# Drying up Mom?



## My3babies (Sep 27, 2007)

Kitty's Mom and I have a few questions:

The foster mom needs to be spayed within the next two weeks and she is still nursing. The vet won't spay her until she is done lactating. We thought she would stop on her own, but the kittens are 13 weeks old and she doesn't seem to mind at all. 8O 

How should we start the weaning process? Do we need to separate them completely? Can they have supervised time together? I feel really bad taking her away from them. How long before she can go back with the kittens?

She has been getting wet food twice a day and all the dry food that she wants. Do we need to start restricting her food? If so, how much do we give her?

Anything else we should know?

Thanks in advance.


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## Sol (Feb 20, 2003)

I can't see why they can't spay her now. She'll probably stop producing milk when she's been spayed.

But if they're really persistent about her having to stop nursing before they spay her you'll have to separate her completely from her babies. She'll probably continue nursing them for a good few weeks if you let her.

You could try to put a shirt on her so the kittens can't reach the nipples. That should make her dry up eventually.


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## Mitts & Tess (Sep 4, 2004)

Katie this is the part I hate, when you need to stop them from nursing to dry them up.

Its harder for the vet to do the spay if they are engorged. So what we do is remove the babies from her. You have to reduce her food intake also. It will help her dry up faster. 

Ive never tried the shirt method but I would try it cuz then you wouldnt have to remove her from the kittens. Expect her to be uncomfortable for several days.


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## My3babies (Sep 27, 2007)

Thanks Sol and Merry. 

I know they don't need the milk anymore, but I still feel bad. If they didn't have ringworm, they would have been up for adoption last weekend. They would have been taken away from mom anyway. It's just hard because they are still here, I really hate taking them away from her.

We tried to find a shirt, but she is really long and skinny and nothing would cover all of her nipples and stay on. So we had to separate them yesterday. She was fine most of the day, but she cried and laid outside their bedroom door all night! I feel terrible. The babies were all sticking their arms under the door trying to get to her. I would not be doing this if the vet did not insist that she dry up before the spay. I sure hope it gets better soon.


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## Mitts & Tess (Sep 4, 2004)

My heart goes out to you. Its wrenching to put them thru that. Tim will say were assigning human qualities to them! :roll: But you gotta have a heart of stone not to feel for them!

My foster Sally, who was such a great mom, went thru the same thing last Thursday. I adopted out two of her kittens and had to move the other 3 the same day cuz I have UR spreading thru my house. 

She would go in my garage and sit in front of the signs theyd sleep behind and yowl for them. I finally let her into the house with UR and hoped for the best with my 4 inside. It was breaking my heart listening to her

She has been engorged for 7 days now. Its started to be not so engorged today and Ive showered her with attention trying to make it better. 

I wonder if there are dachshund shirts out there to give this a try on the next momma cat. :?:


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## Sol (Feb 20, 2003)

If you can't stand it, try to make a tube shirt to her from some cotton stockings. It works very well for small Devon Rex females.


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