# mama too small?



## treehugger (Dec 14, 2003)

Hi everyone!
We found a very sweet little cat wondering around our place a couple of days ago(the day before yesturday) we would have just left her be figureing she would go home but it was a blistering minus 56 C and there was NO way anything outside could survive over night!
SO we bring her in and right away it was very obvious she was VERY pregnant!!! I mean ready to burst anyday! She seems totally healthy but gigantic in the belly! So the next day we of course ask everyone around here if they had seen her or knew whos she was. No one had seen her before and trust me... i live in a tiny village of about 400 so everyone knows everything! So we still have her and thats fine with me she gets along with the family well.
My biggest concern IS.... she is a VERY very very tiny small framed little cat!
i thought our lilly was small but this one is much smaller! So im very worried about her delivering these kittens!
Do smaller cats by any chance produce smaller kittens!?
I am worried about her having troubles with this!! We live an hour away from any city and our car is actually on the side of the road on the highway as it is DEAD!! So i cant take her to the vet right now!! The car WILL be fixed wed so I hope she can wait till then... but any thoughts on what I can do for her if she has them in the next few days??
And if worse comes to worse I can get an emergency farm vet out here when shes in labour and if she has troubles! But has anyone else had a very tiny cat succesfully have kittens with no troubles??
Im so worried, she is the SWEETEST thing ever and I imagine she was just dumped out here because she was pregnant! that happens a lot here!
anyways, thanks for listening!


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## felinefanatic (Feb 8, 2004)

Hello, bless your heart for taking in the new mamma-to-be. :) 
She may barely be a kitten herself - 8 months ? maybe younger ?
Check her nipples, are they heavy with milk ? if so , then she will have the babies at any time.
Give her a warm safe box with plenty of bedding , in a quiet room and away from daughts. Hopefully she will take to it right away and have her babies in there.
Closer to the due date she may go off her food and lick her genitalia alot, these are all signs that birth is just hours away. Try and be there when she is ready to have the babies so you can help if she has trouble.
In answer to your question, yes, smaller queens tend to have smaller babies, but that is by no means a rule. 

1 in 4 kittens born are delivered feet first, so dont panick if you see a baby dangling behind mamma with the head still inside the birth canal. Take a clean small cloth, wrap it around the kittens body, and very gentle pull WHEN MAMMA PUSHES in an arc motion toward the mother belly, (so when the baby is delivered mamma and baby are belly to belly) this avoids too much stress on the neck and spine. DO NOT PULL THE BABY with bare hands or if mamma is not pushing !

When a kitten is born, be sure to remove the membrane from its face so it can breath. Mamma cat has great instinct to clean up the afterbirth and chew the umbilical cord, so try not to stress her out by removing the baby from her sight, try and work around her if you can.

Clean the baby's mouth and nose and hopefully it will breath on its own. It should sneeze and cry out the rest of the fluid.
Sometimes the kittens are born very quickly, one after the other, and mamma cant keep up, so you may have to get the babies breathing while she pushes out another kitten.

IF THE KITTEN IS NOT BREATHING :
make sure the airway is clear, membrane away from face, gently clean the mouth and nose with a rough cloth, and also rub the babies body with the cloth. Dont be too gentle, but certainly not rough !. You are trying to stimulate breathing and blood circulation. If you can get them to cry, you've done your job.
If you are not getting a response, hold the baby in the cloth cupped in your hands, head away from you but held firm between your fingers, swing the baby in a large arc between your legs. The force should expell the fluid from the lungs. Only swing twice, then check baby, rub firmly check again - no breathing ? repeat swinging arc. etc.

Have a hot water bottle ready to place the kittens on while the rest are being born. it is important to keep them warm. Once they are crying they should start moving around very quickly , you can tell these ones are stong and are already looking for a nipple.

If they babies are very tiny and look premature and you cannot revive them in 5 minutes, put them aside and concentrate on the next one.

If mamma is pushing hard and crying and no baby is coming within 1 hour, call the vet. She may need and emergency c-section to get the rest of the babies out if they or mamma have any chance of survival.

When you think all the babies are born, you can now attempt to clean the box, put new bedding down. Try and encourage the kittens to suckle by placing them on a nipple. 
If you can , make sure each of them has a good nurse for at least 5-10 minutes each, they need the colostrum.

When its all over, fix mamma something to eat and drink, she will be tired but I'm sure she will be hungry.


It could happen that none of the babies are viable, being premature,or the mother too young. Whatever the outcome, if you are there to help, I am sure you will do your best. Better than leaving mamma on the street to struggle by herself.


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## Aonir (Aug 18, 2003)

I had a feral momma-cat (only one), and she had her first litter when she was under a year. I don't know exactly how many kittens she's had, but we only found/caught 6 - from 3 different litters. She didn't have any trouble(because shes alive!), but this stunned her growth and she didn't get very big. All the kittens grew to normal sized cats..


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## treehugger (Dec 14, 2003)

Thanks so much for all the great info!
I have this page under favorites and will print it out to have it on hand in case of.. well anything!
So far no kittens!! You can feel them inside her though and its very exciting! 
Her nipples ARE sticking out why more then a non-pregnant cat but they arent what you call "over flowing" by ANY means!!
So maybe she isnt as "ready to bust" as I first thought! But compared to the other cats she's a tub!! :wink: 
I made her a nesting box right away and have moved it to her gavorite spot in the house hoping she will have them in there ! She has indeed taken to it and has been diging around and shifting things and stealing socks to put in it so thats a good sign that she likes this box!!
Thanks so much again!!


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## PrincessClaire (Jan 16, 2004)

That is a very good sign, sounds like she is getting it prepared for the new arrivals as well, good luck keep us posted


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## Sam (Jul 8, 2003)

Hi Thanks you so much for taking this girl in when she's about to pop.  

With regards to Small cats= small kittens, not always true I've got a little tiny kitty cat , who gave birth to four big kittens this year. :wink: But a thing with small cats is that they might have a small pelvis, and that would make it hard for big kittens to get out. Hopefully since the cat is nearly due you are with her alot. We had two cats this season with milk in well before there kittens were born(about five days) if she hasn't had her kittens soon and you can clearly see that she has milk then just check her to see if she has Mastitis(Swollen mammery glands) if she does take a warm flannel and place it on, this will soothe her very much. and of course please keep us posted and any questions,feel free to ask.

Also, pictures is a must. :lol: 

Best of luck,
Sam.


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## treehugger (Dec 14, 2003)

hey
ok so we took her to the vet this morning and he said she could still have about a week to go!! A WEEK??? Maybe I am unfarmiliar with HOW big cats get... or maybe she has a small army in there! He also said that even though she has siamese points she is NOT a siamese cat she just has those markings and maybe somewhere in her history there was Siamese blood and she got the markings, we have other Siamese cats and now that he points it out ya, she doesnt really look like a true Siamese but she has points??
I dont know about all that! (In this area I live in there is A LOT of Siamese cats the two we already have were also abandond and one was found living in a barn around here. VERY strange I thought these were expensive cats and here they are all running around loose and homless! Very sad. 
Anyways, so thats the update.. another week!! I have to take off next week until the second week of march due to an illness in the family so It looks like I will be coming HOME to babies! But fear not my husband mr. Biologist will be perfectly fine (i think i trust his kitten assisting more then I trust my own!!) and he has the vets number right on hand now!
So when I get back ill be sure to share some pics!!
thanks everyone!!


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## Sam (Jul 8, 2003)

Good to hear about the vet visit. Can't wait to hear all about the birth


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## Wayne (Feb 1, 2003)

Treehugger, is that a picture of your new cat in your logo? Color points on a Siamese is indicative of a Siamese mix. I have four Siamese mix cats, and one who has the personality of a pure-bred Siamese. Any cat with blue eyes after they reach adulthood has some Siamese in them.  It is good of you to take her in while it is so cold outside. With a new brood of kittens in your house, they should provide plenty of fun and amusement watching them grow and play. I priced some pure-bred Siamese cats from a cattery in Missouri. The owner said that any kitten I wanted was $115 per cat. They can be very expensive -too expensive to allow to run around outside.


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