I Found A Skinny Stray Who's Very Pregnant- Guidance Needed

[tikishenanigans]

Thanks for sharing that kittens mom, I'm trying to make backup plans for backup plans for everything.
Today Dot stole my heart completely. She's starting to mouth her sibling and mom and I saw the twins sort of play fighting laying on thier sides and flayling at each other. I tickled dot's belly and she grabs with her front paws and kicks a little with legs. Weak but getting there. They both are doing push upspretty well and dot managed a shakey walk. Troubles coming. If I can keep any of the three (or all) I'd love it, if not that's fine too. I think the babies are winning everyone's hearts. I figured mom would be hardest to home even though the vet guesses she's only two. She's really sweet.
I can't settle on names for anyone. No trio names work for all three so I'm hoping as the babies grow they fall into names. They'd probably be changed if adopted anyways.

 

[kittens mom]

Oh my gosh so cute. They grow so fast. We ended up paying for Tera's FIV/FIP test and exam and another 250 to put her in an established no kill rescue. It took them 6 months to find her a home but it was I'm told an excellent match. During that time the rescue kept in contact and I even visited Tera several times. I made sure she stayed personal to any volunteer at any of the several pet stores she was displayed at.
We planned to keep one and when the time came it was impossible. No regrets. If there had been more than 2 we would have had to put them up for adoption at the same rescue.
Back up plans I had a million. I'm not a cat rescue and we had to find a way to make it work which meant getting creative and I believe at one point gave myself the puppies, rainbows and unicorns speech. Life is not perfect.
We have no regrets and neither should you for all the headaches, stress there was so much absolute joy in watching that once beat up stray flourish and now has a forever home just like her babies. Here is there link if there's anything in there that helps
Tera + 2 - 4

 

[tikishenanigans]

She's such a loving girl for a stray. Thriving on attention. I tried to lightly brush her, but the brush kept skipping along her spine and ribs anyways. I'm still amazed at how much food she goes through for the three of them. Especially if you compare food weights to baby weights. Yesterday it was three 5.5 ounce cans, two large ish mounds of yougurt, some kibble and a scrambled egg.

Solid never had crust on his eye after the first wipe, but yesterday and today Dot has had a crust keeping one of her eyes shut. It wipes away ok, then some still wet goo comes out, like a white with a green tint, that again wipes out ok, and the eye looks fine. I kind of looks like the eye goo Tiki will get with allergies occasionally. Normal eye stuff? Vet issue? She's gaining ok and no other signs of infection or anything.

Solid has a favorite box corner to cuddle into. Like his name/indicator he seems like a more go with the flow laid back guy. Not as whiney when picked up. (I still am not 100% on his/her gender I swear it looks like two dots some days and a dot and a line others, Dot being so easy to see a line makes me lean toward Solid being a boy) Dot goes all over the place and is noisier about everything. Shes fiesty and wants to wrestle. She rolls on her back and tries to om the closest part of mama or solid while flailing at them. It's so cute they have personalities immediately. I didn't expect to notice differences yet. Dot also may be named Layla. It seemed to pop into my head and fit her. Mama and Solid still don't have fitting names.

 

[Sarthur2]

You should ask the vet for terramycin for the eyes. The white/greenish indicates infection. The terramycin will clear it quickly.

It's great that mama eats so well! Has she been wormed?

Love the name Layla!

 

[kittens mom]

She's such a loving girl for a stray. Thriving on attention. I tried to lightly brush her, but the brush kept skipping along her spine and ribs anyways. I'm still amazed at how much food she goes through for the three of them. Especially if you compare food weights to baby weights. Yesterday it was three 5.5 ounce cans, two large ish mounds of yougurt, some kibble and a scrambled egg.

Solid never had crust on his eye after the first wipe, but yesterday and today Dot has had a crust keeping one of her eyes shut. It wipes away ok, then some still wet goo comes out, like a white with a green tint, that again wipes out ok, and the eye looks fine. I kind of looks like the eye goo Tiki will get with allergies occasionally. Normal eye stuff? Vet issue? She's gaining ok and no other signs of infection or anything.

Solid has a favorite box corner to cuddle into. Like his name/indicator he seems like a more go with the flow laid back guy. Not as whiney when picked up. (I still am not 100% on his/her gender I swear it looks like two dots some days and a dot and a line others, Dot being so easy to see a line makes me lean toward Solid being a boy) Dot goes all over the place and is noisier about everything. Shes fiesty and wants to wrestle. She rolls on her back and tries to om the closest part of mama or solid while flailing at them. It's so cute they have personalities immediately. I didn't expect to notice differences yet. Dot also may be named Layla. It seemed to pop into my head and fit her. Mama and Solid still don't have fitting names.

The ointment can be bought in farm stores and online or a vet. if you have cats you should probably have some on hand. If the infection doesn't clear quickly they need to go to the vet. Take your own sterile towel or blanket or insist they stay in the crate and don't let staff play cuddle baby.

 

[tikishenanigans]

I'll call the vet when they open in 15 minutes. Mama got her worm meds three days before birth and the second dose two weeks after that. (Do the babies get protection from both sides?)
Kittens mom-im reading your story, but it's going to take a while to get though all 94 pages! I'm glad I had Mama wrangled before she gave birth so I didn't worry about missing any kittens and I'm super thankful I didn't have to deal with a kitten ball. A still born is sad enough.

While both our families know we are keeping at least one, my SO hasn't accepted it fully. He'll come around. Hes already cuddling the babies. He knew what he signed up for with me. He's more into 'us and our pets' than 'every animal ever' but nobody can resist babies. It helps that I finally could give mama a bath. Normally I avoid that with cats, especially with her having kits, but she smelled awful. I don't know if it was rolling in something outside or what. She was amazing about that and seemed to like warm water. I made sure to take her when the kits were asleep and she was on a break, then dried her off and made sure she had the heating pad. I don't even think the babies knew she was gone. This cat had a home once and I almost wish someone would dare to put up a missing flier or post on Craigslist so I could chew them out. She loves being loved on.

 

[tikishenanigans]

Oh, mama seems bad at grooming herself, even though she grooms the babies super well and will give reassurance licks and stuff. She keeps half laying in the food bowl or her tail goes in it and she doesn't clean it off her. Is this an indicator of anything? She's got bad teeth that need to be delt with probably when she's spayed, but I didn't know if that'd effect her grooming, or if she may just not have the energy for it

 

[Sarthur2]

She sounds like a very grateful, laid back cat. She may not have the energy for it right now.

Perhaps your SO will bond with both kittens and you can keep everyone!

 

[kittens mom]

I'll call the vet when they open in 15 minutes. Mama got her worm meds three days before birth and the second dose two weeks after that. (Do the babies get protection from both sides?)
Kittens mom-im reading your story, but it's going to take a while to get though all 94 pages! I'm glad I had Mama wrangled before she gave birth so I didn't worry about missing any kittens and I'm super thankful I didn't have to deal with a kitten ball. A still born is sad enough.

While both our families know we are keeping at least one, my SO hasn't accepted it fully. He'll come around. Hes already cuddling the babies. He knew what he signed up for with me. He's more into 'us and our pets' than 'every animal ever' but nobody can resist babies. It helps that I finally could give mama a bath. Normally I avoid that with cats, especially with her having kits, but she smelled awful. I don't know if it was rolling in something outside or what. She was amazing about that and seemed to like warm water. I made sure to take her when the kits were asleep and she was on a break, then dried her off and made sure she had the heating pad. I don't even think the babies knew she was gone. This cat had a home once and I almost wish someone would dare to put up a missing flier or post on Craigslist so I could chew them out. She loves being loved on.

My H was scared the babies would die so he just wouldn't quite commit at first. He spent a lot of time loving mama and playing with her though and that really helped getting her re-socialized. BTW Tera tore though 5-7 cans of FF per day and a ton of kibble. I was able to worm mama before birth and my kits had 2 fecals both negative however the vet wormed them anyway. It's a good precaution.
Yeah I'm pretty sure I know who tossed Tera out. I decided protecting her was more important than exacting some revenge. I don't understand how anyone can raise a pet underfoot and then open a door and heave them out.

 

[kittens mom]

BTW I don't expect you to read the whole thread but the stories are so similar I hope it gives you the emotional support that I got from many members of TCS. People who have rescues or work at shelters do this all the time but when it's one cat and one litter it really is different and the emotional decisions of what's best for everyone it's a struggle in all directions. And everything changes when you see them hit their little milestones. I have a picture of first poo in a litterbox and a few of the famous poo painting party the night they started pooping on their own.

 

[tikishenanigans]

Your Tera situation sounds so much like ours. Except Tiki seems to want to be friends now. He's only 2 1/2 and not set his his way like yours. She's under two according to the vet. Plus neither of them are really alpha. I've got good hopes, but I also found a foster based no kill that would take them for $75 each once if I can keep them until eight weeks at least. The better one in my area has a four month wait list even if I volunteered to be thier foster. I'm still hoping to keep someone but Tiki would have to be happy with it and I'm not mingling anyone for quite a while anyways.

 

[tikishenanigans]

You give me a tail of three kitties, of course I'm reading it. The babies are purring when the nurse. They have different tones. And I know thier voices apart.

 

[tikishenanigans]

And the they're my responsibility but the situation isn't my fault thing helped a lot. I've been wishing I could do more and feed better food (my kitten wet food costs are ridiculous as I'm sure you know, luckily I found Merrick kitten kibble on sale). I was putting a lot of guilt on myself, but I'm just doing the best to help out.

 

[kittens mom]

Your Tera situation sounds so much like ours. Except Tiki seems to want to be friends now. He's only 2 1/2 and not set his his way like yours. She's under two according to the vet. Plus neither of them are really alpha. I've got good hopes, but I also found a foster based no kill that would take them for $75 each once if I can keep them until eight weeks at least. The better one in my area has a four month wait list even if I volunteered to be thier foster. I'm still hoping to keep someone but Tiki would have to be happy with it and I'm not mingling anyone for quite a while anyways.

I'm glad you found a local foster. It was a load off our minds to have that option. The wait list is one of the reasons why we took Tera when the babies were only 3.5 weeks old. Her best chance for adoption to screened people was there. We were really lucky to have Mercy mother the babies the was she did. Keeping our options open and flexible really helped things work out in the end.

 

[kittens mom]

And the they're my responsibility but the situation isn't my fault thing helped a lot. I've been wishing I could do more and feed better food (my kitten wet food costs are ridiculous as I'm sure you know, luckily I found Merrick kitten kibble on sale). I was putting a lot of guilt on myself, but I'm just doing the best to help out.

Oh yeah the day I dropped Tera off the director gave me a sort lecture of S/N. I don't think they quite believed that Tera wasn't mine to begin with. But I kept in contact and we understood each other I made sure they had my FB and this site. Right down to the day Tera was adopted.
However this turns out for you it's the right way and those cats are alive and 100% better off than where they started or were going to end up. And you're ending at least one little part of the endless breeding cycle.
But really we need more pictures.

 

[tikishenanigans]

Ran out to get terramycin. It'd be way more expensive through the vet for the same thing, so we got it from tractor supply. Should I use a q tip to apply to keep the actual tube sterile?
I'll get some more pics soon. My phone is so full of Tiki pics I have to thin out to take more

 

[Sarthur2]

Use your finger to swipe it across her eye. Glad you found it at tractor supply.

 

[kittens mom]

Ran out to get terramycin. It'd be way more expensive through the vet for the same thing, so we got it from tractor supply. Should I use a q tip to apply to keep the actual tube sterile?
I'll get some more pics soon. My phone is so full of Tiki pics I have to thin out to take more

My phone has that kind of accident too. I got a really nice camera for Christmas and started using dropbox.
Remember if there isn't some rapid improvement the baby needs to see a vet.
When they do see a vet make sure to mention that you treated the eye, when and for how long. They don't like you doing home doctoring but it's a reality for most of us. Personally I considered exposing them to a vets office at a very young age worse than putting in ointment for a day to see if it cleared up.
ashade1 is wonderful with kits. Rescue Momma and Kittens... Advice Needed Please!

 

[Mamanyt1953]

kittens mom thank you for directing me to this story! I'm thrilled to know that another mama was able to have her kittens in safety, surrounded by caring people. There is good in this world, after all, and a LOT of it is found right here on TCS!

Welcome, T tikishenanigans We're SO glad you are here with your wonderful little family!

 

[ashade1]

kittens mom Thank you for showing me this thread too!
Thank you for giving this momma a safe place to have her babies and for caring for her little family!
My rescue started by taking in a litter of stray kittens and then slowly taking in stray cats and getting them spayed/neutered and finding them homes, three years later here we are- we have helped over 60 cats since January!
We are here to help with any problems/questions you have! I love the community here!