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Cats - cat sleeping all the time

Expert: Jessica - 11/4/2009

Question
QUESTION: We were adopted by an approximately two year old, all black female cat on October 31st (four days ago). We live around numerous apartment complexes and are pretty certain someone moved on and left her behind. She looks to have recently had a litter, her stomach is hanging downwards, but she doesn't have any milk. Her fur is shiny and she's deceptively heavy for her size. She eats a little, but not very much. She's been using the litter box regularly. She hardly ever plays and only for a few seconds if she does. She's extremely affectionate and loves for me to carry her around like a baby (she's SO heavy!), but she sleeps almost constantly. She sleeps all through the night, then all but a few hours during the day. She'll come and lay with us for a while in the living room (she always sleeps close to us--either on us or up next to us), then she'll go into the bedroom and sleep alone for a while. She seems perfectly healthy other than not wanting to play and wanting to sleep all the time. Should we be worried?

ANSWER: Hi Kim. Her activity level and sleeping habits may be normal. I'd be a little worried about the fact that she doesn't eat very much. This could be because she doesn't require much nutrition to sustain her sedentary lifestyle, but it's always a good idea to have new pets checked out by the vet. A brewing infection, intestinal parasites and kidney and liver problems can cause a lack of appetite.

If you haven't had her to the vet yet, I would schedule an appointment, and be sure to bring her to a vet that has a microchip scanner. They can check to be sure she isn't microchipped and missing from a family that's beside themselves! You may also want to post a "found" flyer at the vet's office, around the neighborhood, and notify your local shelter that you've found the kitty. See if anyone has reported missing a black cat. However, DO NOT turn the kitty in to the shelter, even if they tell you that's the best way to find the cat's rightful owner! I know first hand what a disaster that can be.

After a couple weeks, you will know for sure whether the kitty was abandoned or not. And if an owner does come forward, many ordinances mandate that owners pay caretakers for any charges incurred on behalf of their pet before the pet is returned to them. It would be reasonable to ask the cat's owner to pay for the vet visit as well as food and litter you paid for while caring for the kitty.

I hope all goes well!

Jessica

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you, Jessica-we did some checking when we found her--apparently the neighbors have seen her scrounging for food for over a month before she came to us. We will certainly take her to the vet--I guess the question I REALLY wanted to ask--is there any possibility that she could be pregnant? I had heard that cats don't mate this time of year--is that true? We would certainly take care of her even if she was, but I would like to prepare myself for the possibility.
Thanks so much! You guys are great--this is a wonderful and very useful service! Kim.

Answer
Hello again! No, it's not entirely true that cats don't mate this time of year. There certainly IS a "kitten season" starting around April and ending by the end of summer, when kittens are in constant supply, because cats go into estrus very regularly in the early spring and summer months. This is because the heat cycle is influenced not so much by season, but by the amount of daylight a cat gets. As the days grow shorter, cats are less likely to go into heat on a regular basis (meaning once a month). For some cats, this means they won't go into estrus at all during the whole winter. For others, it may mean they come into heat once every couple of months. Additionally, if the cat had been an indoor cat for most of the time and was exposed to artificial light, making the days seem longer to her biological clock, she could still go into heat very regularly year-round. I was just at the shelter a couple days ago, and there were several mothers with newborns in the nursery. So it is possible that the kitty could be pregnant if she isn't spayed.

There is a pregnancy test available that can tell you if she's pregnant 30 days into the pregnancy with a blood sample. Some vets are also very good at telling whether a cat is pregnant just by palpating the abdomen, but I have found this to be hit or miss. The vet has to be very experienced with pregnancies. My personal preference is to have an x-ray done to confirm pregnancies, although you have to wait until about 5 weeks in before the babies' skeletons will begin to show up. This is about the time that most people start noticing that their cat's belly is getting big and wonder if pregnancy is a possibility. The benefit of the x-ray is that you'll know how many kittens to expect, and if she doesn't deliver them all, you can get her to the vet before life-threatening complications arise.

I'm not sure how you feel about spaying the cat while she's pregnant. Most vets advise doing this if the cat is not far along in the pregnancy, and some even advise it when the cat is just about full-term. While I understand their view that the pet overpopulation problem doesn't need any more help, I personally have difficulty aborting a pregnancy, and I have found a couple vets have been dishonest with me about pregnant cats. Some say no pregnancy exists and to spay right away, when I'm sure the cat is pregnant. If the vet says she isn't spayed and you have a hunch she's pregnant, you may want to hang onto her for a few weeks before you have her spayed, just to be sure, unless you're okay with aborting the litter. A pregnancy lasts 9 weeks, so you will know for sure within a couple of months.

Congratulations on your new family member!

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