Expert: Ali - 4/10/2009

Question
hello i have a cat named sadie she was in heat about a month ago (march,1st) and are millions of cats on our street and i saw her go with a black cat.after a while her belly got big and her nipples are out she is very skinny so its hard to tell if shes about to have them.she is eating a ton and drinking a ton.she is very afectionite she stays in one spot for about 5 hours!!! is she about to have them? if so when?

Answer
Cassi,

If Sadie mated there's a pretty good chance that she's pregnant. A normal cat pregnancy can last between 60-68 days so if she's a month into her pregnancy she'll deliver in about a month or so. Keep feeding her all that she wants, make sure that she has clean water available at all times, she's likely eating for a family at this point so she needs the extra calories to meet the needs of the kittens. It's a good idea to have the vet check Sadie over for general health, the health of the babies, the number of kittens in the litter, a rough gestational age - just as pregnant women should receive pre-natal care so should pregnant cats.

I do think that it's important to have Sadie spayed once she's weaned her kittens. Mother cats don't require human help to wean their kittens, they'll normally do so in the first twelve weeks of life. It's important for kittens to stay with their family for at least 12 weeks, they learn important skills from their mom and litter mates that will help them to be social kittens suitable for adoption. Female cats can get pregnant fairly quickly after delivering their kittens so it's important to keep Sadie indoors and away from male cats when she's had her kittens. There are millions of unwanted cats, kittens and other pets destroyed in shelters every year simply because they're unwanted. Spaying and neutering pets prevents overpopulation as well as having medical and behavioral benefits. Cats that are spayed/neutered are less likely to develop behaviors like house soiling, using urine/feces to mark their territory, fighting, aggression, wandering, caterwauling and howling to advertise their availability to mate. The leading cause of death for North American cats is euthanasia related to behavioral problems so this is an important issue. Medical benefits to having a cat spayed or neutered include preventing uterine, ovarian and testicular cancers. The earlier in life cats are spayed/neutered the more likely they are to avoid breast and prostate cancers. Unspayed female cats commonly develop a potentially fatal uterine infection called pyometra, this infection causes the womb to fill with pus, if it ruptures and spreads infection throughout the abdomen the cat's chances of survival are bleak. The only treatment for pyometra is to spay the cat immediately and at this point it would cost more because it's an emergency and the surgery is more complex.