7 month old cat pregnant - any success stories?

[silvercuckoo]

Hello all,

A shocking discovery at the vets today - my 7 month old cat is (accidentally) pregnant, and is approximately halfway / two-thirds through. Are there any success stories of a cat safely delivering at this age? The vet says she will likely be fine as she is almost fully grown now and in the worst case they will do a c-section, but I am still quite nervous.

Why is it shocking? Surely you knew you’d let her out unspayed?

My cat was young when she had kittens but not that young, around 18 months.
She's a small, sleek cat though and she had four with no bother at all.
That's a few years ago now, all kittens grew up, one got hit by a train and didn't make it but other three alive and well, I kept two.

She escaped btw, wasn't out intentionally and is spayed now.

Is it too late to get her neutered now?

You have to wait till the kittens arrive to spay.

The vet can spay and abort in one op if you don't want kittens.

That's why spaying/ neutering is recommended at 4 months and why they shouldn't be outside before it's been done

Not necessarily, terminate the pregnancy and neuter. No pregnancy, no kittens.

Wow, that's young, but that's why you are advised to get them neutered young. If she is still a bit scrawny as young cats tend to be, keep her on kitten food until she has finished weaning her kittens. It takes a lot out of them.

My cat had a single kitten at about 9 months when I was a child. No issues, she was a Good mum.

Reason she's not neutered is that I was advised to wait with spaying until 8 months by the breeder, she's a large breed, and the vet agreed with the plan. She was supposed to be a strictly indoor cat (and it is even in the contract with the breeder), but it turned out my cleaner "took pity" and let her out regularly when cleaning. A miracle is actually that she did not get under a car, as we live on a busy road.

The vet can spay and abort in one op if you don't want kittens.
Even at this advanced term?

It’s worth asking. I would sack the cleaner.

Sack the cleaner and get her to pay the vet bills!

I’d be furious with the cleaner. How irresponsible. I don’t know about this situation but if she’s a large breed, hopefully she’s quite strong. What breed is she?

Cleaner already sacked. She did not even understand what the issue is, and suggested that her boyfriend simply comes around and drowns the kittens when they are born, as they do back home. Ridiculous thing is that I stated in the contract with her agency under "special requests" that the dog and the cat are to be locked in the utility room when she is cleaning - but I guess there's a snowball in hell chance of actually recovering the costs from anyone, and cat c-sections seems to be priced at the same level as human c-sections :)
She is a Maine coon, and already quite big - definitely bigger than neighbour's Siamese cats.

What a stupid cleaner!
I think she'll be fine.

My cat would have had kittens at 7 or 8 months (got her post kittens). She was fine but two of four kittens were stillborn. She is still a very small cat, 2.5kg, at one year.

Is a 7 month old Maine Coon really fully grown? I thought they matured later than other cats?

It's better than the alternative, which is putting a strain on the body of a very young cat and bringing yet more kittens into a world where there already aren't enough homes to go
Of course, that's the first thing I will do tomorrow - call around and find the clinic who does it. It just was not mentioned as option at all at the appointment, only the increased chance of emergency c-section and that she might be not maternal at this age at all, so the kittens will have to be manually fed with cat formula every 3 or so hours.

Fuck me she's a peach isn't she?.

You mean the cleaner Fluffy? Yes indeed. Unfortunately killing kittens at birth is what seems to be the norm in an awful lot of countries. Some Romanian people literally cried with happiness when I got their cat neutered as they had been killing their cat's kittens with a hammer for years and honestly didn't know there was any alternative. They were from rural Romania and spoke no English. I was taken to them by some other Romanians who I'd been working with and their gratitude at no longer having to do it was overwhelming.

That'll be why my vets does neutering in Romania then. I wondered why they chose Romania.

Let's hope word gets out.

Bloody hell all above re killing kittens as post birth control. My ex (rural Welsh) FIL was upset I got my boys neutered as it was 'going against mother nature'. I replied, hitting kittens on the head with the back of an axe is nature's way then? Apparently, that's what they did.
Back to OP, my first cat was your cat's age when she got pregnant (because we were told it wasn't possible, back in the day). She had five kittens and was the best mum ever. I was only nine at the time and read up as much as I could and was searching out where she would 'nest' - no sign of that so I made her a comfy box with blankets. Woke up one morning with her breaking her waters on my pillow! She proceeded to give birth to all five on my bed and I was there the whole time - I saved the first one, somehow, he didn't mew or move at first. I had to sleep in the dining room for a while but felt honoured that she loved and trusted me enough with her kittens. She died at 13.