Hi, I'm driving myself crazy trying to figure out what happened to one of my newborn kittens I helped deliver last night.
I began carrying for a sweet, but wild, 8 month old kitten. She came to our house crying and starving for food, and that's how I began to care for her. I named her Rosie. We took her to the vet, and the vet estimated her age to be 8 months. When we first tried to introduce Rosie to the inside of the house, one morning she startled so bad she jumped from the second floor and fell possibly on to the spiral staircase on her way down, and injured herself. The injury was a hernia-type growth under the skin on the left side of her lower abdomen. Because of the injury possibly healing, the vet wanted to wait two weeks to see if the injury would heal before spaying her and repairing the injury during the spay. He said cats begin to go in to heat around the end of Dec - Jan. So, it was only a few weeks after the visit to the vet, and as he predicted, Rosie went in to heat. I had never seen a cat in heat, I tried to keep her inside, but she snuck past me one afternoon, and got pregnant.
Her first trimester was pretty stress-free, I fed her premium hard and soft food. During the second trimester however, at the start of Week 6, I moved her to an apartment for a week. She seemed to not be too distressed by the move, but a move is always stressful, and then she returned back to the house after only a week of being away, and then had a pretty similar environment to her first trimester again to finish out her pregnancy.
Finding the perfect nesting spot in the house was difficult. I had to leave for some of the day in which she went in to Stage 1 labor. She needed constant reassurance and pets, and when I was away my roommate said she was crying the entire time, and tried to calm Rosie herself. I moved the nesting cardboard box multiple times before seeing her return to the same spot time again, and knew to put the box there. So, although I think she exhibited quite a bit of distress in not having the proper nesting place decided on until the last minute, she was very happy once I set it up nice for her. She wanted me by her side the entire delivery.
Her first baby came out fairly easy, without my assistance, and was healthy and began nursing.
Approximately 10 mins went by, and then she began contractions again. The first thing I saw was a bubble protruding from the hole. She kept flipping from side to side and pushing, and managed to get the baby half way out, but she was definitely having difficulty. I had never delivered kittens before, and was going only off of what I read in preparation for the delivery. The articles said after 15 mins of her trying by herself, I would need to assist. So, 15 mins had gone by, and her contractions began to decrease, and it was like she couldn't get the energy to push anymore, but the baby was only halfway out still, so in time to her contractions, I began to assist her by gently pulling. I am not sure which way he was facing, but he was lodged in the birth canal, for a long time....too long. Finally, both the baby and the placenta fell out. I expected her to come over immediately to lick the baby, but she went and started licking on her first born instead. I called to her several times pointing at the baby and she then got up and ate the placenta first, and then started licking the newborn for a good 3-5 mins. He never responded to her licking, and she went back to licking her first born.
I was in sheer shock, not having a clue what to do.... I just didn't think this would happen, so I really wasn't prepared to have to try to revive a kitten myself. I tried to clean away and free his nose and mouth, just in case any membrane was still there. Then I tried the swing move, to get any fluid out... fluid was slowly flowing out, but still no sign of life. I finally went and woke my friend up, who has years of experience rescuing cats. She said he was too cold, and put him in to a pair of her shorts and began to rub him vigorously to dry and warm him. We tried several more times to rub him, and she checked for a pulse, but never did he have any signs of life. She noted that she had never seen an umbilical cord as pale as his was. Rosie had chewed it off like she was supposed to, but my friend noted the color as being off. However, he was not stiff. I thought if a kitten was stillborn, they would be stiff upon delivery. Also, his tongue was pink. I read that if oxygen deprivation was occurring, the tongue would turn more blueish purple. Nothing physically looked wrong with him. He looked perfect, no fetal abnormalities. I was so sad and shocked and focused on the second baby, that Rosie delivered her 3rd baby successfully without my assistance.
So, she had two healthy girls, that were much smaller than the baby boy, that did not make it. I'm just racking my brain on repeat, trying to figure out what went wrong.
Was she too stressed the last day during Stage 1 of pregnancy?
Did I hurt the baby somehow, while trying to assist Rosie by pulling on him during contractions?
Is the reason he didn't make it because his face wasn't freed from the sac in time; because his head was possibly outside the hole for over 15 mins still enclosed in the sac? Did he ingest fluid? And if that was what caused him to not respond, was there something I could have done to free his airways of the fluid?
Did he possibly pass away before ever even making it in to the birth canal?
I need to know what went wrong, so I know I'm doing everything I can to have this never happen again.
I am so upset, and just don't understand how two little girls were delivered fine, but I couldn't save the little boy.
Any information to help me understand would be so helpful to me right now.
I began carrying for a sweet, but wild, 8 month old kitten. She came to our house crying and starving for food, and that's how I began to care for her. I named her Rosie. We took her to the vet, and the vet estimated her age to be 8 months. When we first tried to introduce Rosie to the inside of the house, one morning she startled so bad she jumped from the second floor and fell possibly on to the spiral staircase on her way down, and injured herself. The injury was a hernia-type growth under the skin on the left side of her lower abdomen. Because of the injury possibly healing, the vet wanted to wait two weeks to see if the injury would heal before spaying her and repairing the injury during the spay. He said cats begin to go in to heat around the end of Dec - Jan. So, it was only a few weeks after the visit to the vet, and as he predicted, Rosie went in to heat. I had never seen a cat in heat, I tried to keep her inside, but she snuck past me one afternoon, and got pregnant.
Her first trimester was pretty stress-free, I fed her premium hard and soft food. During the second trimester however, at the start of Week 6, I moved her to an apartment for a week. She seemed to not be too distressed by the move, but a move is always stressful, and then she returned back to the house after only a week of being away, and then had a pretty similar environment to her first trimester again to finish out her pregnancy.
Finding the perfect nesting spot in the house was difficult. I had to leave for some of the day in which she went in to Stage 1 labor. She needed constant reassurance and pets, and when I was away my roommate said she was crying the entire time, and tried to calm Rosie herself. I moved the nesting cardboard box multiple times before seeing her return to the same spot time again, and knew to put the box there. So, although I think she exhibited quite a bit of distress in not having the proper nesting place decided on until the last minute, she was very happy once I set it up nice for her. She wanted me by her side the entire delivery.
Her first baby came out fairly easy, without my assistance, and was healthy and began nursing.
Approximately 10 mins went by, and then she began contractions again. The first thing I saw was a bubble protruding from the hole. She kept flipping from side to side and pushing, and managed to get the baby half way out, but she was definitely having difficulty. I had never delivered kittens before, and was going only off of what I read in preparation for the delivery. The articles said after 15 mins of her trying by herself, I would need to assist. So, 15 mins had gone by, and her contractions began to decrease, and it was like she couldn't get the energy to push anymore, but the baby was only halfway out still, so in time to her contractions, I began to assist her by gently pulling. I am not sure which way he was facing, but he was lodged in the birth canal, for a long time....too long. Finally, both the baby and the placenta fell out. I expected her to come over immediately to lick the baby, but she went and started licking on her first born instead. I called to her several times pointing at the baby and she then got up and ate the placenta first, and then started licking the newborn for a good 3-5 mins. He never responded to her licking, and she went back to licking her first born.
I was in sheer shock, not having a clue what to do.... I just didn't think this would happen, so I really wasn't prepared to have to try to revive a kitten myself. I tried to clean away and free his nose and mouth, just in case any membrane was still there. Then I tried the swing move, to get any fluid out... fluid was slowly flowing out, but still no sign of life. I finally went and woke my friend up, who has years of experience rescuing cats. She said he was too cold, and put him in to a pair of her shorts and began to rub him vigorously to dry and warm him. We tried several more times to rub him, and she checked for a pulse, but never did he have any signs of life. She noted that she had never seen an umbilical cord as pale as his was. Rosie had chewed it off like she was supposed to, but my friend noted the color as being off. However, he was not stiff. I thought if a kitten was stillborn, they would be stiff upon delivery. Also, his tongue was pink. I read that if oxygen deprivation was occurring, the tongue would turn more blueish purple. Nothing physically looked wrong with him. He looked perfect, no fetal abnormalities. I was so sad and shocked and focused on the second baby, that Rosie delivered her 3rd baby successfully without my assistance.
So, she had two healthy girls, that were much smaller than the baby boy, that did not make it. I'm just racking my brain on repeat, trying to figure out what went wrong.
Was she too stressed the last day during Stage 1 of pregnancy?
Did I hurt the baby somehow, while trying to assist Rosie by pulling on him during contractions?
Is the reason he didn't make it because his face wasn't freed from the sac in time; because his head was possibly outside the hole for over 15 mins still enclosed in the sac? Did he ingest fluid? And if that was what caused him to not respond, was there something I could have done to free his airways of the fluid?
Did he possibly pass away before ever even making it in to the birth canal?
I need to know what went wrong, so I know I'm doing everything I can to have this never happen again.
I am so upset, and just don't understand how two little girls were delivered fine, but I couldn't save the little boy.
Any information to help me understand would be so helpful to me right now.
