My Foster Cat Is Pregnant

Yay!!!!! Beautiful babies!!!!

Our fosters had ️️babies on the same day [emoji]10084[/emoji]️ So cute!!!

That's awesome!! How many kittens did momma give birth to? Everything went well?

6 everything went pretty well!

That's very good to hear!! Congratulations on your new little family!!

Here they are a week later...they're getting so big already!! And they're eyes are finally opening I believe only one kitten right now is just about open fully

A week and 3 days ago my foster cat Stella had her litter of 5 beautiful kittens. Everything went well and is going well. But the last 2 days I've noticed Stella's breathing has gotten a little heavy and she's panting alot and making grunting noises. Has anyone else had this experience or have an idea what could be going on? I unfortunately don't have the money to take her to a vet at this very moment so I'm seeing if anyone can help me with some advice. Thanks in advance!

So cute and quite a variety!

jasminstanley88 said:

A week and 3 days ago my foster cat Stella had her litter of 5 beautiful kittens. Everything went well and is going well. But the last 2 days I've noticed Stella's breathing has gotten a little heavy and she's panting alot and making grunting noises. Has anyone else had this experience or have an idea what could be going on? I unfortunately don't have the money to take her to a vet at this very moment so I'm seeing if anyone can help me with some advice. Thanks in advance!

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Is she doing any better now.

Yes, how is Stella doing? Hope she is ok. Please let us know!

She's still doing it. It's not 24/7 but it's enough to have me concerned lol. I don't know if it's because she's hot or in some kind of pain or just stressed out from the kittens. When she gets outta her box she seems to slow down and when she goes back in with the kittens she seems fine and then after awhile she goes back to panting and sometimes she meows when I pet her. She doesn't hiss at me or anything but she does meow when I pet her sometimes so I either stop petting her or pet her somewhere else. Also when I talk to her she meows which she's never done before even before all the panting and grunting. @Handsom Kitty thank you they are lol I wish I knew who got her pregnant but unfortunately I don't. She's the only stray cat I've seen around my neighborhood.

@sarthur2 she's doing alright other than what I've mentioned. She is truly a wonderful mama cat. She's taking care of them very well. I've noticed a few times she has sat on a couple of the kittens and even with them meowing at her for sitting on them she didn't move so I had to move them. But other than that she's doing well as well as the kittens.

Glad to hear she's doing okay. It may just be stress. But is there a heating pad that may be too hot for her in the box? Also, is the box big enough for mama to sit somewhere besides on the kittens? Ideally, it should be big enough for mama to sit or lie down and stretch out for nursing with room for the kittens too.

It does concern me as well that she pants like this. Does she act normal otherwise with her eating, drinking and litter box behavior? And is it just when she is with the kittens or when she is not with them? And do you have a vet you could ask over the phone? Or no current relationship with a vet? And she's getting plenty of nutrition through kitten chow, wet food and water, right? It's very puzzling, but I am happy to hear she is being a good mama.

I'm a little concerned that the panting is her body's way of telling her that it's under stress. Can you get cat vitamins for her? Also, give her cat milk for extra calcium? I think she must need supplementing. Even mix a raw egg into her wet food. She needs something. We recently had a cat on the forum who had to be put down when the kittens were only 4 weeks old because she went into seizures. She had also been acting funny, and it turns out she had a low calcium level and other problems brought on by the stress of pregnancy and nursing.

I want to urge you to supplement her immediately with egg and vitamins and KMR (kitten milk replacement) formula. It's available at Walmart in powder and can be mixed and put in a dish for her to drink.

Keep posting please!

I'm sure I may be able to get a vet consultation over the phone. I can also get the vitamins and kmr but not til tuesday thats my pay day. The box has plenty of space for her to stretch and have her own space as well as the kittens. I think it may only be stress she seems fine now there's no heating pad. I've been giving her the Purina kitten food nurture and she's available to it all day as well as water and I give her 2-3 cans of wet food a day sometimes she doesn't eat all of the second can during the day or into the night. I can definitely give her the raw egg. And yes she seems her normal self with eating drinking and litter box besides the panting and grunting. She's actually very calm and breathing normally right now. Until Tuesday comes I can do the raw egg for now but how many raw eggs and with how much wet food a day? And should the egg be scrambled before putting in with the wet food or just Crack the egg and put it on top of the wet food? She does this with both. Whether she's with the kittens or not. But she'll come out the box and lay next to my bed for awhile and sometimes the panting stops and sometimes it doesn't until later in the night.

Just beat the raw egg as though you plan to scramble it, but then just mix it into her wet food raw not scrambled. Just one egg per day. Put it into whichever meal she eats best.

The KMR is about $10 per can (lasts a long time) here in Florida at Walmart, so not too bad. Give it to her as much as she will drink initially to get her reserves up. It's powder that you mix up, by the way.

You will need to stop by the vet to get cat vitamins, but they should sell them over the counter to you - chewable and tasty.

And the panting as you describe is not normal. Please call the vet and describe it and see what they say. I'm worried.

Hope she gets better. Tuesday is good - not too far off. Hope she gets better. Keep posting.

I'll call my local vet office in the a.m and let you know what they say and I will do the raw egg immediately and as soon as tuesday comes I'll get right on grabbing some kmr I live in mass and everything is expensive up here but hopefully not too much different in price I'll also ask about the vitamins in the a.m and will let you know as soon as I find out what's going on with with my Stella girl. Thank you so much for being helpful and caring as much as I am.

I'm happy to help. I am a cat lover. My heart aches when cats hurt. I appreciate your concern for her. I will wait to hear back from you. I hope she improves.

I just want to add that in addition to nutritional needs, it is possible that your cat may have a post-partum infection that might require antibiotics to cure. The vet may need to see her. The fact the panting started up a couple of days ago, a good week after delivery, indicates to me that something is going on inside her body. I know you said you cannot afford a vet visit, but maybe he could work with you somehow on payment. I'm just still thinking about your cat's problem ....

The vet didn't actually mention anything about an infection I'll call again tomorrow and mention that. I was told it's just the atmosphere she's in. I have a 3yr old who throws things and makes loud noises and yells and he thinks that's the problem. It's making her very nervous and that's her reaction. I didn't think of it until he asked about it. It does fit but not all the time. Definitely gonna call back and see if it could be an infection. I really hope it's not. I was able to grab the kmr today. I haven't given her any yet because I don't know how much she weighs and I don't wanna give her too little or too much.

The vet may be right, which is the stress theory. It can't hurt to rule out infection. Is she in a relatively private space with her kittens away from your little one for now? And did she eat the egg last night?

With the KMR, the weights are only important for feeding tiny kittens. You can just mix up about a cup and give her a dish full to drink. Refrigerate the unused portion for the next serving, which you can warm slightly if she doesn't like it cold. It's packed with nutrition. Hope she likes it! How is she tonight anyway? Is your son home all day or at daycare or preschool so she gets quiet time? I understand how rambunctious little ones are though!