Pregnant Stray - Need some advice.

Hi everyone, 

Yesterday morning I found a small cat (neighbors say she was born in the spring) in my back alley. She was digging around in trashcans for scraps and hiding underneath a shed. Well, I knew we had some bad weather coming - in fact, we're under about 4-5 inches of snow as we speak, and it's still going.

I went out and lured her into a small crate with some cat food, and she settled in very quickly. I have no idea how much food/water she has been able to find, or what she has been eating. All I really know is that she was hopping in and out of trashcans for food.

I thought it was odd that she was so immobile upon her arrival, for about an hour she just perched in our window. (After PLENTY of food and lots of love)

Well, I am still new to cat ownership, but it became very obvious that she is pregnant after I finally got a look at her up close.

Since I have no way of knowing how old she is, or when she was bred to her tom, I could really use some insight as to what's going on with her. She has shown some symptoms of labor. I will break down her symptoms by those that are behavioral, and those that are physical/external.

Physical:

She is very large for her stature. I can feel movement in her tummy, and see her belly almost "rolling" around a bit. I can also feel lots of bubblies in her tummy. 

Her nipples are quite enlarged and have some white crusties, but she does not seem to be producing milk. 

Panting at times, breathing heavier. 

Behavioral:

She has been "nesting" since about an hour after she settled in our house.

She never really tried to explore, just got herself comfy and stayed there.

She does not get up unless it is to eat (She is gobbling down small, frequent meals which seem to be more spaced out now) or to use her litter box. (She has diarrhea, but I am unsure if her stomach upset is due to her being thrown on a new diet regime so quickly.)

She has also become a bit restless, if not for food/potty she only leaves her nest to stretch out a couple feet away.

She has off/on moments of being very vocal/chatty. She also makes growling/purring/trill noises when I pet her, or touch her tummy. However, she is not aggressive at ALL. She is very affectionate, and frequently head butts me and will crawl into my lap. 

I will try to attach a few pictures of her. I am very concerned about her, since she was a stray up until now with kittens. She is practically, still a kitten herself.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much,

Gina and Amaya (The mommy to be!)

Pictures: 

When she first came home: (You can see the trash and shed she was found under in the BG)


The spot she initially started nesting in, before we moved her into our bedroom for supervision:


Her new spot. She does not really move out of her nest.


Laying outside of her nest. She does this randomly, and is the only time she gets up aside food/potty


I will try to get some more pics of her belly. She does not seem too big in the pics, but her entire tummy is very "hard", you can feel the kittens (very lumpy, lol) and the babies are definitely moving. Also, please keep in mind her small stature, age, situation (being a stray, possibly malnourished up until now).

Is she close to labor? What health risks might her babies have? Is she too small to even deliver?

Thank you,

Gina

Oh boy.....

Well she is one lucky kitty to have you take her in and care for her, especially at this time!

Aside from the fact that she should be feeling very content inside a warm home, with food and a comfy bed, and some lovins, she is likely going to give birth soon.

So sad, she is very young, only a teenager. I can tell by her face and size.

Inexperienced with babies, she will likely need some help from you.

First thing will be, as she delivers them, she will need to chew open the sacs and chew their cords, if she is too stressed or delivers quickly, she may get sidetracked, so you will want to grab the baby and tear it open, have a soft small towel or washcloth and rub vigorously to get the baby breathing. Then simply place it up to her body and it should begin to nurse.

If you do need to assist, try to get her to take over, like when you first tear the bag, you can leave baby there but tear it open and show her, put it up to her face. She may or may not take over.

If not then follow the above instructions.

Once she has delivered all, her tummy will still be larger but you should not feel anymore movement.

You will then need to change her bedding completely with clean, soft and absorbent dry ones.

It's a great idea now to protect whatever is under the current bedding now with plastic, fuilly covered of course, but plan on having a very wet bed once theyre out.

This will make them cold so asap.

Basically (hopefully) she will do the work. You will definitely want to watch that all babies are nursing. There is almost always a runt or 2, and they are constantly booted off of the nipples by the others. This causes them to lose their will to live and thrive.

We will take it from there.

It does sound like she will be delivering anytime now.

Thanks, catwoman707! She is getting a bit more vocal when we touch her (very lightly, of course..she still loooves getting rubbed). She likes to stick her butt up in the air as well.

As of right now, she has retreated back into her nest and is lying down. I have noticed that she will either hold her tail out, or press it firmly between her legs. Is this normal? She is very relaxed and calm, though. I can't believe she is a stray.

Thank you SO much!

Hopefully her babies arrive healthy.

Update:

She is cleaning and licking her belly and legs, not much on her bum/vulva though. Is this a sign?

She has gotten pretty quiet and is just laying on the bed with me, licking all over. She hasn't snacked in a while, either. (She has been having small frequent meals)


What do you guys think?

We think she is nearing!  Maybe days left, maybe hours. Impossible to know 100% sure.

Her being that friendly hints she had contacts with friendly humans before, was pehaps even owned.

But of course, in her condition she knows he needs help, so she is extra friendly as soon she understands she will get help from you.  A mothers first duty is the welfare of her children, not "freedom" as such.

do you have own cats?  Try to held them apart.  One reason not to stress her, but also, not to risk anything with them, before you are sure she is dewormed, deparasitated, and fully healthy.

And use the time left to read on, and prepare as well you can.

Here some links:

One from this site:  http://www.thecatsite.com/a/pregnancy-and-delivery-in-cats

http://www.icatcare.org/advice/my-cat-having-kittens    ( This is a link to a group of articles on cat pregnancy, birth and kittens.   Read the ones on normal cat birth and on " when to wait and when to worry"  )  

http://www.cat-world.com.au/parturition-birth-in-cats

http://www.icatcare.org/advice-centre/cat-care/normal-cat-birth.

Tx for helping this little sis of ours!

Good luck!

Hi again,

It has been a bit over 24 hours and she is acting much the same, still eating but less frequently. A lot of times she walks up, and nibbles like she isn't sure if she wants it.

We do have 2 cats in our apartment . We have secluded her nesting area to our bedroom and will not let them come in anymore. But they can be sneaky. They are 6mo and 8mo and VERY curious. They keep trying to break down the door, lol. But they are starting to get the idea.

I have read that when cats have their first litter, sometimes pre-labor lasts a bit longer. Is this true?

Thanks guys! Poor thing is gonna pop

BionicOcelot said:

 
I have read that when cats have their first litter, sometimes pre-labor lasts a bit longer. Is this true?

Click to expand...

So it is also for human firsttimers.

That said, cats deliveries are usually shorter than human deliveries. So we dont like long unfruitful labors.   Especielly not if it is a following kitten. Be ready to  contact your vet and be ready to rush her in, if you see it takes too long..

Observe, some precontractions are quite common, so I myself dont count them for labor.

Good luck!

Thank you, that was very helpful! I guess I am not sure when I should be concerned, as she still has not had her babies and is still eating.

She will likely eat all the way up to delivery, might stop for a short period right before though.

It sounds from you describing her tail movements that she is having some pre-contractions.

Cats also have the ability to postpose delivery if they are not 'ready' as far as where, safety of where, and the surroundings. Although she sounds fairly content there with you

As StefanZ advised, it is extremely important now to keep the other cats away from her. She will be stressed already and it will triple her stress, may even make her behave badly, too preoccupied to care for her kittens, or aggressive towards the other cats as her protective instinct will have kicked in high gear.

Really the only things I can think of you need to worry about are what I explained above if she doesn't get her kids breathing soon enough, or if she labors too long as is unable to birth one or all.

This is not a common thing, but you will likely notice when she is in active labor, and if delivery isn't happening within a few hours, watch her closely, if her breathing is faster or heavy with no results, or if she pushes but can't get a baby out.

Pushing can be seen by one particular thing, since cats are not like women in the obvious facial, grunting, etc. Haha ) You can tell a momma cat is pushing by looking at her face and her whiskers will be pushed forward, away from her face. Cool huh??  )

When you do finally watch her push babies out, check out how she pushes her whiskers forward.

Once she has deliverd, OR during a delayed delivery in between, offer her some water and maybe a bit of canned food, depending on how long it takes her.

By the way, if during her delivery you really need some help or advice fast, let us know here but mention specific names like mine or StefanZ's, so we will get an email telling us we were mentioned, which will alert us faster if we are not here at the time.

When we started caring for our stray pregnant teenager we had barely gotten her used to being in the house before she went into labor.

I was totally surprised that when she started labor she got into bed with us, under the covers. We had barely gotten her to trust us with petting, so it was an amazing leap of trust. I could feel her having contractions.

We got a bunch of old towels and eased them under her. One kitten was very large and my DH Travis had to gently help her get it out. She did fine with the sacs and stuff, and seemed to know what to do, despite being practically a kitten herself. She ended up being a super mom too.

Looking forward to how it goes!

I gotta say, I sure wish we had Catwoman and StefanZ back then!! This was before the internet and great resources like thecatsite.

catwoman707 said:

 
By the way, if during her delivery you really need some help or advice fast, let us know here but mention specific names like mine or StefanZ's, so we will get an email telling us we were mentioned, which will alert us faster if we are not here at the time.

Click to expand...

I suspect this tricks works only for administrators.  I see if Anne mentions me in her posts, but not in any other posts.

Quoting me works. also  If Im PM:ed, I got noticed.

The safest is really to write in the open in the Forum, so any advisor or helpsome forumist can jump in and answer.

I myself try to look here twice a day. More often if I have time or I know there is emergency ongoing.

If you want to double guard and have help of say, Catwoman, do PM too. 

You CAN also klick on the red flag, and get attention of a moderator - who are of course everybody experienced forumists and  cat owners.

Wow, thank you all so much for your advice and stories. It has really calmed a lot of my worry for her. In the few days she has been here, I have really taken quite a liking to her. She is such a sweet kitty.

She is still acting the same, but staying more in the same spots. I've definitely been noticing more prominent contractions. She has actually quieted down a bit, but she's been doing that during the daytime. I think it will be any time now, she has been showing the signs you guys mentioned for about 3 days now! I will be sure to give updates and seek advice if anything goes wrong. 

And of course, provided all goes well and she has healthy babies I will post pics. I'm sure they will be darling. 

Wish her luck!

Thank you all again. 

Hi guys,

Stopping again by for a brief update/question.

She has been nesting, but especially in the daytime. If not she lays like this: [poor mama!]


Is this normal? I brought in a bigger nesting cage just in case her other one is too small, but she still likes the floor! haha


Here's both of her boxes, in case I am missing anything. Thanks again !



What do you guys think?

I think it will be soon. She has not left my side for hours, and now she loves hopping in my lap.

The boxes look great, either she chooses will be perfect

Let us know!

Sending vibes for a complication-free delivery! 

Thank you all for your advice and concern She is nesting in her big box. I took her temperature and it was 99.1. Hoping they come soon so I can stop worrying! She has kept me up all night and day wanting attention but it seems like she's getting herself geared up. I will make sure to keep an extra close eye on her tonight.

Fingers crossed!

Update again

Her belly has dropped quite a bit. I took her temperature last night, 99.1. This morning it's 98.6. She finally returned to her nest as well. Now more waiting!

hope all geos well:-D
wow shes huge haha well tell her I wish her luck! fingers crossed for a complication free delivery :-)