Is it normal for their health to suffer while they are nursing their kittens? I am fostering her and her kittens and don't know what her health was like before she had them.
She is thinner than usual. A little less so now, but you can clearly feel her spine and her ribcage.
She shits a lot - at least 4 times a day if not more, the record so far is 8 - and it's loose and (sorry if TMI) usually pale beige colour. She just produced bowel movement number 7 so today she may break her record.
She drinks a lot of water. She has a huge appetite and is almost desperate for food but when I let her dictate how much she ate she became ill and listless after a couple of days. She's not fond of dry, and I leave a bowl of that out all day and she picks at it. She has 4 wet food meals a day but she tries to steal food from me, and physically attempts to open the fridge/cupboards so I have to shut her out of the kitchen.
If she wasn't feeding five kittens I'd suspect hyperthyroidism or something else, but she's a young cat.
My plan is to see if she recovers once the kittens are weaned - they are 4 and a half weeks, but if people think I need to take her to a vet sooner I will. It's just a bit stressful for her because we have to take all six of them together.