Expert: Karen Craft - 3/18/2008

Question
Hi there, my mother recently took in a cat from someone trying to get rid of her. We don't have many details about her past but I do know that she is barely a year. My mom had an appointment to get her spayed not even knowing she was pregnant. She has been with my mom for about two weeks now. My mom also has a male cat. The female cat became very territorial and didn't let my moms make cat near her. Well Sun. night my mom let her cat upstairs and the female got very aggresive so my mom had to seperate her. Shortly after her water broke (i think) she went into the garage and wouldn't come out. Please keep in mind we didn't know she was pregnant. The next day my mom went in there and there were 2 kittens. The garage is connected to the house but is still very cold so I went over and put the mama and 2 kittens in a room and turned the heater on. I tried sqeezing her boobs cause it didn't look like she was making milk and the babies weren't able to get milk. I wasn't successfull at making the milk come out so I rushed to petco to get a bottle and formula. One of the kittens was very very tiny the other was a good size. The tinier one died shortly after which was the sadest thing I have ever experienced but I had a feeling she wouldn't make it due to her size. My question is is do u think she went into labor to soon because of the other cat? Also, she is still pregnant, I can feel more in there. WHy haven't they came out??? I was reading that they can stop their labor but I'm not sure what time she even had the first two. How long before we should take her to the vet? I am going to call my vet shortly but I thought I would ask you as well. We got her milk to come out for the other kitten :)
We are not experienced with cats and kittens by any means and had every intention on getting her spayed. Like I said my mom just got her and turned out she was pregnant. PLease help!! Oh one more question: will she hold off on labor if we are in the room with her?? Should we leave her alone?

Answer
Hi Kathy,

Get her to the vet as soon as you can. This is not a good situation. If there are kittens in her they can die and cause her to become very sick and die. Let your vet know what happened and see if he can see her right away. Good luck and write back and let me know what happened.

Ciao, Karen