Not sure if stray is pregnant

hannahbal1184

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So I have a parade of stray cats in my neighborhood, and we took one in on November 17th. She was pretty skinny at the time, so we’ve been feeding her plenty to get her weight up. On the 18th, we took her into the vet and the vet said her nipples were larger than average, but since we weren’t familiar with the cat’s nipples, she wasn’t sure it meant she was pregnant—she could just be an extra nipply girl. She estimated that the cat was less than a year old and dewormed her. She didn’t do an X-ray or ultrasound because she said that she wasn’t very pregnant if she was pregnant, and kittens wouldn’t show up.

Since then, she hasn’t really ballooned up, but there’s a definite roundness to her body shape that my two other cats don’t have. I can’t tell if that means she’s pregnant, or her proportions are just a little out of whack because she was so skinny and now she’s plumping up from all of the food. Her nipples are basically the same as when we got her—pink, slightly large, but unchanging.

Her belly is most evident when she’s on her side, but when she’s standing you can’t really see any extreme bulging. Sometimes, the bulge is bigger on one side than the other.

Behavior wise, she seems really interested in closets, but I think it’s just curiosity about what’s inside the closed doors. She doesn’t linger too long once she’s gotten in, but she loves laying on the ground with one paw underneath the door feeling around for things inside the closet. She was incredibly affectionate when she first showed up, but she seems a little less affectionate now and doesn’t really tolerate me touching her belly anymore. She’s also still very active and kitten-like herself.

So my cat experts—what do we think? Pregnant or not? Thank you in advance for your help!
 

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Jcatbird

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She does look a little full bellied. She’s a real beauty! It’s often hard to tell by looking but tap on the link that Furballsmom Furballsmom put in the previous post. There are clues. Some of the things you mention could be clues. Not wanting her belly touched, searching closets( could be bunting a private place) etc. There will be clues when she gets close to delivering. If you can feel her belly, you might feel a kitten kick. They can have kittens at a very young age. I don’t know if you wanted kittens or not but I guarantee that she would have precious babies. Since the vet didn’t Spay her I am assuming you are just waiting to see. Just be careful she doesn’t get out if her hormones kick in. Lol Thank you so much for rescuing her! I hope you’ll keep us udated and give us lots more photos of her. (And maybe kittens!) She really is gorgeous. Her fur looks like silk. I love Calicos! The little one next to my ID stole my heart. Her Mom was a Calico too.
I’m glad you have joined us here. Welcome to the site! :welcomesign:
 
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hannahbal1184

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Thank you guys for the warm welcome! I hope that if Tippy does have kittens, they’re as cute as the one in your profile pic! Although I can’t imagine such a thing as an uncute kitten 😂 I read through the helpful link posted above, but I still can’t decide if she is pregnant or not. Every time I convince myself that she is, in the next hour I think she isn’t because she should be showing more. But then she’ll sit in such a way that she looks like she has a bulge and I’ll decide she’s pregnant again! I guess we’ll find out one way or another soon :)

I have a coworker who said that she would want two of the kittens for her children as belated Christmas presents (once they’re old enough to be separated from their mom), so I’m trying to figure out if I should let her know to have a backup plan if Tippy is actually just a little chubby. Here are some more pictures from today :) any bets on whether she’s pregnant? If so, how far along do you think? Thanks again for the help! This is a lovely forum.
 

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jefferd18

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She kind of does to me and the fact that she is of a certain age and was found outside, well you know........

We should all know in 60 days when you start hearing the shrill crying of "Mew Mew!"
 

Jewely

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Welcome!
I’d say there’s at least one kitten in there! She may only be carrying one or possibly two, and that’s why she’s on the smaller side. She may have been further along and just very skinny, like you said. She’s beautiful and looks so happy she found you! That might explain her looking for a nesting area in your closets. If this is the first movements, expect 2-3 weeks. Congratulations!
 
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hannahbal1184

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Okay so I know I’ve officially crossed over into ‘insanely obsessing’ territory, but I noticed that the base of her spine was twitching a lot and then she suddenly woke up and started licking herself a lot down there. I can’t find any sort of comparison photos to see what’s normal and what isn’t, so (warning: explicit) could somebody tell me if her vulva looks like what you’d expect of a normal unspayed cat? Both my girls were spayed very young so I’m not sure if they’re good comparisons.
 

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hannahbal1184

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Welp she just pooped out a whole mess of worms. I guess the deworming at the vet didn’t take? Getting her dewormed again today and I guess we’ll see if her tummy goes back to normal!
 
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hannahbal1184

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Still worms in her poop, but she seems in good spirits. Here she is playing tug of war under the door with another cat :) she’s meowing a lot and scratching at the floor, but that might just be because she’s upset about being cooped up in one room now. I’ve also attached another picture of her nipples. They’re sort of dry looking now? I’ve read that it could be milk, but it seems a little too attached to her to just be milk crusties.
 

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hannahbal1184

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Wow she just vomited a little out of nowhere but ate it before I could see if there were worms in it. Should I be concerned?
 
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hannahbal1184

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I’m so glad we had a snow day today. I’m camping out in this room with her and watching her like a hawk.
 
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hannahbal1184

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I think they’re tapeworms based on what I’ve seen. We took a fecal sample to the vet on the 18th of November and it came back negative for worms but the vet still went ahead and gave her panacur pamoate just in case, so we really weren’t expecting her to have worms, especially since the other two cats aren’t showing any symptoms. I bought panacur for them too just in case after the last couple of days though.
 
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