Hello all!

Two to three weeks to go!

WE'RE HAVING BABIES! It's almost 1 AM my time and I'm sitting beside Coco because she is needing me constantly. Wants almost constant physical contact. She started labor in our bed just as I suspected she would, but the little hussy surprised me by crawling under our covers between me and my husband! Patiently waiting!

One kitten - one placenta! How soon after birth are the moms supposed to chew the cord and eat the placenta?

Just over 2 hours in and the 4th kitten has just been born. It has club foot in its back legs The rest of the babies appear to be perfectly healthy though!

Awwe congrats!!! My kittens are 9 days old it is so awesome to watch them grow up.

Final count by my estimation (I'm pretty sure Coco doesn't have any more left) is 5 kittens. All seem to be healthy overall. Mom is cleaning up and kittens are hungry. Oh, and I'm EXHAUSTED! Lol!

Congratulations!

Make sure all five latch and nurse well. You can move them to a nesting area as soon as you wish.

I suggest that you have your three male cats neutered now, and plan to spay Coco when her babies are 8 weeks old. Do not let her near your males in the meantime.

Hope you can get a nap today! It sounds like it was a long but successful night .

Can you post a picture of the kitten's leg/foot with the problem?

There may be a way to straighten it while the kitten is young, but we need to see a picture as soon as possible? Thanks!

Thanks sarthur!

Getting all of my animals fixed is definitely going to happen. However, we're not in a place financially where we can do that right now. I'm definitely planning on keeping Coco in the house until it's doable.

Working in uploading a pic.

Contact your local Humane Society and ask about their low cost spay/neutering program. They are very reasonable and you can start with one cat at a time. The neuters in particular are quite simple.

PS: I've asked one of our advisors to look at the club foot picture.

We have a spay/neuter assist program but I believe participants have to be on government assistance to qualify. I'll check the Humane Society website though. Thanks!

Hi there, I was asked to weigh in on this baby's foot issue.

This is not a club foot, as it is perfectly formed. This is caused by the positioning in utero where the leg was unable to freely grow as it needed, the baby's legs are extremely pliable and can be reshaped if done very early on like started today.

You need to be massaging the leg in your fingers, then after a minute or so as you massage you will be gently stretching it towards where it belongs.

Do this several times a day, you will see it getting better every day.

Okay. Will do! I'll start as soon as I get home! Thank you so much.

Is there anything I can do for these babies to get rid of fleas? In my checking up on them today, I've noticed they're eaten up with fleas. I don't want to hurt them, but if I could get rid of the fleas, that's something I really want to do, for everyone's sake.

You need to! Fleas cause anemia in newborn kittens very quickly.

Put a tube of Advantage on mama's neck. That will help the babies. Change and wash their bedding to kill eggs and larva. Pick them off the babies with a flea comb. They cannot be bathed until they are older.

Babies have a very, very small amt of blood, an unbelievable amt actually!

Which means fleas can do serious damage fast, and can actually kill a baby kitten if they are bad enough or allowed on them for long.

So yes, it's important to be flea free ASAP.

Shoot! I don't have any flea treatments and I don't know that I'll be able to get back to town. Maybe I can get my sis to grab some on the way home from work tomorrow. I used to have a flea comb, but I have no idea where it is now. I think I have a flea collar and regular people combs though. Would that work for now?

The flea collar is bad for the kittens.  Maybe you can put it on the mom while you are with her and combing the kittens.   dip the comb you are using in a blue dawn and water solution to kill the fleas after each pass they the kitten.  Make sure to dry the kittens if the come gets them wet.

Don't forget to take the flea collar off mom when you finish if you put it on her.

Get your sister to pick up Advantage and a flea comb for you tomorrow while she is in town. The flea collar is not safe and will not do much to fight the infestation. Do not use any over-the-counter products like Hartz. The sooner you kill fleas the better.