New rescue cat is possibly pregnant

Hey everyone,

So last week I picked up a young cat from a shelter, as she was about to be euthanized that afternoon. I was hoping to foster her for a while and hopefully find her a home. The shelter didn't tell me much about her, other than that she isn't spayed, but they're going to get her an appointment in a couple weeks. A few days after getting her, I looked at her tummy and...surprise! Bright pink nipples with all the hair around them missing. If the is pregnant, she can't be far along, as she barely has a tummy at all. Only when she stretches do I see a slight bulge, but even then, it doesn't look obvious like any of the other pregnant fosters I've had. I've felt her stomach and it barely feels hard at all. Is there any chance that she had kittens before she was taken to the shelter? Would her nipples still be so big and bare if that was the case? I know at this point it's just a waiting game, I'm just worried the shelter will want to make an appointment to get her spayed, and if she is pregnant, she'll be at least 5-6 weeks along by that point and I'd feel awful having them aborted at that time...

Any advice or other ways to tell?

Good question.  Early on, even a vet can't tell without an ultrasound.  It could be she already HAD kittens and was turned in to the kill shelter after all her kittens had been given away, OR she was turned in to the shelter WITH her kittens and they have all been given away and she was going to be euthanized because at this time of year, the end of kitten season, many of the leftover moms are euthanized because nobody wants them.  I have a houseful of leftover moms at my own small private shelter.  If I start advertising them next month, some of them will get homes in the winter, between kitten seasons.  The rest will stay with me because most private rescues do not euthanize healthy animals.  The public ones have to until such time as people start gettig their cats neutered and spayed and stop producing so many kittens every year.  I just took in a female from another rescue, and she had been with them in a cage free cat room for 1 1/2 years and nobody was going to adopt her because she had some health issues.  I have had her a month and cleared up the health issues, but the chances of her getting adopted are still slim.  At least here she has a more normal and less stressful life, because stress was playing a big part in her health issues. 

If your cat already had kittens, I would have expected the agency to spay her before she left.  That is actually a state law here, the city shelters must do that if adopting to private individuals, but they can release to another rescue only, and then we in the rescues have to get them spayed and neutered before adopting them out.  We are trying to put an end to all the euthanasia, by having less kittens born and preventing all these unwanted litters.

I know if your cat has kittens, you will raise them and be responsible about finding homes for them, you would never dump them back at the shelter she came from BUT you have to remember that every home you find for one of your kittens is a home that will not be available for another little kitten on death row. 

If she is pregnant and you have her spayed IMMEDIATELY, she will not suffer (nor will the babies as they just go to sleep from the anesthesia, and they stay in her uterus and come out along with it.  They do not suffer.  However, I personally will not do a late spay/abortion because I have learned firsthand that the mama cats suffer and become depressed.  They were all geared up to have babies and then there are no babies.  They know more than we humans give them credit for.

You might check with them to see if she HAD kittens because the hair is not usually missing from around the nipples if the cat has not nursed.  She could still be pregnant, however, because many of them come into heat while still nursing and breed again.  I guess your first step should be to take her to a vet and get them to do an ultrasound so you will know if she is or is not pregnant.

I took one in recently and she was so starving that she ate lots of food and made me wonder if she might be pregnant.  Her nipples were touchable but there was no hair loss around them.  I waited and sure enough, the big belly was from overeating after starving and those lumps showed up in the litter box.  Shortly after that she went into heat.  She is now wormed and vaccinated and she will be spayed as soon as I can afford it.  Even our discount vets charge $55 but I may be able to get some help from the county.

Cta pregnancies last about 9 weeks, so if she's in the first 3 weeks of pregnancy, spaying her is not a big deal, but the closer she gets to the end of the pregnancy, the harder it is so I dont recommend waiting if she is pregnant.  Either choose to let her have the babies, or choose to get her spayed right away.

So over just over 8 weeks ago, we rescued a young cat through a foster association who was about to be euthanized at the pound. They said that she wasn't spayed, but that they would make an appointment for her soon. A few days after we got her (this was mid october), I noticed that she had bright pink nipples with all the hair around missing. I watched her closely and noticed she had a small bulge. We decided to wait a few weeks to see, and sure enough, she ballooned up soon after. We had assumed that she would have been at least 3 weeks along when we got her, and at least 4 weeks along when I noticed her tummy...but here we are, 8 and a half weeks after getting her and noticing pink nipples, over 7 weeks since making a post here suspecting pregnancy....and STILL no kittens. They've been moving like crazy in her stomach for 2.5 weeks, and I've been getting milk from her nipples for over 24 hours now- so hopefully we'll have some little ones very soon! I'm just very confused with the timeline of the signs that she's shown. How was it that I could tell she was pregnant when she was only 1-2 weeks along? Is it likely that she has a large litter that made her belly obvious so fast? Or that she had a litter right before that left her nipples rosy and pink at 1 week of pregnancy? Or is she just really overdue? Just curious to hear thoughts

Good luck with everything!