Out of the two females I trapped last weekend one was able to have a spay abort and the other was too feral for the vet and her assistant to handle. She bit the tech through the safety glove and bounced around the med unit urinating on everything. They couldn't even get a weight on her. She looks big so we presume she is pregnant and pretty far along.
We are not against spay/ aborts- lets get that out there right away. In this case though she might be too far along for my vet to want to do it. The option we had was to sedate her- which could harm the kittens so we opted not to do it because if she is very close to delivering then my vet would not want to abort but if sedated and one of them died inside her, as she is not handleable we'd really have no way to help her survive infection. The vet wasn't even able to palpate her and verify that she was pregnant.
She is not handleable but I can sit next to her and as long as I don't make fast movements and talk to her as I approach she is pretty calm. I can even go inside her cage with my hands and get pretty close- reaching for food and water dishes that are about 5 inches away and she stays calm. But she will not sniff my hand, she will blink though and that's the most trusting she is with anyone.
So right now I have a very wide looking cat in a small dog crate in the basement. The bigger crate will be available as soon as the cat that's recovering from her spay/ abort is returned to her trap location. We will be keeping her until we know she's fully recovered and the weather has passed. Somehow I'll have to move the pregnant queen in there. I have a birthing box set up for her in the small cage but I feel that it is too small. She takes up almost the whole box.
I am worried because this will be the first time a cat has kittens under my supervision in about 30 years. I'm anxious about the delivery- I don't know if she'll let me step in to assist if needed. In my younger years I've been around for 4 births. One I had to step in to remove a breech kitten and another litter the mother wouldn't nurse so they were bottle-fed. I really have to hope she can handle the whole thing on her own. She's not touchable. I don't see her allowing me to pick up her kittens to weight them and make sure they are ok.
I also don't love the idea of having her birth in a dog crate. The crate is for a big dog- so I think the bars are too far apart to be safe for kittens- even for older weaned kittens. I don't have a spare bathroom for her so she has to be in the basement in order to keep her away from our resident pets. She needs to be enclosed because there is a big space under the doorway so the cats can play footsie under the door.
I've read the Homeowner Veterinary Manual and the articles here. I have a bunch of questions but first please tell me what you would do to handle it if you have a queen that is feral or semi-feral that you will care for until her kittens are weaned.
We are not against spay/ aborts- lets get that out there right away. In this case though she might be too far along for my vet to want to do it. The option we had was to sedate her- which could harm the kittens so we opted not to do it because if she is very close to delivering then my vet would not want to abort but if sedated and one of them died inside her, as she is not handleable we'd really have no way to help her survive infection. The vet wasn't even able to palpate her and verify that she was pregnant.
She is not handleable but I can sit next to her and as long as I don't make fast movements and talk to her as I approach she is pretty calm. I can even go inside her cage with my hands and get pretty close- reaching for food and water dishes that are about 5 inches away and she stays calm. But she will not sniff my hand, she will blink though and that's the most trusting she is with anyone.
So right now I have a very wide looking cat in a small dog crate in the basement. The bigger crate will be available as soon as the cat that's recovering from her spay/ abort is returned to her trap location. We will be keeping her until we know she's fully recovered and the weather has passed. Somehow I'll have to move the pregnant queen in there. I have a birthing box set up for her in the small cage but I feel that it is too small. She takes up almost the whole box.
I am worried because this will be the first time a cat has kittens under my supervision in about 30 years. I'm anxious about the delivery- I don't know if she'll let me step in to assist if needed. In my younger years I've been around for 4 births. One I had to step in to remove a breech kitten and another litter the mother wouldn't nurse so they were bottle-fed. I really have to hope she can handle the whole thing on her own. She's not touchable. I don't see her allowing me to pick up her kittens to weight them and make sure they are ok.
I also don't love the idea of having her birth in a dog crate. The crate is for a big dog- so I think the bars are too far apart to be safe for kittens- even for older weaned kittens. I don't have a spare bathroom for her so she has to be in the basement in order to keep her away from our resident pets. She needs to be enclosed because there is a big space under the doorway so the cats can play footsie under the door.
I've read the Homeowner Veterinary Manual and the articles here. I have a bunch of questions but first please tell me what you would do to handle it if you have a queen that is feral or semi-feral that you will care for until her kittens are weaned.