Slight fever for nursing mom

Hi All !

Haven't been here in a while but now I'm back with a foster momma who deliver 5 kittens on monday.

Kittens are doing well - all black so I have no idea who's who but they're all feeding well (constantly) so I assume (and hope) that they are doing great.

My question is about the momma - she came out of her box today and I pet her tummy and she felt a little warm. I took her temp and it was slightly elevated 39.7 (103F). Now I know she delivered all the placentas (I watched and counted), her appetite is tremendous but she does have runny stools. She is nursing fine and does not seem lethargic, just very content with the world and her new kittens. Should I worry about the fever ? It's borderline as I was told cats normal temp runs 38.5-39.5 so she's a little high at 39.7. Maybe it's because she's nurising ?

I appreciate your thoughts and opinions !
Julie

Julie...great question and one I would recommend PMing Gayef on. She will probably know if it's ok.

Katie

: Temp tends to go up with dehydration. She probably doesnt want to leave the kittens long enough to get a good drink of water. Place her water right with her so she can still see her kittens if you havent already. As far as telling whos nursing, their tummies should appear plump with milk. If not, their not getting enough. I saw a good idea on another post to tie a small piece of colored string(different colors) to the babies tails!!(how cute is that?......
I'm sure you will be keeping a close eye on her........ Good luck!!

Doesn't a temp also mean a infection to the nipples or the insides. She just gave birth.. I am not sure that why I am asking

I had the exact same thing happen with one of my queens. She delivered 4 healthy babies, and her fever shot up to 103.7. My initial reaction was to think a placenta or baby didn't get delivered.
However, in her case it was just stress causing her temperature to raise.
I would recommend taking her in, for the vet to palpitate and/or x-ray to make sure there have been no retained placenta's or kitten's.
I hope she is feeling better soon.

How is momma this morning

Gone down a little - 39.3 right now. It was down to 39.5 before I went to bed last night.

Since we are within the range considered normal, I'll definately keep an eye on her but don't think it's necessary to go into the vet at this point.

As for her black kittens - I've marked a back foot with different colored markers. So now the kittens are called Pink, Black, Orange, Blue and Green. We have 2 females (Pink and Green) and 3 boys (Black, Blue and Orange).

This cat had a previous litter in January then got pregnant very shortly afterwards cause she has her babies on May 15th (she would have gotten pregnant mid March - her kittens would have been 9 weeks old). I'm feeding her kitten food, canned food (cause she loves it) and kitten glop just to try and boost her energy a bit cause the poor thing didn't have much of a break ! Anything else I can add ?

(I got her when she was 7 weeks pregnant, her previous owner told me about the other litter in Jan - and yes, she will most definately be spayed once she's weaned her little ones - she deserves it !)

Thanks for your help everyone !
Julie

Was the other litter successful? What a cute idea to mark the paws!