Pregnant Stray "adopted me!"

[blaireec]

About 3 days ago when the boyfriend and I got home from dinner we noticed a cat on our porch. Our lab soon scared her off. The next day I went outside she made her way into my house when the door opened. I had to make sure she was okay. She was very clean and loves my kids. Well I noticed she was fairly big. When I picked her up I could actually see and feel her kittens. She has been up my butt ever since. When I move, she moves and just meows like crazy. I was wondering how far she may be?? This is my first time having a pregnant cat.

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• blaireec
• Aug 21, 2013

 

[vball91]

Hi and welcome to TCS! Thanks for taking in this kitty. She's beautiful. The general rule of thumb is that when you can see/feel the kittens moving, it is about two weeks away from birth. So it sounds like any day now.

Here's an article on cat pregnancy. http://www.thecatsite.com/a/cat-pregnancy  Also have a look in this forum for the many threads on pregnancy and birth. Good luck and feel free to ask any more questions.

 

[StefanZ]

She is surely a family girl who got pregnant and high preg, and got dumped by the irresponsible owners.

I gather you accept to adopt her, or at very least, help her and her kittens?   Swell!

Her luck she found you.  And Im sure it is luck for you and your family too.

You can usually feel the kittens move from about two weeks before delivery. As you clearly feel and see the kittens moving, I guess it is about one week left.

Time for you to read on, to prepare yourself, and a nest for her.

  There is a lot of info on this our site and forum here.

  or fabcats has also some great articles.  (  they have changed their name now to International Cat Care   http://www.icatcare.org/advice/advice-centre.

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/pregnancy-and-delivery-in-cats
 
http://www.cat-world.com.au/parturition-birth-in-cats

http://www.icatcare.org/advice-centre/cat-care/normal-cat-birth

Look through other threads on our Forum. There are also the Youtube with short info films...

About your dog.  Cats usually dont have problems with family dogs, they soon teach them where the dogs place is.

Here she is newbe, Im sure she will instead do her outmost to please herself in with the dog too, and be his friend.   And the dog will of course accept her, especially if he notices she is with the family now, under your protection.  Labs are also usually friendly, nice dogs.

But if it doesnt work out  soon, you must isolate them from each other.

Continue with reporting and asking!

Good luck!

  Welcome to our Forums!

 

[blaireec]

Bailey (my lab) is a sweet heart, I'm sure she will grow to like her since my daughter loves her! I do plan on keeping her. & I will do my best to help her. She seems to love for me to rub her belly. It seems as if her milk is coming in. I've never done this before so I have no idea what to expect. I did make her a spot in my closet but she doesn't seem to interested in it.

 

[bewisesterilise]

Hi!

So glad that this cat managed to find her way to your door step!

Good luck!

Nicole Hattingh

 

[blaireec]

Well I just found a worm sticking out of her butt! I grabbed it with a paper towel & burnt it! I called my local vet & she said it can be tape worms but they can't treat her while pregnant. I'm worried about my kids. What if she has other types of worms? Can they be affected by them?

 

[StefanZ]

Cat worms arent exactly the same as human worms, although they are similiar.  So the risk of contagion is small or none.

That said, it is surely wise to have some precautions.

Tell the children not to put hands in mouth when after they cuddle her, and wash hands afterwards.

The difficulty is you dont want them to be scared, or feel any disgust about her...

Good luck!

 

[blaireec]

My kids are 5 months & 17 months old. That wouldn't work lol they both put everything in there mouths

 

[blaireec]

Okay so I'm thinking she's in labor?
All she wants me to do is rub her belly & she turns over every time her belly gets hard. & she keeps getting up to get water & coming right back, & I'm pretty sure I smelt a bad odor coming from her!

 

[maewkaew]

 She might be starting labor.?   or might still have a few days.   She's probably thinknig she's ready to be done with it!

   Have you seen any discharge from her vagina?   You may or may not see the mucus plug , since she might clean it up before you see it.  

The bad odor  could be a sign of something wrong with the pregnancy,  .  but considering the poor girl has worms  that makes for some very stinky poop  and sometimes in late pregnancy  a cat might have some gas or diarrhea,  because of all the pressure on the organs in her abdomen.    So the bad smell might be that. 

If it is more like something rotten.  there may be another problem. 

  I would get her wormed as soon you can after she has she has those kittens.  I'm sure there's something that is OK for nursing mom cats. 

Re your own babies, I would  just keep them away from the kitty until you can take care of the worm issue.    The only way it could affect them is if they got some cat poop in their mouth that had worm eggs in it.  .    It's not so likely but  why risk it?    and of course make sure to wash your hands well  after petting her     ( when the kittens are born, you will need to wash hands well before and after handling. 

Even if there weren't the worms ,  that's just as well  to keep the mama and kittens separate if you can,   because right now probably the last thing she wants is an excited human toddler trying to grab her . and  it's best not to let such young kids handle newborn kittens,  the kittens are way too fragile , a small child  who doesn't have great fine motor control yet  ,  and doesn't really understand they're not like toys,  can easily hurt them by accident.   

For the 17 mo. old you could maybe encourage him/ her to play with a toy animal and pretend to take care of it,   if that might help him/ her feel part of things.    

 

[blaireec]

She did not like the fact of my daughter being in the room. When my daughter got mad & started crying bc I wasn't letting her touch the cat, she what sounded like started hissing at my daughter.

 

[StefanZ]

She did not like the fact of my daughter being in the room. When my daughter got mad & started crying bc I wasn't letting her touch the cat, she what sounded like started hissing at my daughter.

Yeah.  At first the cat did her outmost to please herself in, so she endured what must be endured.  But now her need begins to take over.  She needs to be unstressed in this her difficult moments.

You are surely welcome, but not nobody else.

This tip of your child taking care of a doll / stuffed animal and "helping" this way, is wonderful, Im sure it will work.

Good luck!

 

[sugarsandz]

Well I just found a worm sticking out of her butt! I grabbed it with a paper towel & burnt it! I called my local vet & she said it can be tape worms but they can't treat her while pregnant. I'm worried about my kids. What if she has other types of worms? Can they be affected by them?

There is a wormer that pregnant cats can take for tapeworms, I actually had this very thing happen to a stray that came to my door day after day as well, her kittens are 5 weeks old now and go everywhere lol.

The pill I gave Hina is Praziquantel for cats and can now be purchased otc at pet stores but it probably costs the same at the vets, I'd call and ask your vet about it.

Here is a page talking about it's uses and safety in cats

http://www.drugs.com/vet/droncit-praziquantel-feline-tablets.html

We also had Hina dewormed for roundworms with Pyrantel while pregnant.

Best of luck!

 

[StefanZ]

These two names, Pyrantel and Praziquantel, are really the active ingrediense, not brand names.

It means, there are surely several different brands containing them.

If you buy them OTC, do google first to be sure it is a OK brand and OK prepearate without any funny additives.  Tip: big factories doing also medicines for humans are usually OK - they dont want to risk their reputation.   Same with factories doing much medicines used by vets.

Factories which mainly sell directly OTC  at petshops, are often very uneven. Beware.

So, buying on your own, you must do some research.

The easy way is of course to get recommendation from your vet.

Good luck!

 

[sugarsandz]

It would probably cost less to get them from the vet, here the pyrantel is cheap and the other tapeworm med is like $25 for three pills but if you only have one pet you only need one so getting from your vet would probably be cheaper. Your cat would need to be seen first though or at least bring a worm in.

The biggest thing is just keeping her bedding changed so you can discard any tapeworm segments that have fallen off your kitty into her living area. You might also notice little hard things that look like tiny grains of rice stuck in the fur on her back end and tail, you can use a flea comb to brush them out or pick them out one at a time.

Hope all is going well

 

[bewisesterilise]

Has the cat had any kittens yet?