Pregnant Foster Cat

[MsFunctioning]

Hello all! Since Humane Societies are closed due to the virus, I agreed to foster a neighborhood stray cat of a friend. She noticed the cat was pregnant and asked for help because she couldn’t take her in. I’ve had her for a week and this forum has been a mental lifesaver!

I do not know how far along she is. I started seeing movement two days ago. It it’s not rolling movement, it looks like she’s being tapped from the inside. She’s been very friendly, is eating and drinking well, and has claimed my office as her own. I have nesting box options set up and feel pretty prepared, thanks to you all.

The biggest concern at the moment is fecal leaking. I put her on kitten food and a couple of days after I got her we had a Poopocalypse. She had diarrhea and it was EVERYWHERE. A day after that, I saw a worm, so the vet wormed her, but really couldn’t tell me anything else. It hasn’t been bad since that one day, but she’s leaking a little bit of poop all day long. I really don’t know what to do or even if I should be concerned. The vet didn’t seemed concerned but I wasn’t overly impressed with him. Is that normal?

Also, because I’ve only had her for a week, I really don’t know what her normal behavior is. She was very active and loving but the last two days she’s been more lethargic and she will come up, bunt me, then randomly hiss and swat. I looked up the wormer they gave her and it said okay for pregnant cats but I am worried that it is making her sick. She’s seemed different after that but all I have to go on is 8 days...and she’s had a lot of stress...plus I’m guessing she could go into labor any time between now and two weeks???

 

[Sarthur2]

What dewormer did they give her? Was it a tapeworm?

Can you post a picture of her?

Which brand kitten food are you giving her? Wet or dry?

Let’s see if we can figure out what’s going on. It could be a combination of pregnancy hormones, change of food, and worm meds.

 

[MsFunctioning]

They gave her a Praziquantel injection and Pyrantel. I am not sure what kind of worm it was. It was wiggling out her butt.

I’m giving her dry Purina One Healthy Kitten.

Here is a picture!

 

[Sarthur2]

She is beautiful! She also looks less than a year old. Poor kitty being pregnant so young.

The worm meds are safe, and the Purina is good also. Do you give wet and dry?

Give her a couple of days to see how she’s doing. In the meantime, you can mix the powder from a probiotic capsule into her wet food. It will help the flora in her gut.

 

[MsFunctioning]

Thanks. I don’t know anything about Probiotics. Is there something specific I need to look for? I tried giving her both wet and dry and she wouldn’t eat the wet. But that was in the middle of the whole diarrhea/worming fiasco. I’ll try again.

 

[Sarthur2]

Forti flora is good, but the powder from a generic brand should be fine too. Try different flavors of wet food and see what she likes!

 

[MsFunctioning]

Thank you so much! We had a rough day yesterday but the leaking diarrhea seems to be almost gone today. I’m skeptical but glad. Hopefully it stays that way. She’s still eating and drinking fine and I’ve tempted her to eat some wet food. Added a little pumpkin in the wet food. Forti Flora is arriving today so I’m going to add that in and hopefully it takes care of it for good.

It seems like she got huge overnight.

 

[MsFunctioning]

My foster had her kittens yesterday! She had five and everyone is doing fantastic! I’m glad I was streaming her to myself on my phone because besides sleeping a lot two days before, she acted completely normal. She started licking herself and bearing down. That started 20 minutes before the first kitten arrived.

She had three kittens in the first hour and was completely done in 2 1/2. That went way faster than I had anticipated!

Because of the diarrhea, I was worried that they might be small but all weighed between 3.8 and 4.3!

She did great.The last one freaked me out a little bit. She struggled more with it and I think maybe it was in the birth canal too long. It looked dead. She licked it and it moved a little, it sounded like it had inhaled fluid, then stopped moving again. She turned away from it and went back to the other kittens so I grabbed it, cleaned it’s airway and rubbed it with a towel. As soon as it started meowing, I gave it back to her. That was stressful because I didn’t really know what I was doing! Reading and doing are two different things! The final kitten was the biggest of the bunch and it’s doing great today! I wouldn’t have been prepared for that if I hadn’t been reading on this forum, so thank you all.

Besides sharing the kittens, I wanted to post a follow up on this in case anyone else is having the same problems as I did. What finally fixed her leaking diarrhea was switching her to Royal Canin gastrointestinal high energy food. I needed an RX, but within 24 hours it was gone. It’s not cheap but it is well worth it, in my opinion. I’m glad it worked for her because that was messy and stressful for everyone.

 

[Sarthur2]

Aww, you and mama kitty both did great! You really saved that last kitten’s life by doing what you did. They are all indeed very healthy babies!

Fantastic tip for treating diarrhea also.

I hope things continue to go well. Such a wonderful update. Do keep us posted!