Right when i got ready to leave the shelter this afternoon from work i cleaned the cages in the hallway. (that's where we keep our pregnant kitties/new moms so they're seperate from other animals.) Yesterday among many other crazy happenings at our shelter, a lady brought in a pregnant cat she had founbd (yea right
). ANYWAYS my coworker was right- she had those kittens eithor last night or this morning - (she took one look at her and said she was about to pop!
) When I opened the cage this afternoon to feed/care for the momma and change the bedding- i noticed something was horribly wrong. The momma must have been a new momma because when i looked at the 5 kittens- they were ALL 5 still attached to the placenta and it was soo horrible they were all intertwined and their little legs and tails were stick together.
At first i took them into the surgery room and was going to try and cut the cords myself and tie them off- but they were wrapped up soo badly i couldn't. I called my boss and she said to go to her house with them and she'd help.(she's soo sweet!
) So i loaded up the kittens and momma in my car and off we went. When we got there- one of the kittens was already dead- it had ripped itself away from the others and it's little bowel was hanging out
poor baby. We were able after about 45 minutes to untangle the remaining 4 kittens. It was at that point we realized that one of the other kittens had both legs, its tail (and i also think it's pelvis) broken from being wrapped up soo badly
That kitten we were able to untangle and get the placenta off of it- but the damage was already done- so when i take it back to the shelter in a little bit ( i go back at night to rewater all the animals in the summer), i'm going to have to put the little baby down- i hate to do it, but that's the most kind thing right now-
It's in a lot of pain and it's way too young to have the extensive surgeries it'd take to fix both legs, the tip of the tail and its pelvis. Hopefully though- at least the other three will have a good fighting chance of making it and the momma will do ok with them now. (just checked on her a minute ago and she was nursing all of them.)
(at this point i'm still planning on taking the momma and kittens back to work with me tonight to go back into their cage at the shelter- but i may wind up keeping them in the garage seperate from my other animals in the side room if i see they need the extra help.)
so yea, important lesson of the day for all who read this: PLEASE SPAY/NEUTER YOUR PET(S) AND ENCOURAGE OTHERS TO DO THE SAME!!:
(at this point i'm still planning on taking the momma and kittens back to work with me tonight to go back into their cage at the shelter- but i may wind up keeping them in the garage seperate from my other animals in the side room if i see they need the extra help.)
so yea, important lesson of the day for all who read this: PLEASE SPAY/NEUTER YOUR PET(S) AND ENCOURAGE OTHERS TO DO THE SAME!!: