out because she never showed a desire to leave our sight ... and I thought we were safe for at least 4 weeks. 

   But, what is done is done. My question now is what do I do with a pregnant cat... At this point it would be too late for an early pregnancy spay? ( I'm not sure if I could knowingly do that anyway). I did give her frontline a week ago; could the frontline be bad for the developing kittens if they exist?  Its the one that is safe for nursing cats. We were going to call on Tuesday next week to make her a vet appointment (for spay and shots, once we got a spay voucher from our shelter which had run out until October 1)... should I bother bringing her in right now? And my last question for now- she is still kind of nursing the 4 kittens; its not much, just a snack a few times a day. Should we try to discourage it?

... sigh... I really hope I didn't need to ask these questions

-Katherine

She might be pregnant but not by much.  And really, spaying her ASAP is the best thing for her and her current kittens.

Don't worry about her feeding them, it's mostly comfort at this age.  Please, get her spayed as soon as you can get the voucher, and get her and her kittens vaccinated.

I agree with Shunra above in that it would be best to have her spayed right away. You can't be sure she is pregnant anyway, and either way, it would be for the best. There are already way too many unwanted cats/kittens to go around and many homes needed. I would get her to the vet right away. I would tell the vet that she is already nursing kittens. You could also start hand feeding them KMR to supplement and go ahead and get her spayed if the vet thinks she is pregnant. Again, she may not be - but is possible if she was let out after giving birth. Best to have the vet check her out. The kittens can be spayed/neutered once they are over two pounds. Make a plan for them as well. Best of luck

We are going in on tuesday to pick up the discount coupons to get the kittens all spayed since they are now nine weeks and only one hasn't reached two pounds yet. We are shocked because we really didn't think she had a chance to get pregnant...I checked with my brother and he agrees she never went farther than the side yard and was never out of out sight for more than two minutes ( and even that was less than a handfull of times; we were very careful because we knew she was not fixed).

 Shunra-  Do you really think she is early if I can tell her belly is big? What is considered early? Also, I read online that terminating her pregnancy later can be really hard on her health, is this true? I still have more people asking for the first batch of kittens... so I have homes for new ones... do you still think I should have them aborted? 

Feralvr- At 9 1/2 weeks do you really think they need hand feeding with KMR? They are almost weaned (like I said in the op) and it is my understanding that at this point they are basically ready to leave the mom. 

    I am going to hold off on mommy's shots because I just read a bunch on this site about the shots having possible horrible side effects ( fatal) on the kittens and even though there are too many kittens out there it is no reason for me to mistreat these little ones. We will be taking her in for a checkup when we bring the little ones in for their shots/spay/neuter. 

OH... I thought they were 3 - 4 weeks. At 9 weeks they do not need supplemental feedings. Even if you do have homes lined up for the "second" litter, it is still best to have her spayed asap. She probably is not that far along, IF she is pregnant. It would be for the best as you can never truly trust the people you are "giving" them away to spay/neuter. IF you decide to let her have the second litter then please get the second litter neutered before you give them away. You are being very responsible by getting all of the kittens spayed/neutered in this first litter!!! Talk to your vet tomorrow on this to ease you mind about getting her spayed this week. She can receive her vaccinations at the same time as her spay. IF you are not going to spay her and she is pregnant, then hold off on those vaccines. Still, I am going to encourage you to get her spayed this week. Sorry, I know that is a tough call but it is for the best. :cross: