As you may have read on other of my posts, my soooo expected first litter turned out to be a disaster since all the kities died.
I am trying to find out now possible reasons for it to happen.
I will tell you the events as they happened and maybe you can tell me what do you think may have gone wrong.
Molly is a 2 year old British Shorthair. We selected an excellent Tom cat for her to mate and hopefully get point kittens. Molly stayed with the Tom cat for 5 days.
During her pregnancy there were no problems or at least that we were aware of.
She starting with labor on her 65 day early in the morning. The fist kitten was born dead. He/she was completly pink , with no hair at all. The second one came within the next 15 mins. It was a beautiful point, but very small. Molly didnt even removed the placenta from him and didnt show any interest. She just went to a corner and lay down curled up.
I look after the kitten. Remove the placenta and dry it. The baby started breathing immediatly and after I cleaned him and cut the umbilicum I put him over a warm water bag covered with a towel and cover the kitten too.
Molly kept on having contractions every now and then for the next 6 or 7 hours and then we dediced to take her to the vet.
During that time I placed the newborn kitten close to her mother and she seemed to accept him. The baby started looking for a nipple inmediatly but didnt seem to get a grip on any of them.
In the vet Molly had an inyection to induce contractions and since it failed, she had a C section done.
That is how the third and last baby was born.
The secont kitten was 46 grams at birth and the third was 58 grams. The vet gaves us a kittens milk replacement and showed me how to feed the kittens.
She fed the kitten so much that milk bubbles came out his little nose. ( could this have caused problems in the little ones lungs? )
With the 2 kittens and Molly we went back home and we feed the kittens every 2 hours ever since.
They survived their first and second night with us. Molly was cleaning them both and answering to their cryes so it was all normal.
They both put on weight on the first day ( 6 and 10 grams )
The disaster started during the second night. Molly started ignoring the point one. She would accept him when I put him besides her but she wouldnt lick him anymore. She sniff his little head and then pay attention to the other kitten. I also noticed that his feeding became weaker and his swallowing was veeeeeery slow so I started feeding him very little doses every hour.
By the third mornig the kitten had his little mouth open all the time as was hardy responding to my touches and hardly eating. we tryed with dextrosa too but it made not much difference.
After a couple of hours breathing became a real struggle there was a wistling sound eveytime he took air and breaths were more and more separate untill eventually he died.
With one kitten gone we center all out attention to the surviving one.
He was nursing well and climbing on her mother and moving towards her and crying when she was gone so it seem pretty normal. We were so sure this one would make it..... She even nursed a bit from Mollys nipples !! ) Not much for she felt weird and walked up shortly after the baby started sucking )
I feed her before going to bed and she really ate a lot and with an apetite. What worried me a bit is that Molly was not licking her, but I thought it was bec I moved the nest to a different room and she was not comfortable there.
Kept feeding her during the night every 2 hours and by 5 am alarm went on.
Kittie was not crying for food and Molly was not attending her anymore.
So I tried to feed her and keep her warm myself but it didnt help.
She ate a bit but she looked so still... not responding to my touches at all.
Both poohed and peed normally when stimulated. But in the last hours of live of this little one I could see a orange/redish color in her pee ( wich I though
it was due to the antibiotics the mother had received).
Couple of hours later and she got the same symthoms that her little brother. She went still, wouldnt eat anymore and started keeping her moth open to breath. I could see the rythem of her brithing becoming slower and slower.
Eventually she died too.
Out fokker suggested it could be a lung inflamation but I have also been suggested it could be hypoglucemia.
I need to know what could have gone wrong.
We will get another queen in the future and I would like to prevent this to happen again or to be ready to react in order to save the little ones
sorry for the long post and thanks for your opinions
Gisela
I am trying to find out now possible reasons for it to happen.
I will tell you the events as they happened and maybe you can tell me what do you think may have gone wrong.
Molly is a 2 year old British Shorthair. We selected an excellent Tom cat for her to mate and hopefully get point kittens. Molly stayed with the Tom cat for 5 days.
During her pregnancy there were no problems or at least that we were aware of.
She starting with labor on her 65 day early in the morning. The fist kitten was born dead. He/she was completly pink , with no hair at all. The second one came within the next 15 mins. It was a beautiful point, but very small. Molly didnt even removed the placenta from him and didnt show any interest. She just went to a corner and lay down curled up.
I look after the kitten. Remove the placenta and dry it. The baby started breathing immediatly and after I cleaned him and cut the umbilicum I put him over a warm water bag covered with a towel and cover the kitten too.
Molly kept on having contractions every now and then for the next 6 or 7 hours and then we dediced to take her to the vet.
During that time I placed the newborn kitten close to her mother and she seemed to accept him. The baby started looking for a nipple inmediatly but didnt seem to get a grip on any of them.
In the vet Molly had an inyection to induce contractions and since it failed, she had a C section done.
That is how the third and last baby was born.
The secont kitten was 46 grams at birth and the third was 58 grams. The vet gaves us a kittens milk replacement and showed me how to feed the kittens.
She fed the kitten so much that milk bubbles came out his little nose. ( could this have caused problems in the little ones lungs? )
With the 2 kittens and Molly we went back home and we feed the kittens every 2 hours ever since.
They survived their first and second night with us. Molly was cleaning them both and answering to their cryes so it was all normal.
They both put on weight on the first day ( 6 and 10 grams )
The disaster started during the second night. Molly started ignoring the point one. She would accept him when I put him besides her but she wouldnt lick him anymore. She sniff his little head and then pay attention to the other kitten. I also noticed that his feeding became weaker and his swallowing was veeeeeery slow so I started feeding him very little doses every hour.
By the third mornig the kitten had his little mouth open all the time as was hardy responding to my touches and hardly eating. we tryed with dextrosa too but it made not much difference.
After a couple of hours breathing became a real struggle there was a wistling sound eveytime he took air and breaths were more and more separate untill eventually he died.
With one kitten gone we center all out attention to the surviving one.
He was nursing well and climbing on her mother and moving towards her and crying when she was gone so it seem pretty normal. We were so sure this one would make it..... She even nursed a bit from Mollys nipples !! ) Not much for she felt weird and walked up shortly after the baby started sucking )
I feed her before going to bed and she really ate a lot and with an apetite. What worried me a bit is that Molly was not licking her, but I thought it was bec I moved the nest to a different room and she was not comfortable there.
Kept feeding her during the night every 2 hours and by 5 am alarm went on.
Kittie was not crying for food and Molly was not attending her anymore.
So I tried to feed her and keep her warm myself but it didnt help.
She ate a bit but she looked so still... not responding to my touches at all.
Both poohed and peed normally when stimulated. But in the last hours of live of this little one I could see a orange/redish color in her pee ( wich I though
it was due to the antibiotics the mother had received).
Couple of hours later and she got the same symthoms that her little brother. She went still, wouldnt eat anymore and started keeping her moth open to breath. I could see the rythem of her brithing becoming slower and slower.
Eventually she died too.
Out fokker suggested it could be a lung inflamation but I have also been suggested it could be hypoglucemia.
I need to know what could have gone wrong.
We will get another queen in the future and I would like to prevent this to happen again or to be ready to react in order to save the little ones
sorry for the long post and thanks for your opinions
Gisela
