How long does my cat have left before she gives birth????

I have a pregnant cat who is huge! I thought she should have been due this week if my calculatins are right (she was a house cat but got out and went missing for 14 hours!) I can feel the kittens moving and have done fore about 2 weeks. She has lost a good ring of hair around all of her nipples and some of them have a white crust on the tip which I am assuming is dried milk. I have a dog crate set up for her with a box in it containing towels and blankets but she hasn't even been in it yet. Instead she keeps lying in the dogs bed! She is not very active at all and instead has been lying around the house and sleeps on and off all day. I let her tell me when she is hungry by waiting until she goes to her food bowls, as such she has been having 4/5 pouches of kitten food a day plus dried kitten food to graze on whenever she wants and every other day I have been giving her little bits of Kitten Milk Replacer.

I have her booked in at the vets next week in case the kittens haven't come by then so that she can be checked out. If I am right about the day she got out and mated then today will be her 66th day of pregnancy.....any thoughts??

Seems to proceed well and good.  Its near but the exact hour isnt almost never possible to tell.   A consolation is, cats tend to manage a too long pregnancy better than humans.  Its worse with premature deliveries - again in contrast to humans.

I understand she hasnt dropped as yet?  Where the kittens move down into birthing postitions, and become less movable in the last day of the pregnancy.

Although the dropping or lack thereof isnt no 100% - if their time comes they can deliver anyway.

Good luck!

Some links you will perhaps find useful:

Birth, Delivery and Newborns

How to Tell if My Cat is Pregnant?

Cat Pregnancy

How Do I Know When My Cat Will Give Birth?

Pregnant Cat? What to Prepare For the Birth

Help! My Cat is Having Kittens!

Premature Kittens

Post-Birth Complications in Cats

And also:

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"  )  

Fleece or flannel good to use in the bedding for kittens.

I'm pretty sure she just expelled her mucus plug on my leg!! And now she is growling and walking around in between licking herself.

How is it going?  What you wrote sounds like delivery being very close.

They CAN have some precontractions, but as her time is near...

Good luck!

Soon after her mucus plug was expeled, she started pushig out her first kitten but I quickly notcied that it was still in the amniotic sack and that it was tail first! On my 2nd call to our emergency vet clinic, as I was about to arrange to bring in my cat as she had been trying to push the kitten out for 45 minutes, she finally got it out and it was ok. However, when we got to the birth of kitten number 5, we realised it was still born and hadn't even formed properly and then instead of pushing out that kittens placenta she pushed out another still born kitten, this time with the placenta in tact. I was completely upset and traumatised and didn't want to take any chances because we thought there may be some placenta left in her or another kitten so we rushed her to the emergency clinic where she had an xray and some meds and has been given a course of antibiotics. There wasn't another kitten but possibly a little placenta left so she has had some meds to try and flush it out and a course of antibiotics as a precaution and she is going back on Tuesday. The four kittens that are alive and healthy are currently back with their Mum cat and happily nursing but nothing will help me forget what I saw today and I am still a bag of nerves. Lesson learned - in future, don't let your cat escape before her spay surgery!! I am just so glad she is ok as I thought I might lose her there for a minute!

My cat had 4 kittens 2 days ago and I have been weighing them. 1 of them is black with little white paws but the others are all jet black. When I wieghed them today, these are their weights as follows:

Kitten 1: 132g

Kitten 2: 143g

Kitten 3: 99g

Kitten 4: 109g

If I am right about kitten 3, it has only gained 2 or 3g since yesterday and I am a little worried. I have made sure they are all latching on and tried to get the kitten that I think is the littlest one to feed when the other kittens are sleeping so he/she is not being bullied or pushed out. The problem is I can't be sure I have the same kitten each time to get an accurate weight beause I can't tell the 3 jet black ones apart.... I am wondering if anyone has any tips?? I assume it is the same kitten because it is the lightest one but still...

Their mother cat already had a trip to the emergency pet clininc the day they were born because she gave birth to 2 still born kittens and I was worried. They gave her 2 injections and antibiotics and an xray to make sure there were no more kittens inside her and the meds incase there was any placenta left. They are going to my regular vets tomorrow afternoon so she can have another check up and the kittens can as well so I will ask the vet too but until then does anyone have any ideas?? After what happened I am really on edge! I haven't slept properly because I am paranoid and check up on them all the time! I'm giving my cat KMR and kitten food to keep her strength up. I cannot wait for her to be spayed in the next couple of months so that nothing like this happens again!!

There are tricks.  One is to color their nails with human nail color polish.  Make sure its not poisoning.       Its enough with say,  left paw.

Or left paw on one, right  paw on next, left backpaw on third...

If necessary, renew the color now and then.

Other have collars of colored paper around their neck.

You may find your own ideas along the same lines.

Good luck!

You can also use ribbons, the kind you can buy in any craft store, to tell the kittens apart. Tie the ribbon around the neck.
There is a big craze at least in the USA involving colored rubber bands and weaving, you might also try them if they aren't too small/big.

I had this problem last year. For the first 2 to 3 weeks I dabbed a little bit of non-toxic Elmer's glue on various areas of the fur of the tail. On one kitten I put glue near the tip of the tail, one had glue in the middle of the tail, one had glue at the base of the tail and one had no glue. I had to check and reapply the glue every few days.

At around 3 weeks of age, I started cutting chunks of fur out of the tail where the glue had been and used the missing fur as my new identification aid. Now, over a year later, I only do that with one of the cats as it's the only way to distiguish him from his brother from a top view. It's nice to be able to identify cats from a top view when they're fleeing the scene of a "crime."

I personally don't like putting collars on kittens for safety reasons, but that's just me.

Put some liquid white out or light nail polish on the tip of the tail

The nail polish idea sounds good but what if my mother cat tries to lick it off?

Not enough to make her sick. No worries.

My cat gave birth on Saturday and birthed 2 stillborn kittens as well as 4 healthy ones. We took her to the emergency vet clinic as we thought there may be some placanta or another kitten stuck and she had an xray and the vet assured me there was no kitten but possibly a bit of placenta so just in case my cat had 2 different injections that the vet said would help "flush" out anything remaining and a course of anti biotics too to kill any infection that could potentially develop - that was 2 days ago. Since then my cat has been nursing her kittens well and eating well as well as having fresh water and KMR (Kitten Milk Replacer) and she had been using the litter tray ok too. However today, she hadn't pooped until tonight and when she was in the litter tray she kind of growled as if she was in pain and looked like she had to strain a bit to get the poop put and now she is leaking but its not think blood or anything its more like water that has had a few drops of blood blended in so bacically a light red/pink watery type leakage. Could this be from straining to poop? It happened as soon as she stepped out of the litter tray. Should I be worried?? She is booked in at the vets tomorrow with the kittens but until then can anyone give me any advice or ideas of what this is??

As long as she doesn't seem to be in distress currently and the amount of blood is not large, you are probably safe to wait to take her to the vet tomorrow as scheduled.

Generally speaking, a bit of blood 48 hours after the birth can be normal.  Unfortunately it can also sometimes be a sign of a problem. Since you will be seeing a vet soon the best thing will be if you just listen to him or her regarding what is happening and what to do. For now though I would not worry too much unless the bleeding worsens or she seems to be in distress.

Good luck

My cat had kittens a few days ago - 4 were healthy and 2 were stillborn. We weren't sure if there was another kitten stuck or some placenta inside her so we rushed her to the emergency pet clinic where she had an xray and the vet said there were no kittens stuck but possibly some placenta so she had 2 injections to help flush out anything remaining and a course of antibiotics. Today I took my cat and her kittens to our regular vets for a check up where she told me the kittens were all in good health but that my cat was running a high temperature. She asked if my cat ahd been acting differently i.e lethargic, crying, not eating/drinking. But my cat has been eating and drinking well and having KMR (kitten milk formula) at night to keep up her strength and has been feeding the kittens well and using the litter tray and walking around so the vet gave her another antibiotic injection but said the antibiotic (metacam) they would normally give to bring down a high temp, my cat can't have whilst she is nursing. I have to take her back tomorrow and if she has still got a high temp she has to have an untrasound to make sure there is nothing still remaining in her womb/uterus.

My question is...what will happen if there is? Does she have to have more meds or surgery?? The vet also said if she still has a high temp she will need the metacam and I will have to hand rear the kittens (which I have done before).

I would also like to say, I have personally seen all the things that can go wrong with letting your cat get pregnant (although mine wasn't deliberate) it is still my fault because I should have gotten her spayed sooner. I got my males done first and was working round to her and now I wish I had started with her first!!! She will be spayed ASAP and I will never let anything like this happen again! After all the horrors of the last few weeks I am fully committed to spreading the word - SPAY/NEUTER YOUR ANIMALS. NO EXCUSES! I also read a moving article about shelter cats and dogs which I hadn't realised I was killing by letting my girly escape and get pregnant because she wasn't spayed

Anyway....any advice on what will happen if the ultrasound shows something still inside her??

As I understand she got already some medicament to get the placenta out?   The standard is to give some hormon based prepareate to make her contract again (a weak labor sort off), to expel the placenta.   Also, nursing kittens gives in some degree the same effect.

So my guess is, the placenta is out.  IF there was a forgotten placenta. 

My hypothesis reading your  other post was they could be twins, with one placenta together.  That is why there was just one visible placenta, and why both were dead - if there was a fault with one, there was a fault with the other too.

But.  IF there is still a placenta, they can either try with a stronger preparate, giving her stronger  contractions, or take it manually.  Like they do with women when they abort them.

Difficult to know from here, not being the vet in question.   In any case, it seems the vets take the problems seriously, they dont just shrug it off- "take two aspirin/tylenol, and if it isnt better in two days, come back"

Good luck!  @ElleMarie89

Thank you. I should have really asked the vet the ins and outs but I was distracted and worried about my kitty. Hopefully her temp has gone down when we take her tomorrow!

Our cat had 4 kittens on Saturday and they are nice and healthy etc. I had read before that they should be gaining around 8-10g a day. Well, ours have gained between 18g and 24g since just yesterday. Does that mean they are feeding too much on their Mother and being greedy?? Is this too high a weight gain. They are 4 days old now and the smallest kitten is 146g and the biggest kitten is 183g. I just don't want them taking too much from their Mummy. She is on kitten food herself as well as KMR and of course fresh water. Any advice??

ElleMarie89 said:

 
Our cat had 4 kittens on Saturday and they are nice and healthy etc. I had read before that they should be gaining around 8-10g a day. Well, ours have gained between 18g and 24g since just yesterday. Does that mean they are feeding too much on their Mother and being greedy?? Is this too high a weight gain. They are 4 days old now and the smallest kitten is 146g and the biggest kitten is 183g. I just don't want them taking too much from their Mummy. She is on kitten food herself as well as KMR and of course fresh water. Any advice??

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This around 8-10 g a day is a sound minimum, it is not what is really recommended.   Healthy kittens may, and often get more - even 30 g a day isnt unheard off.

So it seems your lillte family is thriving exemplary.   Just be sure the mom gets first rate nourishment, exactly as you already are doing.

Good luck!

Ok thank you!!