Dying Kittens

There is a stray cat that comes around my house and has been coming around for a couple years. I feed her and she appears very healthy but she's not friendly at all. Last summer she had a litter of six kittens in my neighbor's garage and those kittens lived to be about two months old they appeared healthy, they were chunky little kittens and the mother cat took good care of them but they suddenly started dying and within two weeks all six of the kittens were dead. About a month ago the cat had four kittens and they to appeared healthy, they were eating good, playing, walking around and then the other day one died and every day after that one of the kittens died. I have tried to catch the mother cat to take her and get her fixed but every time someone gets close to her she runs away. I have set a live trap ( one where the cat goes in and the door closes nothing that would hurt the cat) but she won't go near it. I continue to put cat food outside for her and when no one is around she will come and eat. I don't understand what is happening to these kittens. The weather hasn't been that hot it's been in the 70's low 80's so I don't think the weather is to hot for them. Does anyone know what could possibly be making the kittens die? I don't understand why the kittens are living to be a month or two and then dying.

Hi @ahenderson99  Welcome to TCS.

Did you see any of the dead kittens or did they just disappear? Outdoor kittens are vulnerable to predators and disease, as well as traffic. If a kitten has been killed by a car or died of a disease it would be easy enough to see what had happened. Kittens suddenly disappearing suggests they may have been preyed on.

If you find a dead kitten you could take it to the vet to find out what happened, but this could be expensive.

If you're having problems catching the mother cat a drop trap might work.


I'm sorry to hear about the kittens dying, it must be very upsetting for you. I lost a lot of kittens and young cats when I was doing TNR for the colony I care for.

Oh poor kittens The two things that came to my mind were flea anemia and panluk. I recently registered a small colony near my home for TNR. I've been told flea anemia causes severe dehydration and panluk is very contagious and deadly to kittens. Hopefully you'll be able to trap momma soon for spaying.

It sounds like disease to me. Please continue trying to trap the mama cat and get her vaccinated and spayed. It's the only way to stop this terrible cycle. Back to back pregnancies are so hard on mom too.

Mom sounds wise to the trap. Many ferals are. Please keep trying.

The mama cat hasn't had back to back litters. She had a litter of six last year and they lived to be a couple months old and then one died and then they all started dying and she didn't have another litter until about a month ago and she had four and one of them died and after it died the rest of them died literally a day apart. Like one day one died, the next day another died and that happened until all four were dead. Can kittens be born with some kind of disease when the mama cat is healthy? I don't know much about cats so I have no idea what's going on but I've never seen anything like this before. I seen where a cat or dog will have a litter and one will die right after its born or something but never seen any animal have babies that live to be a month or two old appear healthy and be playing one day and dead the next it's really odd to me. I'm going to continue to try to catch the mamaw cat so j can have her fixed. Me and my husband have been trying to figure out a way to try to catch her to take her to the vet so she can be fixed. Any suggestions on ways to do that would be wonderful. We've tried the trap and we've tried catching her but those have been unsuccessful.

It sounds like a disease of some sort.

Feline distemper immediately comes to mind, as an adult with distemper can appear to be pretty healthy, but kittens can be born with it. And its almost always fatal for kittens.

I did see the kittens. I didn't realize when she had the litter last year that they were all dying because just like the litter she recently had the kittens were playing one day and dead the next. I would go and check on the kittens everyday to make sure they were okay and I continued to feed the mama cat just like I have since she first showed up around here. The problem with really doing anything as far as taking the kittens to the vet is she has had both litters at my neighbors house and he's not a very nice person so I would have to wait until he went to work at night and sneak over to where the kittens were to check on them. By the time he left for work all vets were closed. I did call the vet and ask what could be causing this to happen and they told me they weren't sure. I did see the last kitten die tonight. Yesterday the kitten was walking around and playing and when I went to check on it tonight it was so weak it couldn't walk i tried picking it up I was going to sneak it into my house to see if I could do something to help it but when I picked it up it started making almost like a screaming noise and I was afraid I was hurting it so I laid it back down and it laid there for maybe 2 minutes and started moving all around it was laying on its side and it was stretching it's legs out and like moving all over the place on its side it was very strange movements definitely not normal and after it done that it died instantly. As soon as it stopped moving it died. I did bring one of the kittens from the last litter inside and I got vitamins from the vet, bought a heating lamp and was feeding it through a syringe but none of that helped it still died. My kids got really attached to the one I brought in last year so I didn't want to bring anymore in for them to get attached to and then something happen to them. But I've never seen a cat move like the one did tonight like I said it was really strange and instantly died after it stopped doing the weird movements. There was another stray cat here that has had 3 litters of kittens and they were all born outside and they were fine. They lived and done great. After the last litter and after I realized she wasn't anyone's cat I got in touch with a group that rescues cats and has them vaccinated and has them fixed and they took her and had all of that done and adopted her out I'd like to do the same thing with this mama cat but she's so wild I don't know if that's possible.

There are some cat diseases that affect young kittens more than they affect adults. Without getting one of the kittens or the mother checked over by the vet it's impossible to know what is wrong with them.

I think focusing on getting the mother cat spayed is probably the best thing to do.

Are you the only one feeding her? If you can get her to come to the same spot to eat every day you should be able to catch her with a drop trap. What's the problem with your humane trap, she won't go in or she doesn't trigger the door?

Some cats are really sensitive to the wire at the bottom of the trap. You could try getting a handful of straw and putting that in the bottom of the trap so it feels like she is still walking on grass.

You should be able to adjust the door trigger so that it springs when a smaller cats walks on it.

Are there any TNR groups in your area that could help you trap her?

This is a terribly sad story and I give you great credit for trying to help out the mom and her kittens. When the kitten cried and then began to move was actually her last moments, as this is usually how a kitty's body reacts when they pass away, with the long stretch being the last moments...I always told myself that this was the kitty's soul leaving. I've held several of my cats during their passing and this is normal, as was the crying noise. There is nothing that you could do and your efforts to bring comfort to the kittens is heartwarming. I hope that you find out the cause of the kitten's problems...please keep up the great work! It DOES matter!!

Jim 

I hate to suggest this but a friend recently found out some kittens in her neighborhood had been poisoned.  Cruel people do cruel things.

I agree that the best approach is to spay mom and help her (and you) avoid all this heartache.

 I am soooo sorry that you have to be going through this, but Heaven and we know that you are very brave with a good heart to keep trying with those kittens. Sadly, your story is very, very familiar to other feral-cat rescuers. I agree that it is disease - there are several that act like this, including FIP, calcivirus, distemper, etc. I currently have a blind cat in my yard whose littermates died - I believe that the only reason he lived was that I was able to catch him & put him on antibiotics (even though those diseases are viral), for some reason, his diarrhea stopped and except for getting infected eyes that eventually shriveled up, he made a full recovery. I had several litters in our yard that year, 27 kittens in all, but only the 1 blind remains. 

Your evasive mama-kitty sure sounds just like the cat in our yard, Stephanie, who was very prolific - 2 litters a year, most of whom were doomed. I finally trapped her this spring, when she was almost ready to deliver. I spent several days telling her that her kittens would be born sick, like all the others, that it wouldn't work. In fact, she was sick and frail. Lo and behold, she went into the trap!!! she is now spayed (the kittens were terminated during the anesthesia and the vet reassured me that they went peacefully - a stark contrast to the brief life of suffering that would have been their fate. Stephanie is living in my yard, along with her sickly son who was born last spring. She also still has 4 kittens that I was able to capture this spring and raise them inside, so they are tame, spayed/neutered and vaccinated. They still get spells of needing antibiotics but at least they enjoy playing and getting pets - it remains to be seen how long they will last. 

Maybe ask your vet about using L-lysine powder in her food. I use that plus some herbs for my sickly cats that I am unable to medicate with antibiotics, all with my vet's supervision. It is when the kittens start eating on their own that they seem to lose the immunity that they get through their mother's milk. 

Please soldier on - you are the best friend those feral cats & kittens have!

If I catch the mama cat in a drop trap how will I get her out? I know if I try to handle her she's going to get upset and claw and bite. She's very wild I don't think she's ever been handled by anyone. I don't know how I would get her from the drop trap into a cage to transport her to the vet and then get her out of the cage at the vet so the vet can do what he needed to do.

You would transport mom directly to the clinic in the trap, where she will be anesthetized and spayed.

She stays in the trap the entire time you have her. You slide her food, water, and litter inside.

And the first thing you want to do once you trap her is cover the entire trap, except for one end, with a blanket. She will feel more secure this way.

Many cats are surprisingly docile while in a trap. You may want to start feeding her in the trap without setting it for awhile first, to build trust.

@ahenderson99  Have a look at the video I posted in Post 2 above. It shows you how the cats are removed from the trap and placed in individual carriers. You could look on You Tube for other videos of people using drop traps. You'll get some good ideas there.