Expert: Ali - 10/13/2008

Question
The cat is pregnant with her first lit and has gone into labor. She is contracting and pushing and their is a mucous like discharge she started contracting and pushing at 8pm it is now 836pm would she need extra help

Answer
Celeste,

I always recommend that a cat that has been straining for over an hour without producing a kitten should be examined by a vet. Sometimes larger kittens can become stuck in the birth canal or pelvis and the queen may require a caesarian so it's important to be prompt about getting this mom and her kittens in to see the vet. If the vet believes that mom just needs a little extra support he or she may use forceps to help deliver the kitten or give mom an injection of oxytocin to help increase the strength and effectiveness of the uterine contractions. If mom requires a caesarian I would strongly suggest that you have her spayed at the same time to avoid the chances of this situation repeating itself.

As a cat lover I feel humane education is very close to my heart so I have taken the liberty of presenting you with some facts about spaying and neutering. Queens can become pregnant again fairly shortly after giving birth so it's very important to keep mom away from any intact male cats to prevent accidental breeding prior to her weaning these newborns. Most mother cats will begin the process of weaning their kittens when they are around 6-8 weeks of age. I usually suggest that the kittens stay with mom and their litter mates until they are at least 10-12 weeks of age. This allows mom to teach important skills such as bite inhibition and how to be a cat. Siblings within a litter make great teachers, kittens don't really realize that they have the capacity to hurt someone when they bite them so they learn how it feels to be bitten from their siblings and mother who ensures that the kittens don't get out of hand. Kittens who stay with mom for at least 10-12 weeks are also physically stronger and less fragile than kittens between 5-8 weeks of age. It's all too easy to accidentally injure a tiny kitten between birth and 8-9 weeks of age. It's a good idea to isolate mom and her kittens for the first 5-6 weeks in a quiet room behind a closed door if you have other cats in the household because intact male cats will kill the kittens so that mom will go into season sooner and they can mate with her. Female cats will sometimes take one or more of the kittens from mom and begin producing milk to feed them even if they haven't had kittens. Sometimes more dominant female cats will take the whole litter from mom and raise them as their own which is obviously quite stressful for mom and should be avoided if at all possible. It would be a good idea to have a kitchen scale that measures in grams up to two pounds so that you can keep track of how each kitten is doing and step in if one or more kittens aren't growing and thriving as they should. If mom develops mastitis you will need to feed the kittens a kitten milk replacer by hand. If this happens you will need to separate mom from her litter at least while she's being treated with antibiotics for the infection. In this case you will need to pick up a kitten milk replacer such as KMR, Just Born or Mammalac and oral syringes like the kind used to give babies liquid medication commonly found in the baby section of pharmacies.

It's very important to consider the fact that animal rescue groups and shelters just don't have the room or staffing for the sheer numbers of pets that come through their doors every day. Pet overpopulation is an incredibly serious issue worldwide and many adoptable and healthy cats and kittens are euthanized simply because the shelter doesn't have the space to house them or resources to meet their needs. Spaying and neutering are routine medical procedures in vet clinics and for the most part they carry minimal risk. There is of course a risk with any type of anesthetic, however the use of human anesthetic agents and the fact that pets are monitored closely by a qualified technician throughout the surgery means that the risks are kept low. The decision to spay or neuter a pet saves lives because it reduces the risks of serious medical and behavioral problems as well as stopping a cat or kitten from reproducing. Cats who aren't sterilized are far more likely to wander, get into fights with other cats and small animals that may require emergency medical care, caterwaul throughout the night to advertise their availability to mate and of course contract viral infections like FIV and feline leukemia. Medical risks to having an intact male cat include prostate cancer, testicular cancer and of course bite wounds from fighting that can show up as abscesses which are extremely painful and require treatment by the vet. Intact female cats are far more likely to contract mammary cancers, ovarian and uterine cancers and a life threatening infection of the womb called pyometra which causes the womb to fill up with pus and if the uterus ruptures infection can be quickly spread throughout the abdomen and internal organs almost certainly resulting in fatal complications. All too often pet lovers that work in animal shelters and vet clinics are forced to euthanize pets simply because they are unwanted, abandoned or they have developed behavioral issues that their human caregivers aren't able to correct. In North America it is estimated that only 3% of cats and kittens admitted to shelters are reclaimed by their human guardians. This sad statistic suggests that cats are viewed as disposable pets. Please, help to prevent unwanted litters, serious behavioral and medical issues by spaying or neutering your pets. Many people believe that spaying or neutering an animal is unnatural or it makes them fat and lazy. That's just not true, surgically sterilizing a pet is no more unnatural than keeping them indoors and preventing them from breeding which is what intact animals are hard wired to do. Spaying or neutering a pet doesn't make them fat or lazy, if a cat eats too much and doesn't exercise he/she will gain weight just as a person or other animal would. Keeping a pet active and controlling their portions is the best way to ensure that they will remain at a healthy body weight and reduce the risks of medical issues like diabetes, hypertension, arthritis and cardiovascular issues just to name a few.