# It’s over, but what happened?



## Jezme (May 5, 2019)

I’ll try to not drag this out....
So I have had cats forever, always having 1 or 2, even 3. Always had them fixed and given shots... anyway for several years now I try to take care of the ferals around here and some are receptive and others just rely on their instincts to much. So much it is a disadvantage to them.
I have three kittens a mother abandoned. They were big enough to eat on their own but had eye infections I was treating and they were improving. One day we found the smallest one laying on the patio covered in some kind of goo. Looks like it woke up with its eyes glued shut again and got into something. We still don’t know where or what it was but it took me 2 hours to get it off with dawn. I thought it was just exhausted but it wasn’t waking up. I carried it around in my shirt and dribbled kitten formula into her mouth for five days. He woke up and crackled a squeak and was very hungry. He still slept a lot but was improving. He turned into a she because I always thought orange tabby cats were males... not so. Buddy turned into Rosebud.
So I take her to the vet to see what they thought and they thought she was perfect. She was too young to be fixed but she had her shots. They didn’t think the way she kept her head tilted was an issue nor her funky smelling breath.
When the 3 were old enough to be fixed I took the first one Eloise to a Mobile clinic and she was given her shots, dewormed, fixed, microchipped and flea dipped. She had been pregnant and I was shocked because there were so little. The following week I loaded up Rosebud and when I got there there was only a sign saying everything was closed due to Covid 19.... I was worried that she was pregnant too and sure enough she was.
She got very round and her nips got big. Then her milk came in and then it changed into her nips shrinking and there were furnish lumps below her nips. She showed no maternal instincts and and was terribly scared when she went into labor.
I have had many mama cats and litters and always just found the mamas with their new babies snuggled and warm. Rosebud went into labor on my bed and I tried to help her as best I could. The first started coming and all I could see was a purplish bulge and she kept trying to get away but it finally came out but it wasn’t moving or breathing. I removed the membrane and cut the cord but it was dead. I think maybe it was stuck for too long. It had no fur at all.
She ended up giving birth to three more that were alive but I had to remove the membranes and cut the cords. She did clean them off but she didn’t eat the placentas.
They were soooo tiny, tiny little babies with hairless feet and ears and the reddest noses and mouths. They tried to nurse on her shrunken nips but she’d get freaked out and move. They would cry and then she would run back and nuzzle them and lick them but always looking at me like she was asking for help.
Their little bodies were not retaining warmth so I got a heating pad and started started bottle feeding them. Rosebud would get all concerned when they would cry while I was feeding them or helping them pee.
She would try to nurse them and snuggle them but then she would jump out of the box and watch from across the room.
one by one they died. They were gone in less than 3 days. It was horrible and traumatic... not just for Rosebud. I had to give her a tiny stuffed bunny because she kept asking me for her babies. She and Eloise carried it around for several days.
So I guess I’m wondering if anyone knows why that happened. Was she too young, was it being in a coma when she was a kitten, was it coming from a feral mother?
When she got her shots they said she was a healthy beautiful girl.
The pics below are of Pricilla and Prince and Pavarotti.... and of Rosebud with her surrogate baby.


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## eldercat (Jul 3, 2015)

Ugh, what a sad story! It just wasn't meant to be.... Maybe someone else can explain what happened, I don't know.


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## Sharon2665 (Nov 20, 2012)

Sounds like poor Rosebud was just to young to bring babies fully to term and know how to take care of them. My goodness she was just a baby herself. So so sorry that happened but sounds like they may have been born early. Hope she is doing better now. She is a beautiful girl.


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## catloverami (Jul 5, 2010)

I think they were born premature, and the fact that they didn't nurse or couldn't because the Rosebud was too freaked out with them, it was inevitable that they would die in three days. Some kittens are born that just won't nurse, and they usually die in 3 days (called "fading kitten syndrome") thos some may crawl away from the litter to a corner of the box....seems like a natural instinct with them so a dying kitten doesn't foul the "nest". Her milk didn't come in properly for some reason as the teats should not have been "shrunken nips". So sorry to hear you had to go through this.....very sad situation, and the best thing for Rosebud would be to have her spayed....some cats just don't want or can't have kittens normally..


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## catloverami (Jul 5, 2010)

Another sentence I forgot to add: Don't delay inhaving her spayed.....as she may come back into heat in 2 wks or so, and get impregnated again. Keep her indoors until you've had her spayed. She's such a beautiful little girl!


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