Queen with cone and her kittens

Lfagliano

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Hello!

My cat mom just came back from two days at the vet where she was with antibiotics and was being checked because she (or the two kittens) broke her stitches. Now she is back, and with a cone to make sure those stiches are fine. However, my problem right now is that she keeps on looking for the kittens, which we keep separate out of fear of: 1. Them breaking the stitches 2. Them trying to drink milk after she was with antibiotics 3. That it would stress her. We are hand rearing the kittens, which makes us very worried because we are inexperienced in the matter, but they are gaining weight daily and only one is resisting the bottle, and they are already a week old. But right now i am on fear of the mom being sad because she knows the kittens are here (today when she got back went directly to the room where the kittens where and -like if nature spoke- a kitten made a small sound and she meowed back).

Which leads to my question... is it okay to reunite them now? If so, how should i? Should it be by supervised times (which leads to our fear of her being stressed when we separe them)? Or should we just let them be as normal?... the vet said 8 days till they take the stitches. And he has been nithing but confusing when it came to how to handle the kittens.

We are also cleaning her wound as advised by the vet, which makes us think is not good to reunite her because the kittens may lick skme of the meds we use to clean the wound (oxygenated water and betadine).
 

gilmargl

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What a dreadful situation. I won't ask why she needed stitches, if it was a spay it was definitely at the wrong time. If you keep her away from the kittens too long (and it has already been 2 days) then her milk will dry up so she won't be able to feed the kittens anyway.
With just 2 kittens I would put them together. They are still so young that the cone will not frighten them. In addition they are small and I can't imagine they can do much damage to her stitches! But, don't blame me if things go wrong, I am not a vet. Watch them, if they are happy then leave them together.

I have only had one similar situation - but the kittens were at least 4 weeks old and the mother cat was very accommodating allowing me to put the cone on and take it off so that she could eat comfortably. The biggest problem was that the kittens were frightened of the mother cat with a cone!

I hope someone with more experience will give you an answer soon - before it's too late.
 

lutece

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Did the vet say that it was not OK for the kittens to nurse because of the antibiotics?

Are the stitches internal w/surgical glue, or external (suture material sticking out)?
 

Sarthur2

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I would let them nurse. It takes awhile for milk to dry up and in the meantime mom is very uncomfortable. She’ll also want to clean the kittens. The small amount of antibiotics in her milk will not harm the kittens, and they are truly better off with their mom. Did she have a C-section or was she spayed? Just supervise and hopefully her wound will heal properly this time. Let us know how this goes!

Lfagliano Lfagliano
 
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Lfagliano

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Hey all thanks for the swift responses.

She got a c section and she got spayed, all because the vet said so when we took her after having a very rough labor. But yea, it was one of the most stressful moments I have ever experienced, with her stitches being totally broken.

The vet has said not to allow the kittens to feed because of the antibiotics, although we were not told for how long , something we are going to ask him tomorrow because they have not even taken out the catheter of her foot (they said we should see how is she).

And stitches are external.
 

lutece

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Ok, external stitches are a little trickier, since they are a lot easier for the cat to pull out. Since she already pulled out stitches before, I would keep the cone on unless you are watching her like a hawk. It's unlikely for the kittens to disturb the stitches, but sometimes cats pull out their own stitches if they have the opportunity.

If the only med she's been given is antibiotics, I'm not sure why it would be unsafe for kittens to nurse on mom. You could call the vet to ask about what she was given and double check whether they really think this would be unsafe for the kittens. (The meds given should be on her release papers, too.) I have had moms with c-sections before, and they were able to nurse their kittens normally. As long as the meds aren't dangerous for the kittens, it's better for both mom and babies if they can nurse.
 
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