Our foster cat just gave birth on Monday to what we believe is her first litter. She is a young cat herself (9-18months?). She had a somewhat traumatic delivery in that she pushed for two hours with the first without making progress beyond a tail starting to show itself, then go back in, and we ended up taking her to the emergency vet in the middle of the night. Her labor stopped after the long, stressful car trip (there was a terrible accident on the freeway and all lanes were closed), and on arrival at the vet she had no kittens in the birth canal and x-ray showed 3 kittens properly positioned. We brought her back home, and her labor restarted and she gave birth to her first about two hours later (slow start for that one--I thought he was stillborn--but doing very well now), her second an hour after that, then took a big break and had her third 6 hours later. I saw all three placentas, except the third one I came back in the room right after she had delivered and she was already eating it, so I didn't see the whole thing. The babies are BIG. All born between 130-139grams.
So, that's the history. Day 1 she became stressed later that day and was breathing very rapidly and occasionally panting. I realized the room was very warm and after cooling it a bit and leaving her alone more rather than checking on her a bit, she gradually calmed and was much better by morning of day 2. Day 2 my concern was that she still wasn't getting up to use the litter box and I still had to bring her her food to eat. She made a bit of a pain nose a few times when she tried to stand, but once I got her to walk, she was okay. She had been a bit constipated leading up to the delivery, and I had a sense she was becoming increasingly so. I started adding pumpkin to her wet food, and that evening after a lot of shenanigans on my part (moving litter box all around, changing type of litter, digging around in box myself, etc), she finally used it. Hooray. Babies gained around 30 grams each after one day. Yes, I know that's a ton, but that's what the scale says, and they do indeed look big and getting bigger every day.
Day 3 (yesterday) she was back to seeming sore when she stood up in her box when I came in. She still wasn't leaving her nesting box to eat, but relying on me to keep bringing her food and holding it right under her chin to eat while she layed down, nursing her babies. At one point she stood to get up and made a sad noise that sounded like pain to me and layed back down. I gave her a break and later lifted her from the box gently and set her down across the bathroom from her babies and she did then start walking around. A little gingerly at first, then stronger, and she seemed much better once walking around, and she ate from her bowl and seemed relieved to "get out" a bit. She did this at some point day 2 as well when she got out of her box finally. She even layed on the floor for a while and visited with me. Of course when a baby squeaked, she ran and jumped back in bed. She's been very attentive, if overwhelmed. Later yesterday she spontaneously used her box and peed and pooped a ton in it. I felt like she was doing better then. Kittens again had gained a lot of weight. All are in the 170-180g range.
Day 4 (today) she seemed pretty good when I came in the room this morning. But, she still hadn't gotten out on her own to eat anything. She eats eagerly when I hold the bowl up for her in bed. I did hear her use the litter box once in the night. I actually have a baby monitor in the room, so I can hear easily when she uses the box. She hasn't used the box yet today that I have heard. I took her out of her box at one point to see how she was doing with standing and walking, and she seemed okay, though started gingerly like yesterday. I'm tending to relate to all this by my experience with human pregnancy and delivery, and I know how difficult walking in the days (and sometimes weeks) after delivery can be for a first time human mom, especially if she has done a lot of pushing, and I'm wondering if this is what it is for her. Her behavior seems like that--like her nether regions are just sore and she's being ginger with it. She does like for me to pet her, including rolling over for me to rub her belly. I felt a more solid area on her abdomen today, near her tail end, and my guess was that was stool in her colon? Is that where I would feel it? It was slightly left of center, below her lowest nipples. She wasn't at all bothered by me palpating/massaging the area quite firmly, and gave no indication that was causing her any pain. If anything, she shifted position to allow me better access.
I have been in contact with the rescue I foster for several times about her, but haven't talked to them in the last two days. I did email them an update yesterday. I don't want to put her through another car trip if this sounds like a normal but slow recovery, because it is so very stressful for her and the vet I have to go to for the rescue is 30-40 minutes away (which I don't mind, but she HATES). I also don't want to expose the new kittens to stuff if I don't have to. On the other hand, if this sounds like something concerning going on, I would want to make sure she was seen. I would feel much better if she was just getting up to eat and use the litter box at this point. The only other thing that might be affecting her is that she tends to step on the kittens when she tries to stand up, and they squeal, and she looks frantic, and tries frantically to adjust her position (usually making things worse by lying on one) and she just generally seems a little overwhelmed by the whole thing. She taking great care of them though, she just strikes me as inexperienced.
I'm sorry this is so very long, I just thought it would be more helpful if I included as much information as I have. Does anyone have any thoughts on whether this sounds within the realm of normal? Any suggestions for me? This is the first time we've had a pregnant foster, and this forum was a lot of help to me in preparing for the birth.
So, that's the history. Day 1 she became stressed later that day and was breathing very rapidly and occasionally panting. I realized the room was very warm and after cooling it a bit and leaving her alone more rather than checking on her a bit, she gradually calmed and was much better by morning of day 2. Day 2 my concern was that she still wasn't getting up to use the litter box and I still had to bring her her food to eat. She made a bit of a pain nose a few times when she tried to stand, but once I got her to walk, she was okay. She had been a bit constipated leading up to the delivery, and I had a sense she was becoming increasingly so. I started adding pumpkin to her wet food, and that evening after a lot of shenanigans on my part (moving litter box all around, changing type of litter, digging around in box myself, etc), she finally used it. Hooray. Babies gained around 30 grams each after one day. Yes, I know that's a ton, but that's what the scale says, and they do indeed look big and getting bigger every day.
Day 3 (yesterday) she was back to seeming sore when she stood up in her box when I came in. She still wasn't leaving her nesting box to eat, but relying on me to keep bringing her food and holding it right under her chin to eat while she layed down, nursing her babies. At one point she stood to get up and made a sad noise that sounded like pain to me and layed back down. I gave her a break and later lifted her from the box gently and set her down across the bathroom from her babies and she did then start walking around. A little gingerly at first, then stronger, and she seemed much better once walking around, and she ate from her bowl and seemed relieved to "get out" a bit. She did this at some point day 2 as well when she got out of her box finally. She even layed on the floor for a while and visited with me. Of course when a baby squeaked, she ran and jumped back in bed. She's been very attentive, if overwhelmed. Later yesterday she spontaneously used her box and peed and pooped a ton in it. I felt like she was doing better then. Kittens again had gained a lot of weight. All are in the 170-180g range.
Day 4 (today) she seemed pretty good when I came in the room this morning. But, she still hadn't gotten out on her own to eat anything. She eats eagerly when I hold the bowl up for her in bed. I did hear her use the litter box once in the night. I actually have a baby monitor in the room, so I can hear easily when she uses the box. She hasn't used the box yet today that I have heard. I took her out of her box at one point to see how she was doing with standing and walking, and she seemed okay, though started gingerly like yesterday. I'm tending to relate to all this by my experience with human pregnancy and delivery, and I know how difficult walking in the days (and sometimes weeks) after delivery can be for a first time human mom, especially if she has done a lot of pushing, and I'm wondering if this is what it is for her. Her behavior seems like that--like her nether regions are just sore and she's being ginger with it. She does like for me to pet her, including rolling over for me to rub her belly. I felt a more solid area on her abdomen today, near her tail end, and my guess was that was stool in her colon? Is that where I would feel it? It was slightly left of center, below her lowest nipples. She wasn't at all bothered by me palpating/massaging the area quite firmly, and gave no indication that was causing her any pain. If anything, she shifted position to allow me better access.
I have been in contact with the rescue I foster for several times about her, but haven't talked to them in the last two days. I did email them an update yesterday. I don't want to put her through another car trip if this sounds like a normal but slow recovery, because it is so very stressful for her and the vet I have to go to for the rescue is 30-40 minutes away (which I don't mind, but she HATES). I also don't want to expose the new kittens to stuff if I don't have to. On the other hand, if this sounds like something concerning going on, I would want to make sure she was seen. I would feel much better if she was just getting up to eat and use the litter box at this point. The only other thing that might be affecting her is that she tends to step on the kittens when she tries to stand up, and they squeal, and she looks frantic, and tries frantically to adjust her position (usually making things worse by lying on one) and she just generally seems a little overwhelmed by the whole thing. She taking great care of them though, she just strikes me as inexperienced.
I'm sorry this is so very long, I just thought it would be more helpful if I included as much information as I have. Does anyone have any thoughts on whether this sounds within the realm of normal? Any suggestions for me? This is the first time we've had a pregnant foster, and this forum was a lot of help to me in preparing for the birth.
