CAT JUST HAD A KITTEN 10 MINS AGO..HELP?

gversey

Hi,my mothers one year old cat had a kitten 10 mins ago,she is in a box behind a sofa,should she be ok,is there anything we can do to help her other than keeping the place quiet and providing fresh food and water regularly,she is only one year old.How long will it take her to finish giving birth.She is still fairly big.Is there anything we should do (other than get her spayed when we can),this is a first experience.

Thanks in advance.

PCros

You don't have to do much, mine gave birth last week. Birth could take 3 hours up to 24 hours.

You'll be fine. Just get involved if the kitten is stuck half way and she stops pushing, you'll have to help the kitten out and probably massage its chest if its not breathing.

gversey

excuse my ignorance but what do ya mean by get involved,,help pull the kitten out??..will this not stress the mother,,she is even moaning if we look at her.

PCros

Yes pull out the kitten or it will die, wont stress her out.

This rarely happens by the way and will usually happen if its a big litter, she could be knackered by the 3rd or 4th and may need a little help.

gversey

Ive just been informed from my younger sister (10) that its actually an hour since the first kitten,nothing since,the mother is cleaning it now and it is suckling.
Seems like the mother is resting.

PCros

Yep she'll rest, mine started at about 9am then gave birth to 3 healthy ones, then about an hour later she gave birth to a still born. This seemed to upset her and she stopped until the middle of the night to give birth again but unfortunately it was another still born.

If shes still big in two days bring her to the vet.

gversey

If ther is a still born,what should we do,remove it or leave it till the end of birth.and how do you dispose of it?

PCros

Some say let her eat it (:eek: I know) and some say take it away, we took them away from her because are cat is only a kitten...just 7 months old herself so being her first litter we didn't want to chance anything.

She will most likely take the still born and place it at the other end of the box away from the healthy ones.

We just buried them out the back.

caroline1111

The cat will have her kittens naturally, no need to interfere usually.

PinkTulips

stay close and watch her, talk softly and comfortingly to her and keep an eye on what she's doing.

about the only two situations you'd have to intervene for are if the kitten gets lodged halfway out or if she has trouble with the cord.

if a kitten gets lodged then wait for her to have a contraction and very gently ease the kitten out... this might happen if a kitten is breach or if she gets too tired but it is quite rare so don't panic. once the kitten is out remove your hand immedietly and let her get on with her job.

if she has trouble with the cord again you may need to intervene... young cats often bite off tails and legs in confusion with their first litters, watch her closely and if she's chewing on a limb instead of a cord gently remove the kitten and snip the cord with a sterile scissors and immedietly put it down in front of her again. some cats also have trouble biting through the cord and get agitated and start swinging the kitten around, this can cause damage to the kitten so again, snip with a sterile scissors and back off while she cleans it.

if she hasn't produced any more by tomorrow and she's still big i'd bring her to the vet to make sure all is ok, she may just be carrying alot of fluid or there may be problems.

if any are stillborn leave them with her for an hour or so, if she doesn't eat it by then take it away but don't bury it until you can be sure she's not going to start looking for it, if she does start getting upset show it to her again and give her another chance to deal with it herself.

have fun with them, kittens are great fun

chrism2007

caroline1111 wrote: »

The cat will have her kittens naturally, no need to interfere usually.

thats what i was thinking.

why is the worst case scenarios always mentioned?

chances are itll be fine and there will be nothing to worry about

id say theres a lot of worrying in the house at the moment, no need to be adding to it

PinkTulips

caroline1111 wrote: »

The cat will have her kittens naturally, no need to interfere usually.

true, but no harm being prepared just in case, i've been present for 2 cat births and had to do several of the things i've mentioned.. pull a kitten out and snip 2 cords.

better to hear it now and not need the info than to be told after a tragedy that 'oh, you should have done x,y,z'

PCros

chrism2007 wrote: »

why is the worst case scenarios always mentioned?

Its their first time, like me a week ago and people here gave me that info.
No harm mentioning it because what if it does happen and that person didn't know what to do?

chrism2007

PCros wrote: »

Its their first time, like me a week ago and people here gave me that info.
No harm mentioning it because what if it does happen and that person didn't know what to do?

yeah i suppose so.

of all the kittens/pups born in my family over the years ive never seen any complications. id probably think differently if there was

ive never heard of the cat eating there kittens. that sounded really creepy to me

PCros

Hey OP, don't forget to update us when shes done.

Call me Socket

Very exciting! One of my cats was just a year old as well with her first litter, and I stayed with her the whole time and just watched in amazement... she had 5 kittens and the last one to come out was over 3 hours after the 4th one....
It's handy to know what to do if something goes wrong, but the chances are slim. As was mentioned, be very gentle in easing one out if you have to- don't literally pull it out.
The mother will also eat the placenta from each kitten- it's full of nutrition which is very good for her recovery from birth, and all that goodness will be passed onto the kittens in her milk.

Eating a stillborn is perfectly natural in the feline world and with other animals, I think it goes back to big cats like the lioness....if she didn't dispose of the body it would attract predators. Only humans bury their dead. When you compare us to all others species....it's kind of bizarre that we dig holes and put dead people into them and sing while it's being done.


Can't wait to see pics of the new furries!

twomaddogs

socket - elephants and monkeys also bury their dead!

In fact, elephants revisit the graves of their dead for years after...mpnkeys lose interest when they decompose

t-ha

If you think cats eating stillborns is wierd, wolves and dogs can abort their own foetuses and reabsorb the nutrients!

PCros

twomaddogs wrote: »

socket - elephants and monkeys also bury their dead!

In fact, elephants revisit the graves of their dead for years after...mpnkeys lose interest when they decompose

Yeah I heard that, its more throwing over leaves and sticks to cover the dead animal rather than digging any sort of hole. Apparently ants do it aswell.

twomaddogs

Ah yeah, they bury using sticks and foliage etc, no digging proper graves! They've also been known to 'bury' injured people if they think they're dead

Call me Socket

Really? I sit corrected! Elephants, monkeys and ants.....hmm...so we're not alone in our weirdness! Ya learn something new everyday!:)

sorella

Cats can too; I had Siamese that did this. It is a safety thing.

The oddities that really throw me are delayed implantation pregnancies; seals and pine martens and I think badgers.

t-ha wrote: »

Never heard of elephants burying their dead - visiting, yes. Burying, no?

If you think cats eating stillborns is wierd, wolves and dogs can abort their own foetuses and reabsorb the nutrients!

WIZE

Whats with the kittens . have they all popped out now ?

PCros

sorella wrote: »

Cats can too; I had Siamese that did this. It is a safety thing.

The oddities that really throw me are delayed implantation pregnancies; seals and pine martens and I think badgers.

Really? I had a Siamese when I was young, so affectionate its unreal.

gversey

3 so far,second was 4pm and third was 4.30pm.everything fine so far.One back and white ,two black,2 girls and a boy....its like been in a delivery ward waiting for them to pop,,haha,not sure if there is anymore,cant see any more movement in her belly...

boomerang

chrism2007 wrote: »

yeah i suppose so.
ive never heard of the cat eating there kittens. that sounded really creepy to me

They can do, particularly if they're very young themselves, or if they are highly stressed, or if they sense there is something wrong with the kitten or kittens.

RangeR

PCros wrote: »

She will most likely take the still born and place it at the other end of the box away from the healthy ones.

I remember one of my cats having a litter of about 5 or 6 kittens, about 25 years ago. All were healthy except for one, jet black, lovely kitten.

The mother had pushed her away from the rest and left her to die. By the time we found her, she was not moving, VERY cold and couldn't tell if she was breathing. For all intents and purposes, it appeared dead and would have died if we didn't intervene.

Myself and my mother took the abandoned kitten, wrapped her in very warm clothes to raise her temperature, and gave her loads of hand contact. Eventually, she started to make tiny movements so we started dropping tiny amounts of milk into her mouth. After a few hours, she was semi moving around the room on her own. The next day, we encouraged the mother to take her kitten back to the others. Took a good bit of perseverance by staying with the cat, kittens and the abandoned kitten and interacting with all of them. Eventually, after another few hours, the mother let the kitten suckle on her. and all lived very long lives.

When the kittens were old enough, we gave them all way but kept the kitten that we saved. She grew to be a very old cat and had one or two litters in her life before we snipped her.

All I'm saying is, don't bury them until you are sure....

gversey

Whats the odds of her only having 3 kittens?

chrism2007

my dog went about 10 years without having pups then had 3. 1 healthy and two stillborn

she buried the two by herself down the back of the garden

i thought all dogs did this

anyway, great stories in this thread. its good to see them

sorella

I know... They are utterly devoted to their people, like dogs. I bred them many years and miss them still... They have high intelligence and a sense of humour also. And so stubborn.

Gee; tears!!

The memories are amazing; one called Tigerlily especially; she was the one who more than once readsorbed during pregancy.

But now I have two adorable rescued moggies, whose lives we saved.
And who are so affectionate also.

PCros wrote: »

Really? I had a Siamese when I was young, so affectionate its unreal.

gversey

Some quick pics..

Jesus1222

Slightly OT but can I ask an honest question. With so many cats and dogs being put down in rescue homes what do you get from breeding even more of them? If the cats became pregnant when they were out and about why weren't they spayed?

I'd love to breed dogs but I just couldn't justify it.

PCros

Jesus1222 wrote: »

Slightly OT but can I ask an honest question. With so many cats and dogs being put down in rescue homes what do you get from breeding even more of them? If the cats became pregnant when they were out and about why weren't they spayed?

I'd love to breed dogs but I just couldn't justify it.

It depends it could have been a stray, we took in a stray 6 month old kitten and we found out a week later she was pregnant.

gversey

Took it in 2 months ago..

RangeR

Jesus1222 wrote: »

Slightly OT but can I ask an honest question. With so many cats and dogs being put down in rescue homes what do you get from breeding even more of them? If the cats became pregnant when they were out and about why weren't they spayed?

I'd love to breed dogs but I just couldn't justify it.

For my part [any my partner], we made sure that we got a kitten from an animal shelter. She was about 12 weeks old. Kept her indoors [except the odd time out the back under close supervision] until she was spayed. She loves the outdoors now but only stays out for an hour or two at a time

lubie76

Jesus1222 wrote: »

Slightly OT but can I ask an honest question. With so many cats and dogs being put down in rescue homes what do you get from breeding even more of them? If the cats became pregnant when they were out and about why weren't they spayed?

I'd love to breed dogs but I just couldn't justify it.

In fairness to the OP. They mentioned neutering the cat in the first post and I think they know it should have been done. I just hope they can find good homes for all the kittens and make sure they are all going to be neutered so they don't continue to add to the huge cat population in Ireland.