Pregnant Foster Kitty in First Stage of Labor

I recently took in four female foster kitties from my local shelter, all about eight months to a year old and thankfully only one seemed pregnant! The rest have been spayed and been pulled into a no-kill rescue. I still have the pregnant female and her kittens dropped about two nights ago. She has crusty dried milk on her nipples and displayed mothering instincts on my other foster bottle kittens. Since one pm today she's been more vocal and affectionate than normal, she's also been very restless. She sleeps for 10-20 minutes and then sort of squeaks and changes position. Her belly is rock hard and she's got milk so I know second stage labor can't be very far away. This is my first time delivering kittens (I've grown up on a farm so I have delivered animals plenty of times but never this small) and I'm fairly nervous. I mostly foster bottle kittens and critically ill adults. With her being a first time mommy I'm worried that she won't know what to do with her babies so I've been doing tons of research over the past few days. I've got her set up in my spare bathroom with a comforter in the bathtub and pee pads over that so the babies won't get stuck but mommy has a nice place to deliver but she seems to want to have them on the couch cushions that I am currently using as a bed in the bathroom because she cries when she is alone. She hasn't pooped in almost 24 hours but she has peed 3 times. She hasn't eaten hardly anything today but has drank a little water. She seems very comfortable when sleeping and hasn't had any visible contractions. I was hoping to get some advice from anyone who has delivered kittens before. 

Thanks so much for helping me!!

All sounds well so far! You're doing a great job.

You may want to put some puppy pads on the couch. She obviously considers you and your scent to be a great comfort.

I would recommend getting a small scale so you can weigh the kittens every day. Also some powdered kmr and a needleless syringe, just in case.

Thanks! I've got two cases of KMR (I foster a lot of bottle babies lol) and several syringes and a scale just in case I do need to hand-raise them. Poor kitty has lived in a basement all her life with about 20 other cats so she's not used to being alone. I know for first time moms first stage labor can last on the upper side of 24 hours and she is just now about 7 and a half hours into it so I probably still have a while to go. I've talked to my emergency vet to let them know what's going on just in case she needs to have an emergency c-section which I hope she won't need. She's started to kind of go off into her own world for a minute or two every so often, I think that's a sign labor is progressing but she still seems fairly comfortable at the moment. My question would be when should the umbilical cord be torn? Some sites say after a few minutes, some sites say not until the placenta comes out, I'm not sure which one would be better.

Mom will usually do the umbilical cord herself.  I would give her some time to clean the baby and chew the cord, but if she doesn't you can go ahead and step in.  In terms of timing, that probably means after the placenta is delivered.  If that is taking an abnormally long time, you can obviously step in and help the baby.

Mom will bite off the cord and eat the placenta and clean the baby. Your cat is in stage one labor, which can easily last 24 hours. There is generally no emergency c-section required. Try to relax and let it happen naturally. Most cats do just fine. If she pushes for an hour unproductively, or is in distress, you'll need a vet. This is unusual, though. Most cats stop eating, have diarrhea, stop and start labor, etc, before having kittens. But some make no noise, and actually get up and eat. They are all different. Yours sounds normal. Hang in there and keep us posted! [emoji]128522[/emoji]

She's still very calm and sleepy/restless. No signs of second stage labor yet which is good because I just had to take one of my other fosters to the emergency vet because the clinic didn't close up her spay incision properly and she developed a fever and infection. Cost $202 for an antibiotic shot, an anti inflammatory shot, and subcutaneous fluids and they refused to stitch her up. They gave me a cone for her but of course she absolutely refuses to wear it. Now I have to sit with her all night and check on Jezzabel (my foster girl in labor) every hour or so. A fun night is in store for me no doubt.

Oh, goodness! Bless you for all that you do, and prayers for your gal with the botched spay. That's just a shame. Hope she feels better soon, and try to get a few winks with a pallet on the floor. Thinking of you. Keep us posted with your concerns!

My kitty with the botched spay is back at the clinic and is being reopened to check for internal bleeding and to have the area flushed of infection. Vets say she's going to make it and the clinic is doing all this at no charge. My Jezzabel is getting close to stage two labor I believe. She hasn't slept much, went to the potty a lot and is even more talkative. She's displaying a lot more nesting  activity as well! She's been eating more than usual this morning, is that normal? She's also making little squeaks/grunts every minute or so. Jezzy looks super uncomfortable and she's alternating between laying on her chest to on her sides.

Jezzabel is finally entering second stage labor I think!!! She's in her favorite bed (not where I tried to get her to nest but not the worst spot either) and is laying down with a glazed look in her eyes. She's softly whimpering every minute or so. Still no visible contractions yet, anything I should be looking for?

Sounds like she was having painful contractions but not pushing yet. How is she? Kittens yet?

No babies, I think she went into first stage labor this morning and I thought it was second stage because I've never done this and don't know what to look for. She hasn't had any visible contractions ye

Just got off the phone with my vet, they told me she's not in labor yet. Her body is just preparing for labor and since she's a first time mommy she's hurting a bit more. They said as long as there's no exesive blood no reason to be worried for her. Labor should come within a few days.

Keep us posted!

Okay so my foster cat Jezzabel is super pregnant, babies dropped several days ago, hasn't been eating much today. She's tricked me before into thinking labor is here but now I'm thinking this could be the real deal. Every 5-10 minutes when I have my hand on her sides I can feel almost like a faint shudder type movement that repeats itself every couple seconds for about a minute and then goes away again. Are these contractions or something I should be worried about?

Also I can now see baby's head pushing against mommy's side in the uterus. 

fostermomma said:

 
Also I can now see baby's head pushing against mommy's side in the uterus. 

Click to expand...

How is it going?

Cats delivery is typically quicker than humans, so we dont like long active but fruitless labors.   "first stage" may take time, but not active pushing labor.

fostermomma said:

 
Also I can now see baby's head pushing against mommy's side in the uterus. 

Click to expand...

How is it going?   Please report...