KC the Pregnant Stray

[catwoman707]

She had 4 babies? They look great! 

See the kinked tail? That is caused by incest, it's a fairly common deformity.

Someone out there doesn't bother fixing the cats, they just let them keep having them, and then mate with relatives, siblings, mom/son, etc.

This poor momma cat surely needs to be done having babies!

Heavily lactating with fur missing on her nipples clearly means she JUST was separated from her last litter, and now nursing again................oh boy.

This is so hard on her, so if you will feed her good quality foods it's helpful for her, and the babies. This litter is not getting the nourishment her last litter did, so you see why it's a good thing to help support mom as best as possible now.

Lots of fresh water, if you can afford to, I would get some KMR and give her a dish daily as well.

Fleas-Fleas are bad on babies as they have a tiny amt of blood as it is, and fleas feeding off of them makes them anemic, and fast too. This can kill them.

Do you use topical flea meds at all? 

Mom needs to be treated, however you don't want the babies crawling over her back/neck area until it's had a chance to absorb.

How bad are the fleas?

 

[ryan glenn]

 
She had 4 babies? They look great! 

See the kinked tail? That is caused by incest, it's a fairly common deformity.

Someone out there doesn't bother fixing the cats, they just let them keep having them, and then mate with relatives, siblings, mom/son, etc.

This poor momma cat surely needs to be done having babies!

Heavily lactating with fur missing on her nipples clearly means she JUST was separated from her last litter, and now nursing again................oh boy.

This is so hard on her, so if you will feed her good quality foods it's helpful for her, and the babies. This litter is not getting the nourishment her last litter did, so you see why it's a good thing to help support mom as best as possible now.

Lots of fresh water, if you can afford to, I would get some KMR and give her a dish daily as well.

Fleas-Fleas are bad on babies as they have a tiny amt of blood as it is, and fleas feeding off of them makes them anemic, and fast too. This can kill them.

Do you use topical flea meds at all? 

Mom needs to be treated, however you don't want the babies crawling over her back/neck area until it's had a chance to absorb.

How bad are the fleas?

I thought that was what it was from. Momma has a kinked tail too. I thought that was the reason that she had so much milk. I remember baby kitty didn't have milk until The first kitten started to nurse. She is getting kitten food, wet and dry. The fleas are not really bad. I saw one on each kitten. Though I know one is not bad I also know it can get worse. Because they are so small I would rather not give them a bath yet. I will pick the fleas off with comb. K.C. has not had any flea meds. Not even a full 48 hours went by before she had her kittens.

@sarthur2   there are four babies total. I do plan on weighing them. I was giving K.C. a little time to adjust to her new surroundings. I am going to weigh them in about an hour. 

 

[catwoman707]

So if mom got flea treated before having them, then it should not get out of hand, at least for now, but if you can, when you see one on a baby, pluck it off and drown it in the toilet!

No need to bathe them at this time.

Just an fyi too, but mom cats are all pretty different regarding milk supply and when it comes in.

One can be full before the births, another might take a couple days to get in after births, so it does vary.

 

[reba]

"See the kinked tail? That is caused by incest, it's a fairly common deformity."

No way! Learn something new on here every day.

When the kittens were about 6 months I caught one brother on top of his sister, creepy.

 

[ryan glenn]

 
So if mom got flea treated before having them, then it should not get out of hand, at least for now, but if you can, when you see one on a baby, pluck it off and drown it in the toilet!

No need to bathe them at this time.

Just an fyi too, but mom cats are all pretty different regarding milk supply and when it comes in.

One can be full before the births, another might take a couple days to get in after births, so it does vary.

I don't know if she was flea treated. She wasn't with me. I didn't have time to run to the store to get some. I have just been picking the fleas off. K.C. keeps sitting on her babies.. I know that queens get their milk at different times, but K.C. had a lot of milk. it was like not letting kittens nurse for a day. 

 

[Sarthur2]

Pull them out from under her if they don't wriggle themselves free, and put them at her nipples. They can't not eat for a day.

 

[ryan glenn]

Pull them out from under her if they don't wriggle themselves free, and put them at her nipples. They can't not eat for a day.

I do. THey are eating. I meant when she first came to me she had so much milk it looked like she had no one nursing on her for a whole day. She was VERY heavy with milk.

 

[StefanZ]

RE the fleas.  Plucking them consistently is usually enough.  Either just pluck, as Catwoman mentions, or do the trick MWallace suggested, comb them out and drown in a bowl with a little Dawn or other liquid soap solution.

Observe, the comb will be wet, so you either must dry off the comb after each drowning, or make sure its warm and cozy in there, etc.

But if they are heavily infested, you CAN bathe them in Dawn and water solution.

You must just be extra careful.

No draugh.  Warm and cozy in the bathing room.  Dry off afterwards as well you can.   And put them to rest at a nice heat source.  Mom and or a heat pad.

Not totally riskfree, but  much much lesser risks than a heavy flea infestion.

Its very true as you say they cant keep their own body warmth, but with enough of wise precautions, its entirely possible to manage this.

 

[StefanZ]

ps.  Re the fleas.

The problem is, if they are on the kittens, they are surely elsewhere too.  So you have more work to do...  Flea sanitazizing the whole around.  But defending the kittens is priority nr 1, as its a deathly threat to them.

 

[ryan glenn]

I have been making sure that they do not get overrun by fleas. But I have a VERY big problems. I found one of the kittens dead today. He had a little blood come out of his noes and he has a clear fluid around his genitals. It was clear, but kinda had a yellow tent. What the heck happened to it? Is that from being suffocated? Momma wasn't even in their with them, she was eating.  Does anyone know what happened? 

 

[Sarthur2]

Oh dear. I am so sorry. The fluid could have been urine. I have no clue what happened. Lets ask Catwoman if she has any ideas.

catwoman707

I hope nothing happens to the other ones. Where did you find the dead kitten? In the nesting area?

 

[ryan glenn]

Oh dear. I am so sorry. The fluid could have been urine. I have no clue what happened. Lets ask Catwoman if she has any ideas.

@catwoman707

I hope nothing happens to the other ones. Where did you find the dead kitten? In the nesting area?

Yes it was. I thought it might be, but it is kinda gel like? It is really hard to explain. It was with the other kittens. Is it possible that the other babies squished it? There are only three others and they lay on each other all of the time. 

 

[Sarthur2]

All kittens cuddle in a kitten pile and lay on one another. That is normal and harmless. I don't know if there was something wrong with this one or if mama kitty did something. I certainly understand your concern. Let's wait and see what the advisers have to say. It is late here so it may be tomorrow before we hear.

 

[catwoman707]

As I read through the second half of this thread and saw the pic of them all in the basket looking cozy the first thought that came to me was how I wanted to tell you ASAP to do something about the holes at the lower part of the basket.

I think the kitten worked it's way to a hole and got squished by mom.

It's never on purpose, I learned many years ago the hard way, had a feral mom and her litter in a large cage, a baby scooted around her backside and I found it's head only through the bars and was clearly squashed and died.

Either change the container to a large cardboard box and cut the sides down half way, or roll up a towel long ways and run it around the inside bottom so this won't be a problem.

They don't have enough space really in the basket, and the holes and lack of space can easily cause squashing.

 

[ryan glenn]

I do block the holes. They are only in the basket until around now after this age I move them so they are in a different container, but I block the holes up anyways. I have always been concerned that they may get stuck and I have animals that may try and eat them so I made sure that nothing could get to them and they couldn't get out. 

 

[Sarthur2]

I think Catwoman gave you the answer. Please put them in a different box and in a safe place in your home where other animals that you have will have no access to them. It's a simple solution to ensure nothing else happens.

 

[ryan glenn]

I know that no other animal got to them. They were in a closed off room. And I always make sure that the holes are closed off. This is not the first litter that I have had in there and I do not thing it will be my last. Is it possible that momma squished him? I went in to feed her and didn't check on the kittens right away. 

 

[Sarthur2]

Re-read Catwoman's post again above mine. I think she explained very well what probably happened. And the holes are NOT covered in the picture you posted earlier on. It could happen again. The easiest way to make sure that holes are not the issue is to put them in a box with no holes. A bigger box would also ensure there is plenty of room for mom and kittens as well. No blame, but why not take every precaution with your fragile kittens?

 

[ryan glenn]

Those pictures were taken shortly after they were born, so I had yet to cover them up. Now their heads are to big to fit through the holes so even if I didn't cover them up they still can't get their heads in there. 

 

[Sarthur2]

Okay. I think you know what is going on here, so I trust you to do what is best for your litter. Good luck going forward, and please ask questions as they come up.