They've arrived...though not as planned

Hi all

Our little girl had her babies today... 4 healthy little kittens, that the vet thinks are all boys...

Not sure how to describe their colouring...but they are all so damned cute

why the vet you say? Well he believed that we needed to caesarian the kittens out due to mischeif not being able to go into labour herslef (some herditary thing or other). He also said that they were ready to come out today...definitely today but there was no way her uterus was going to push them out...

So we now have 4 kittens at home...

Also mischeif isn't prodcing any milk and the vet is pretty sure she won't either so it looks like we'll be hand rearing them...

here are a couple of pics...once things settle down a bit we will get some more taken and upload them...


Thanks to everyone for their advice etc. 2 have been named (preliminarily of course) Merry and Pippin...but we don't know what we'll call the others yet...

Mum is doing well, although doesn't seem interested in the kittens at all (early days of course) although the vet said she seemed happy to have them round her at the surgery...so who knows with that one...slowly slowly I say...

Mum also got spayed while having the c-section so that is taken care of and it is all good here at our house...

Best go...thanks again and will definitely be checking this site on a regular basis...especially if we do end up having to hand rear them...


UPDATE>>>> Mischeif is telling the kittens to eat and allowing them to crawl on her and attempt to nurse on her teats even though there is no milk there... although they are now not taking their bottles and not crying out to be fed so does that mean they are getting milk??
(if you look closely you can see the stitches and some of the colouring of the kittens)

Welcome to the world little kittens!

another pic

Oh, welcome little guys!!!!!!!

Congratulations to the whole family! I am extremely happy all went well!!! They are so precious and your girl is beautiful.

I have a question - how did the vet know that li'l Mum wouldn't be able to push the kittens out? I'm wondering if that was the problem with my Toots, although she did push out the first one but was unable to get the other 2 out. Secondly, and this is a very personal question... What's the cost of a C-section in the US (for a cat of course)? I'm still gathering info to send a complaint/vent letter to my ex-vet (re: Toots' death and his lack of advice, professional help and overall compassion). He told me we were looking into about $1000 - 1500 for a c-section (half way through labour, which we didn't have... Toots eventually died). He said it could even go up to 2K... And I'm wondering if he said that to discourage us into having him open his clinic on a civic holiday...

Have you hand-reared kittens before? I tell ya, it's alot of work (I only have one kit and i had bags under my eyes the first 1.5 week) but.... it's so much fun! You get a close bond with the baby(ies) and they quickly learn to have a feeding routine. Either way, whether Mum stars producing milk or not, I am sure you'll have very healthy kittens.

Congratulations again!!

Hey zabby

thanks heaps

the kittens are wonderful...it's our first time so it's all new and a little scary but they seem contented and mum has really taken to the kittens now but will also let us handle them and try to feed them etc without fussing...

c-section + spaying cost us AUS$360 with absolutely no notice really... The vet checked her on Wednesday, and again today and there was no change in her uterus...no tightening etc. What he told us was that when he performed the operation, the way the placenta came away from the uterus wall tells him they were ready to come out, but in his opinion (i'm not sure what the signs were) the uterus wasn't going to push the cats out at all...

so sorry about toots

1000 to 2000 seems a little steep but I don't really know what vets normally cost... if it had cost that much we wouldn't have been able to afford it either... luckily the vet arranged a payment plan and all that sort of stuff so it's not a financial burden... I personally thing he was particularly keen to do it today because it was his surgery day and it is a public holiday weekend so who knows?

hope that helps!!

I'm really happy everything worked out great for you... it must be wonderfully chaotic in your household right now!!

360 seems quite reasonable... and with a payment plan, that's great. That was our problem... Vet said in one quick line: It can go up to 2,000. I asked about a payment plan. Nope - pay in one shot or get her euthanized. Nice guy. Oy!

Are you feeding the kits every 4 hours or does Mum seem to be doing part of the work?

we try them on the bottle about every three hours, with mixed success... although thye spend all their time latched on in between and mum has started to groom them as well...

we were feeding Merry and he was crying so mum came and took him, no hissing no feistiness just grabbed him and returned to the nesting spot... it was so cute...


yeha we were rapt with the vet...he seemed genuinely concerned about the cat and not the money which was great and in the end we were just glad to get a healthy mum back and some gorgeous little ones as a bonus!!!!!!!

awwww cute babies - they all look like various shades of brown tabbies - hope you take more pictures in a few weeks.

What a great story. The little ones and their mom are so cute together. Good luck with the feeding. Do you think their suckling might stimulate her to preoduce milk?

Originally Posted by Kathylou

What a great story. The little ones and their mom are so cute together. Good luck with the feeding. Do you think their suckling might stimulate her to preoduce milk?

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That's the question we'd like answered...if anyone knows please let us know!!!

We've survived the first night, waking regularly to make sure the kittens are ok... every time we've heard them squarking they've attached to a nipple and clamed down, and they haven't taken any feeds from the bottle... so does that mean she has milk? Do we keep trying to feed them? Do we only need to supplement the feeds? All these questions....

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

awwww cute babies - they all look like various shades of brown tabbies - hope you take more pictures in a few weeks.

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Definitely take more pics as they get older...

2 look very similiar (brown tabby-ish) although one has golden cheeks
1 is kind of like the other 2 but has white legs (our little runt!!) and the last one has patchwork white black and golden brown tinges... they are definitely going to be cuties!!!!!!!

Welcome to your new kitties, they are adorable! Best of luck!!

congrats on the sucessful C-section. Now to your questions. Yes, their suckling may stimulate her milk. Do keep up trying to bottle-feed until you are sure they are getting milk. How do you tell? Well, the best way is to check their weight morning and night at the same time. If they're putting on weight, you know they are getting nutrition. You won't need to completely hand-raise as Mischief will take care of everything except the feeding if dshe's not producing.

well they have put on weight overnight, which we thought was good...but also when we were weighing them Mischief got a little upset and took one of the kittens back and looked like she was going to take him to antoher 'safer' spot so we settled her back down and left them be...

Good idea, although she may move them anyway. Just accomodate her wherever she chooses or make up a few nesting boxes so at least she'll be in one of those.

They look quite big. She would have had a very hard time pushing them out!

congrats on the new ones they are adorable

If you want to know if the kits are feeding - Feel their tummys - They should be round and firm.

They are gorgeous babies! Congratulations!

Originally Posted by jessicasoosweet

congrats on the new ones they are adorable

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thank you very much... we love them...

Finally named them all

Merry (gold face fatty) and Pippin (smaller head) are the twins (hard to tell apart!)

Jacob is the odd one out (less tabby colouring)

Buzz is the runt of the litter...very similiar to Merry and Pippin, but with white legs instead of brown legs and a white face too...

they are just toooooo cute!

I'm glad it all turned out ok.

Katie