Advice needed for pregnant stray please!

[Parisisalwaysagoodidea]

Please bear in mind I have never had a cat so looking for advice on whether I'm doing this right!

My friend noticed a cat in her garden this summer, it rarely left the garden and tried coming into her house which her own cat did not like!

Over time we noticed the cat was becoming increasingly thin and it was losing its fur. We knocked on doors in the local area and phoned rescues/vets etc to see if someone had reported it missing but no joy.

The cat really did look very ill and, though my friend had fed it a bit she couldn't take it in as her cat wouldn't accept it and she couldn't afford to keep it. I decided that we couldn't wait any longer to find an owner and I spoke to DH about taking the cat to the vets and to our house forever and ever a rescue centre and we collected the cat on Tuesday evening.

The vet examined it and told us the cat was very starved and had a bad flea infestation (now treated) which was why it is pretty bald. There was no microchip and it was female and pregnant (sigh).

We took her home and put her in the bathroom (wipe clean surfaces for easy flea and wee/poo disposal). She currently lives in a large box with a doorway cut into it and a towel on the floor of it. She is eating 3/4 of a tin of food a day with about 10 dentabits as treats to make her like us! I've been researching pregnant cats and I'm going to find some pregnant cat food or kitten food. She has been eating Butchers classic which is what my friend gave me and feeds her cat. She has a litter tray that she finally used perfectly last night (Yay!). So I have moved her to our spare room in the hope that she continues to use it.

Her fleas are gone and she's eating well but I need to take her to the vet for a scan. The vet said it's not vital but as she is so thin and very small I am worried that there may be problems with the kittens.

Now we know she is pregnant I'm not sure we can keep her as it is so expensive to raise kittens properly but having read about the crisis in cat rescues I'm thinking we will probably have to. I could carry on looking for the owner but it seems unlikely she has one that gives a shit .

She is a totally fab cat, very affectionate and I am trying not to become attached by naming her or anything in my head her name is Rowena.

I hope I am looking after her properly, please tell me if I'm not. I could do with advice and a hand to hold through this!

I would suggest contacting your local Cats Protection they often have specialist 'maternity' foster homes. If none of these are available I suspect they will provide help and support to you.

It sounds like you're doing all the right things - keeping her somewhere safe; providing food, veterinary care and somewhere to sleep. Definitely introduce some kitten food now, she'll need the extra boost to help get through the pregnancy.

Have you spoken to the Cats Protection or the RSPCA (as crap as they can be, it's not worth ruling them out) to ask if they can cover the vets bills for the kittens and whether they'll be able to do the home checks and other rehoming stuffs so you can minimise the amount of strain on yourselves...?

That all said; if you're willing to keep mama cat, then a small part of me says you can't just have her and not her kitteny baggage. So it's almost a case of either keeping her and dealing with the kitten rearing and rehoming, or giving her over to a rescue as soon as possible; before it progresses too far and she's too pregnant to be moved.

Where, roughly, are you? I don't know many cat rescues, but depending on your location, others in here might have some local knowledge...

Well done Rowena for finally finding herself such a nice, responsible, home.

The very best thing for the cat would be to have an abortion. No one likes the idea but it best for her (giving birth can be dangerous and takes a lot out of a cat) and it will mean that less unwanted kittens are born.

If you can't afford it yourself (and it shouldn't cost much more than normal spaying), contact CPL to see if they can get you a voucher. But obviously time is of the essence ...

i would second getting in touch with local cat rescues as shes being starved and is pregnant and you are not experienced cat owners, a rescue will put her with an experienced foster home, maybe if you would like to keep momma ask if the rescue will look fter her till kits are rehomed and you could then adopt her yourself, abortion is an option and spay momma depends on how pregnant she is

sorry should say been not being meanwhile give her kitten biscuits or royal canin queen biscuits to build her up, butchers classic is good tinned food as its high meat and low cereal

Thank you so much for your prompt replies.

I'll book a scan for early next week so see what's happening re babies. When examining her the vet said she felt something wasn't quite right but she thought it was probably because she hasn't palpated such a thin cat before. it's playing on my mind so I'll get that done. I agree that if she is in early pregnancy being spayed would be best for her. I'm so worried that her tiny body would struggle to carry, deliver and rear a litter.

I'm in Nottingham and currently gathering a list of rescues to contact for advice. Now the shock is starting to wear off I would be happy to see her and the kittens through the birth, rearing and rehoming process but due to her being neglected etc I worry that I may not have the experience needed. If she went to a foster home then I would certainly ask if I could have her back once the kittens have been rehomed!

I'll contact the rescues so they know about the situation but will hang fire until I know the results of the scan.

It really would be best for her in that condition to be spayed straight away, even if she is quite far gone. At Celia Hammond's we only don't abort if the vets feel the pregnancy has less than about a week to go. And there are so many unwanted cats and kittens if you can possibly avoid adding to the numbers it would be best all round.

Well done to you for taking her in and doing something about it by the way.

Eek! Just called the local CPL for advice and got an answering machine message saying the centre is on lockdown due to cat flu and the cut me off.

The vet who saw her on Tuesday is phoning me tomorrow morning to discuss her care further including a scan.

Thanks again and I'll keep you all posted

If she's been very starved, you have to consider whether the kittens might have suffered in utero in some way - maybe that's what gave the vet a little second thought.

Best of luck for tomorrow - and to her in general.

I will be amazed if those kittens are ok after she has been so neglected. Hopefully the scan will shed some light on the situation.

She seems much more tired today. Am I worry over nothing? Maybe she is just more relaxed and settled today. She's grooming herself a lot, didn't see her do that before today.

She hasn't eaten all her dinner either (been feeding her small amounts 4 times a day). I presume she has caught up food wise and is full or she can relax now she knows there will be more food soon?

She certainly isn't the first stray to pass through these doors and won't be the last but she is the first cat and first pregnant animal so I am unsure and worried about everything!

Why not give the vet a little phone now with an update. (She will likely still be around the practice.) The being tired and not eating would make me edgy.

Update: She's eaten all her food and is now alternating between head butting me, kneading my lap and rolling around on the floor so I stroke her tum.

Panic over for now!

She sounds lovely, good luck.

Good stuff. Well done Rowena.

If you pm me i have a friend who does cat rescue/ fostering in Nottingham and may be able to help

Good luck with her OP.

Could we have a picture? I caught a very young mama cat and her kittens. I think she became a mother at only seven months. A kitten herself! Anyway now she is three years and sticks close to our garage, where her heated house and food supply is. I named her Vivienne as she deserves a beautiful name.

MrsSnail I'll pm you later. I'm on my phone and it takes ages to type!

Vet phoned today. Said she thought that there was no reason for concern re kits and strangeness she felt in cats stomach was probably faeces in the intestine as in late pregnancy the internal organs shift a bit. We'll be back at the vets on Monday morning for another examination and possibly a scan if I feel it's needed.

I let her out of the room today after a meeting with the Ddog. Ddog was swiftly put in his place and they have spent the day sniffing each others faces. She seems pleased to have the run of the house but I won't leave them together unsupervised. Ddog is a border/bearded collie cross and very soft but rather intense! She has plenty of places to get away from him.

Hansie I'll try and upload a photo. Love Vivienne! I had a rescue rabbit I named Genevieve whom I called Vivi.

In my experience border collies get on very well with cats and are usually put in their place fairly quickly - although you'd be quite right to supervise. (And I'm not sure how one would react to kittens if it got that far - probably try to herd them!) The only suggestion I'd make is to put their food dishes a good bit apart because collies can sometimes get a bit precious if their food is very delicious to them.

Excellent news about the vet's view. Is she eating well today?

Oh - and 'late pregnancy' ? How far along does the vet think she is?

If Rowena does have kittens they won't cost you much. You will only need to feed tiny appetites for about 4 weeks until they go to new homes at 8 weeks old. In posher places it's not hard to find good homes because almost all cats are neutered.
Starving cats (and humans) go on having babies.

Cozie Ddog is suffering from unrequited love! I'm feeding her in the spare room for now where her bed and litter tray are.

She's eating well. She's still on Butchers Classic atm as there was no decent kitten food in the supermarket. Any recommendations for good kitten food?

Vet reckons from examinations that the kits may be here next week but couldn't be sure obvs.

Portrait if she is as far along as the vet thinks and the kits are born healthy then I'll have to start the search for homes for them. Would be interesting to know how many kits there are as she doesn't even look that big. Do pregnant cats stomachs grow rapidly in the final week or 2?

i would stick with the butchers classic it is good quality food and with about a week to go and she dosent look that big she is probably only carrying one or maybe two kittens nature has a way of making sure moms can cope with how many they can carry

I have a post vet update.

The vet has now decided the cat isn't pregnant! It turns out that the cat was really bloated from eating all the food my friend gave her and her babies were, in fact, poo babies!

I'm still keeping her inside until she puts some more weight on (her weight has gone up to 2.9kg!) and then she is being spayed.

Thanks all for the support you have given me

Poo babies ... lol. Well that's good news and it makes life much easier all round. She may already be spayed of course - they will need to shave her side to check for a scar.

So you're keeping her?