I have stayed up late reading articles every night since I found out that my cat could be expecting, but nothing prepared me for this one. And even now, I’m struggling to find much information as to why this happened. She’s always indoors, spoiled, separated from other pets (pregnancy was an accident that occurred while I was not home) , she got good quality kitten food to provide nutrition for the kittens, I don’t know what went wrong.
I know for sure mating took place on 8/17. I was expecting kittens around 10/20. My cat (Trude) is approximately 3 years old and this is her first litter. At 10 pm on 10/24 (69 days) the kittens were still moving around, Trude showed many common signs of impending labor (she lost her mucus plug, her mammary glands enlarged, she’s affectionate, heavy breathing, etc.) Around 1 am 10/25 I decided to see where she’d gone off to nest and shocker, the closet, but she wasn’t alone. She started crying to me like she wanted reassurance as we both stared in disbelief at her babies. It broke my heart to see her big sad eyes realize I couldn’t fix them either.
WARNING THIS NEXT PART MAY BE GRAPHIC OR TOO MUCH FOR THE FAINT HEARTED, BUT I AM SHARING SO THAT SOMEONE ELSE MAY KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT AS WELL AS LEARN FROM MY (in)EXPERIENCE!
Initially I was shocked to see a kitten for real this time, I expected many days I could wake up and find kittens. But I realized something was off, no movement and not only that, but they didn’t quite look right like the videos I watched to prepare.
Here is exactly what I saw.
Kitten #1 orange fur, developed everything, except it’s abdominal organs were outside the body
Kitten #2 tortie shell, this one only had protruding lungs and no eyes seemed to have formed
I knew there would be a couple more coming, but I had very little hope for live kittens. Trudes labor continued and about 3.5 hours later she gave birth again.
Kitten #3 this image will stick with me for the rest of my life. Trude didn’t make noise, just squatted and with one push the kitten came out followed by a puddle of thick, sludge like, dark goo. The kitten was very underdeveloped especially the head area, it’s brain was external
I sobbed.
About an hour after #3 she gave birth again
Baby #4 this one was actually well developed but the placenta was quite strange and seemed to be basically a wad of slime tissues.
Baby #5 some abdominal organs were external but not it’s digestive track and no place where eyes could go and it also didn’t look like the mouth was right
This was my first pregnancy experience as well as Trudes and it has been so terribly sad.
*I know that spaying/neutering is very important Trude will be getting spayed at her next vet appointment*
I know for sure mating took place on 8/17. I was expecting kittens around 10/20. My cat (Trude) is approximately 3 years old and this is her first litter. At 10 pm on 10/24 (69 days) the kittens were still moving around, Trude showed many common signs of impending labor (she lost her mucus plug, her mammary glands enlarged, she’s affectionate, heavy breathing, etc.) Around 1 am 10/25 I decided to see where she’d gone off to nest and shocker, the closet, but she wasn’t alone. She started crying to me like she wanted reassurance as we both stared in disbelief at her babies. It broke my heart to see her big sad eyes realize I couldn’t fix them either.
WARNING THIS NEXT PART MAY BE GRAPHIC OR TOO MUCH FOR THE FAINT HEARTED, BUT I AM SHARING SO THAT SOMEONE ELSE MAY KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT AS WELL AS LEARN FROM MY (in)EXPERIENCE!
Initially I was shocked to see a kitten for real this time, I expected many days I could wake up and find kittens. But I realized something was off, no movement and not only that, but they didn’t quite look right like the videos I watched to prepare.
Here is exactly what I saw.
Kitten #1 orange fur, developed everything, except it’s abdominal organs were outside the body
Kitten #2 tortie shell, this one only had protruding lungs and no eyes seemed to have formed
I knew there would be a couple more coming, but I had very little hope for live kittens. Trudes labor continued and about 3.5 hours later she gave birth again.
Kitten #3 this image will stick with me for the rest of my life. Trude didn’t make noise, just squatted and with one push the kitten came out followed by a puddle of thick, sludge like, dark goo. The kitten was very underdeveloped especially the head area, it’s brain was external
I sobbed.
About an hour after #3 she gave birth again
Baby #4 this one was actually well developed but the placenta was quite strange and seemed to be basically a wad of slime tissues.
Baby #5 some abdominal organs were external but not it’s digestive track and no place where eyes could go and it also didn’t look like the mouth was right
This was my first pregnancy experience as well as Trudes and it has been so terribly sad.
*I know that spaying/neutering is very important Trude will be getting spayed at her next vet appointment*