Concerned About my pregnant kitty

[cataholic07]

I live in the country about 10 miles out. I have lived in my house since 2010. During this timeI had one kitten and 2 adult males dumped on me until covid happened. Since 2020 I have had in all including all the kittens born I bet without exaggerating over 30 cats dumped on me. I have very few neighbors around me. Only a handful and they aren't super close, only like 3 are. Because I am so far out I have all kinds of predators and I have also have a 2 legged predator! My house is on a hill and I have a deck that goes around most of it and theres lattice covers the bottom. I have put tarp on the inside of it and have made all kinds of houses for my ferals out of totes so they stay warm and safe. Feral moms are really quite protective of their babies even if you get them to trust you. They will tear you up before they let you near their babies, but at same time, if they get sick or unable to care for their young, they will bring them to you to care for them if they feel you as safe. But when that happened to me with 2 moms, I had 2 males take over raising the kittens and they are more protective and meaner than the moms are. Now that's a lot of cats to get fixed. And where I live got rid of programs for fixing ferals. They won't help at all. So I do my very best to save as many of the kittens as I can. But I can't save them all. I try very hard to get the moms to have the kittens at my house, but if anything happens, moms move them to the woods and the kittens one by one disappear before they are 3 months old. A mom that has like 6 kittens is lucky to have 1 to 4 kittens by 3 months and those kittens if I can get them before they are 5 months old are lucky to see a year old most don't see past 8 months old. This is totally killing me! I know what happens to all my ferals and I don't know how to keep them safe? If they would stay close to my house, they would have a much higher chance of survival but I can't make them stay in my yard. I am not going to quit feeding them and let them starve. These cats didn't ask for this life. I have a big heart but it breaks easily. Right now I am down to 5 ferals with one pregnant. But give it a couple months and it will be over 15 again. This is a like cycle that just keeps happening People won't stop dumping. And so it just keeps going.

What I would recommend doing is contacting rescues to see if they can help. Call around vets to find out pricing. Sell the kittens for $75-$150 each and then use that money to spay the females. Many fix males first because it's cheaper but other males will just come. as such spaying, the females first would be best. Unfortunately, I know a ton of dipshits dump cats off in the country expecting them to survive and many don't. I am sorry you are going through this. If you sell those kittens for $100 each you should have more than enough to spay quite a few of your girls. At least it will help reduce your numbers somewhat and make less stress for you.

 

[jewellz66]

SO I thought I would give you all an update. Let me tell you it has been crazy with a few meltdowns on my end. I will start with Baby has been an awesome mother and with her being so very sick and her age, I am so proud of her. When Baby's kittens were 8 days old I was in the back of house taking care of her and her babies , I was back there about 5 minutes, I come out to the living room and in middle of the floor is my 7 month old long haired Ragdoll mixed just giving birth to a kitten! I didn't even know she was pregnant! Her name is Fluffy. She never lets anyone touch her belly and she didn't gain weight! That was her only kitten. Fluffy wouldn't let me leave her side. SO I quickly made a box up and sat her next to me. She took care of her kitten first couple hours, but then she became very restless and wouldn't stay still. The kitten kept crying, I had to cut hair away from her nipples so the kitten could find nipples to nurse, but still kitten kept crying. After a few hours of this I noticed the kitten was starting to fade. So as much as it broke my heart to do it, I took the kitten from Fluffy. Fluffy ran after me crying for her baby. I took the kitten to Baby and asked her to take care of her before she died. Baby scooped that little kitten out of my hand and went to taking care of her and she has ever since just like she was her own kitten. Fluffy continued to go down hill rest of night and by morning I was on phone with vet and rushing there with her when they opened. By the time I called the vet I was sobbing! They could barely understand me. They had to do emergency Spay on her and that was the only kitten she did have. Just one little baby, the reason her baby was fading is she literally had zero milk! So again another reason I wouldn't have known she was pregnant. The vet said that he understood why I was clueless as to her being pregnant. She had nothing to tell me she was. Now remember my male was neutered 2 weeks before she got pregnant! Even the vet was did she get outside, nope she did not! The kitten even looks just like daddy! Now back to Baby, she got so sick I when her kittens were 2 weeks old and the other one was almost a week old went rushing her to the vet! She had to have IV fluids and some meds to control her diarrhea. Again I was sobbing. We also had to force feed her with syringe cuz she was refusing to eat and her milk was in danger! And I had 6 kittens or she had 6 kittens! I had a hard time getting new kitten to bottle feed and she was getting enough milk off of mommy. She was only gaining 2 to 3 grams a day! I started to get negative numbers with kittens weight and I rush off to vet again, this time with everyone! Sobbing again! What was I doing wrong and why can't I get the baby to bottle feed? I bought every bottle out there! Well again IV fluids and a week prior I had asked a different vet in the office to do a stool sample for coccidia and parasites. I called 5 days later after hearing nothing and was told by front desk that it was neg!? Well this vet went and got her results and it wasn't neg!!! She did have coccidia and 3 weeks before giving birth she had tapeworms really bad. Cuz of that, she said she wasn't chancing it and treated her for parasites. So she put her on treatment for Coccidia and we are still battling it but getting better. I am having to help feed 2 of the kittens cuz she just doesn't have enough milk and the boys are so big they just push the little ones out the way and hog the milk. I call the boys rollie pollies. The vet said that they are bigger than normal and all of them are advanced for their age. And they are. At 2.5 weeks they are wrestling, playing and crawling out of the box. So I had to make a gate to keep them in closet. Vet told me to start teaching the boys to drink milk from bowl and we are learning still. LOL The ones I feed never took bottle I had to use a very small tube. Only way they will take formula but they totally control it, so I am comfortable with it. I make sure I can feel them swallowing and put the tube to their mouth and they just suck it down. I don't even touch the plunger but I make sure it doesn't go to fast. I wish I could find them else where cuz they only last a couple days and my vet charges me 10.00 for 3 of them!!! So that's like 20.00 a week for them plus the formula. LOL Little one is finally gaining tho and good gaining today she was 22 grams!! Yay!! And Calico was 24 grams!! Yay!! She's the other one I am feeding. Well I will end this with Happy Easter and some pictures for you all to see. Thank you everyone who helped me through this!!

 

[jewellz66]

SO I tried to post a short video of the kittens playing but I can't. Sorry. LOL

 

[HeyKat]

Oh my goodness they're perfect and adorable. Thank you for taking such good care of them.

Can you not get the syringes at a pharmacy? In my country they're really cheap.

 

[momto3cats]

All your kittens are adorable! You've obviously done a good job helping them thrive in spite of all the problems the moms have had.
A lot of places sell small feeding syringes cheaper than what your vet is charging. Pet stores, feed stores, and pharmacies are good places to look. You can order them online as well.

 

[jewellz66]

All your kittens are adorable! You've obviously done a good job helping them thrive in spite of all the problems the moms have had.
A lot of places sell small feeding syringes cheaper than what your vet is charging. Pet stores, feed stores, and pharmacies are good places to look. You can order them online as well.

I looked online and can't find what I have, but pharmacy is a good idea. I have a friend that is a pharmacist where I get my meds. If she is working today when I go out, I will see if she happens to have what I am using. What I am using is really a small animal catheter. So it is very very small. I really don't want to go bigger cuz it's what the littlest is used to and she was so hard to get her to feed in anyway to begin with and I don't want to accidentally drown her. That would devastate me. I sometimes care to much so I get told and get to attached. And worry to much..LOL I am still struggling with getting the bigger kittens to drink milk from bowl, but I know they are capable of. They literally run, play with little toys, wrestle, climb things, claw things have their own little personalities now. And when I say run, they run fast! But I am failing at the getting them to drink from the bowl, it's a very low small bowl, The orange kitty takes a couple licks otherwise it's a pool of milk they play in while I feed their sibblings...LOL So any ideas would be great. I did the put milk on my finger, then their mouth then show them the bowl. Nope lets go wading instead and lick our paws...LOL They will be 4 weeks on Saturday and the little one 3 weeks on Sunday. Is that old enough for me to use a small cardboard vegetable box that's only an inch or 2 high and put in their area with just a little litter in it? They are pooping on their own now all over the place...LOL Thanks again Have a wonderful day.

 

[Sarthur2]

Yes, do put the litter box out and show it to them. Take a little paw and show them how to dig. Only non-clumping litter for now.

They will learn to drink from the dish in the next week or two - on the young side yet!