Rescue cat having trouble with newborn kittens

happycats · Apr 1, 2005

Hi there, I'm new to this site and already have a question I am seeking some suggestions or answers to. I run a small cat rescue in Alberta, Canada. I have been hand raising orphan kittens for 6 years but have never had a queen with kittens (dont' know how I avoided that!). This is in regards to a cat I rescued 1 week ago who is maybe 6 months old herself, she's quite young. Yesterday Buffy had her kittens, 7 of them. I have her isolated from our other cats in a large cattery. She ate one kitten, and overnight appears to have suffocated 2 more by laying on top of them. I have been checking her every few hours and every time I go in there I find a kitten stuck underneath her...she seems to have no sense of where the kittens are or what they are doing. This kitten was slightly cold so I warmed him up and he then started nursing and is fine now, she licked him and seemed unbothered. I am quite nervous about leaving these kittens with her, she is still a baby herself and I wish I could have rescued her sooner and had her spayed but being so close to her due date we felt it was best to let her have the kittens. My question is should I let her keep her babies and keep on trying but risk losing some because of her immaturity? Or should I try to take them away from her(which I think would be awful for her)? I would sleep in there with her but I am 6 months pregnant myself and can barely handle sleeping in my own bed. One other thing, this cat had never had human contact before me...she does however love my attention already, purring and rubbing herself all over me and allowing me to handle her babies and help them nurse from her. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, I look forward to reading and posting more in this forum!

cjandbilly · Apr 1, 2005

Originally Posted by HappyCats

Hi there, I'm new to this site and already have a question I am seeking some suggestions or answers to. I run a small cat rescue in Alberta, Canada. I have been hand raising orphan kittens for 6 years but have never had a queen with kittens (dont' know how I avoided that!). This is in regards to a cat I rescued 1 week ago who is maybe 6 months old herself, she's quite young. Yesterday Buffy had her kittens, 7 of them. I have her isolated from our other cats in a large cattery. She ate one kitten, and overnight appears to have suffocated 2 more by laying on top of them. I have been checking her every few hours and every time I go in there I find a kitten stuck underneath her...she seems to have no sense of where the kittens are or what they are doing. This kitten was slightly cold so I warmed him up and he then started nursing and is fine now, she licked him and seemed unbothered. I am quite nervous about leaving these kittens with her, she is still a baby herself and I wish I could have rescued her sooner and had her spayed but being so close to her due date we felt it was best to let her have the kittens. My question is should I let her keep her babies and keep on trying but risk losing some because of her immaturity? Or should I try to take them away from her(which I think would be awful for her)? I would sleep in there with her but I am 6 months pregnant myself and can barely handle sleeping in my own bed. One other thing, this cat had never had human contact before me...she does however love my attention already, purring and rubbing herself all over me and allowing me to handle her babies and help them nurse from her. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, I look forward to reading and posting more in this forum!

I had a cat very similar... outside cat, though a little older, and had already had one litter, but, she gave birth to 5, one was still born, another she laid on and suffocated, and another, she abandoned, but luckily we were able to save that one. We left two for her, which she was able to handle. Infact, after she only had two left, she became quite a good mother. If might be best to leave her just one or two kittens, and keep a close eye on them, and take the others away from her.

happycats · Apr 1, 2005

Well, thank you for your suggestion. I went to check on Buffy and her 4 kittens , 2 hours after posting the original message and they all seemed ok, so I waited another 2 hours just incase she really was ok and I wish i hadn't because she had pushed one of the kittens away and it was already gone. It didn't have any superficial wounds so my thought here is that it was weak and mom knew better than me and jus let it be. The problem here is on top of the fact that she is so young, her kittens are a result of a colony of 5 siblings who before we were contacted to rescue, had already started to imbreed. So these kittens are imbred and to be honest, are not very vigorous at all. It takes work for me to even supplement them with some KMR every few hours, and I've hand raised probably 20-30 a year out here. I'm starting to wonder if this may be a genetic issue rather than a queen who doesn't know what she is doing.

cjandbilly · Apr 1, 2005

Originally Posted by HappyCats

Well, thank you for your suggestion. I went to check on Buffy and her 4 kittens , 2 hours after posting the original message and they all seemed ok, so I waited another 2 hours just incase she really was ok and I wish i hadn't because she had pushed one of the kittens away and it was already gone. It didn't have any superficial wounds so my thought here is that it was weak and mom knew better than me and jus let it be. The problem here is on top of the fact that she is so young, her kittens are a result of a colony of 5 siblings who before we were contacted to rescue, had already started to imbreed. So these kittens are imbred and to be honest, are not very vigorous at all. It takes work for me to even supplement them with some KMR every few hours, and I've hand raised probably 20-30 a year out here. I'm starting to wonder if this may be a genetic issue rather than a queen who doesn't know what she is doing.

Hmmm... some new queens, as I've been told, will kill off some of their young because it's too overwhelming, until they are left with what is comfortable.

happycats · Apr 1, 2005

Oh I hope she's not killing them, she seems so comfortable when I am in there with her. She lays perfectly still for her kittens to nurse. It is 6:30pm, I am going to prepare a kitten nest in my bedroom and until I go to bed I am going to check on her like every hour the least and if I must I will take them all away and care for them overnight to see what happens. Maybe I should leave her with 1 if I do take them?

hissy · Apr 1, 2005

Chances are good that the ones she has destroyed were not right and would have eventually died. Momcats don't generally get overwhelmed by young unless they are really young themselves when they give birth.

Momcats will either destroy sickly kittens, or take them out of the nest and let the predators/elements have them. It is a matter of survival for the remaining litter- that also may be ill, just not as bad as the ones she has already taken care of. It sounds brutal, but it is nature's way and survival of the fittest- Keep a close watch on the remainder of the kittens and if you see any of them begin to falter take them away from mom and under your care www.kitten-rescue.com will help guide you-

nano · Apr 2, 2005

Sorry to hear she has already lost four kittens, but hopefully the other three will hang on and get to normal health.

At this point I would leave them together and hope for the best. I would not separate babies from their mama unless the mother was pushing one of them away or a kitten had clearly been abandoned. At that point, I would take away the "discarded" kitten and try to save them myself with hand-feeding.

(I am not a cat expert but I am experienced with animals.)

Good luck, I know this must be a difficult situation.

happycats · Apr 2, 2005

After my 3am check on mom everything still looked good, the 3 remaining kittens were sleeping and were nice and warm to the touch so I didn't bother them much more. I went back in to check at 6:30am and they were all still sleeping so to make sure they were ok I put them on mom. 2 started searching for a nipple right away, and one just kept dropping off, not even trying. To make a long story short, he was dehydrated and very very weak with a poor response to any stimulation. I am currently nursing him inside but he is not progressing as I had hoped after 2 hours. I took a look at the recommended website and it is a great source of info, I also have a entire book specifically on handraising orphans that is wonderful. I will keep trying here and hope for the best. My vet opens in an hour and I may stop by there to get another suggestion if needed.

happycats · Apr 2, 2005

TROUBLE! I just went to check on mom and kitties when I saw they were covered in blood, I panicked and took them away but upon further checking I saw it was coming from mom. She has a lot of bleeding from her vagina, is this normal? I am trying to call the vet but they are still closed. She is also feral and only allows me to touch her, I don't think I can even transport her to the vet.

gayef · Apr 2, 2005

A lot of blood is not normal. If she is bleeding profusely, then the only thing you can do is catch her and get her into the vet.

cjandbilly · Apr 2, 2005

If you can't get her to the vet... house call?

hissy · Apr 2, 2005

Please let us know what is going on. Hopefully you were able to rush the mom to the vet and she was able to be saved.

cjandbilly · Apr 2, 2005

Originally Posted by hissy

Please let us know what is going on. Hopefully you were able to rush the mom to the vet and she was able to be saved.

happycats · Apr 2, 2005

UPDATE:
Just got back from the vet. I successfully caught her and she is obviously ill enough to let the vet fully examine her. She had a temp of 40.6 and the vet said her uterus was very large and she may have retained placenta in there and an obvious infection. She gave her a shot of oxytocin to stimulate her to expell the nasty stuff in there, as well as 300cc of sub-Q fluids and an antibiotic injection. She sent her home with me and I will continue the fluid therapy and antibiotics, this vet is on call all weekend if I am to have further problems. The kittens have been taken away from her and the vet showed me how to safely tube feed them as they are slightly weak. Turns out moms milk wasn't very sufficient and she showed lack of interest in her kittens anyways. So for now I am mommy, oh and one more thing...the vet believes these kittens are premature. Possibly momma gave birth too soon due to stress from being feral and then indoor, but most of the kittens were big enough to survive. Let's hope for the best for all of them, I am off to check on mom and then feed babies. I'll let you all know how it goes and thanks for the help!

momof6mews · Apr 2, 2005

my family is sending good vibes to you and the kitty clan! Good luck and keep us posted!

laceydf · Apr 2, 2005

You made a smart choice by taking she and the kittens to the vet. I hope everything turns out great for you, the mom and the kittens!

Grace's situation was much like yours her first litter---she was much too young to carry and raise a litter or kittens and she had hers prematurely as well. She did not eat any of hers, but she did neglect a few of them and they died (she had them while no one was home, so we could not save them) and laid on/suffocated 2 of them when I left her alone with them for only 45 minutes.

nano · Apr 2, 2005

Sorry to hear this bad news and it sounds like your current course of action is definitely most appropriate. You are making the right decisions and doing good work, so best wishes that mamacat and the kittens can make it.

happycats · Apr 2, 2005

Here is a picture of one of the little babies. I hope this works and is not too large, if it is I will delete it and try again. They seem to be getting stronger and momma cat doesn't seem to be getting any worse.

marlearn · Apr 2, 2005

OMG how sweet. You are a wonderful person for doing al that you are for momma and her babies. I wish you all well!

hissy · Apr 2, 2005

These babies have to be kept extremely warm. They are in a very fragile state right now. Please see the website www.kitten-rescue.com for information about preemies.

Thank you for taking on such a task, and for saving momcat as you did. Her death would have been slow and painful had you not intervened-

Rescue cat having trouble with newborn kittens

TCS Member

Thread starter

TCS Member

TCS Member

Thread starter

TCS Member

TCS Member

Thread starter

TCS Member

TCS Member

TCS Member

Thread starter

TCS Member

Thread starter

TCS Member

TCS Member

TCS Member

TCS Member

TCS Member

Thread starter

TCS Member

TCS Member

TCS Member

TCS Member

Thread starter

TCS Member

TCS Member