Expert: Ali - 9/21/2009

Question
Hello I thought my cat was pregers because she has not gone into heat in a while. I have a male cat also and everytime she would go into heat he would try to do his thing. Anyhow I was thinking she was b/c she seemed to be geeting bigger, sleeping more and has been more affecenant. The last 2 weeks she seems to be the same size and I sware it has been more than 67 days. Well I got my boy cat fixed thinking he had already accomplished making babies, but yesterday my Cali went into heat. Why would she show signs of being preganant and is there a chance that she is? Is there anything about a cat going into labor and heat that are a like? And why would she go into heat every couple weeks then just stop for 2 months? I'm pretty bummed because my kitties are my babies and they are beautiful. I just wanted then to have babies 1 time before I got my little boy fixed. I guess I should have taken my baby girl to the vet first. Huh!

Answer
Michelle,

When I first read your question I had difficulty deciding how I should go about answering your questions because to be quite frank I have some serious concerns about your desire to have your queen successfully mated so that she can have kittens. I generally try to answer the questions I’m asked while providing basic humane education on a variety of topics and keeping my personal feelings about situations to myself. In this situation I`ve decided to provide you with basic information as well as some of my own opinions and the reasons for them, ultimately the final decision is yours when it comes to what you choose in terms of breeding your queen or not, I just wanted to be sure that you had a more complete picture of what`s involved. After all the grim reality is that once the kittens are old enough to be adopted (my recommendation is 10-12 weeks which allows the kittens to learn how to be well balanced cats from their mother) and you place them in homes you have absolutely no further control over what happens to them from that point in their lives and beyond. As I’m sure you’re aware there is an incredibly serious pet overpopulation problem throughout North America and throughout the world. I think it’s very important to think long and hard about the ethics of bringing tiny new lives into the world when so many pets are abused, abandoned, neglected and discarded every day and for some these tragedies mark the end of their difficult and short lives.

I strongly encourage pet parents to spay or neuter their cats as early as possible because these surgeries save lives that would otherwise be ended when pet parents are unable to afford the cost of expensive medical procedures, tests and monitoring or the cat develops a serious behavioral problem and his/her guardians become frustrated and disillusioned when strategies that they try to modify undesirable behaviors don’t yield instant results. There are several reasons why I recommend against breeding cats which include:

The already serious overpopulation problem which manifests itself in heartbreaking shelter euthanasia statistics, large colonies of homeless strays in need of basic necessities to survive. All too often stray cats are the targets of horrifying acts of human cruelty for a variety of reasons ranging from the perception that these cats are vermin or nuisance animals which justifies killing or injuring them via a startling variety of mechanisms. In recent years stray cats and dogs have become targets of violence in gang members, in some cases the level of cruelty and torture committed is regarded as a badge of honor in spite of the animal’s suffering, pain and fear. Many people forget about the fact that stray cats are abandoned pets and feral cats are descendents of strays and they use this to justify some horrifying acts of cruelty when the reality is that colonies of stray or feral cats aren’t the problem - the people who abandon the pets that depend on them for basic necessities like food, water, shelter and medical care ARE a big part of the problem. North America is unique in that we have places to purchase pets and shelters, rescue groups and organizations like Alley Cat Allies end up caring for the same pets purchased as babies once they’ve become adolescents or adult animals and their human caregivers have grown tired of the responsibility that goes along with providing pets with proper care.
Intact cats of both sexes are far more likely to develop serious behavioral and medical issues than their spayed or neutered counterparts. Intact cats will commonly develop unpleasant habits such as marking their territory by spraying pungent smelling urine on walls, curtains, furniture and other items that are normally found in average households, vocalizing loudly to advertise their availability to mate, wandering extensive distances away from home to establish a large territory and find intact, receptive female cats to mate with. It’s not uncommon for intact male cats to get into serious fights with one another over mating rights and breaches of territory perpetrated by other male cats, sometimes these fights result in bite wounds that often go unnoticed until there’s a painful abscess filled with pus. Treating an abscess often requires sedation so that the veterinary staff can shave the area, drain the infected material, in some cases the veterinarian will place surgical drains to allow the infected material to drain properly so that it doesn’t interfere with the healing process and the tom will usually require a course of antibiotics to combat the infection and prevent it from becoming more serious. When cats get into fights where one or both cats have been bitten hard enough to break the skin there’s always a concern that the cats may pass along feline leukemia (commonly referred to as FeLV) or Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) - these infections are somewhat like HIV/AIDS in people in terms of what they do to the immune system, don’t worry though they can’t be passed from cats to people or pets other than cats living in your home.
Intact toms are more likely to develop prostate and testicular cancer, the earlier they’re neutered the lower their risk is of developing prostate cancer. Intact queens can develop ovarian and breast cancer as well as a potentially life threatening uterine infection called pyometra which causes the womb to fill with pus. In the case of an “open” pyometra you’d likely notice foul smelling infected discharge from the queen’s vagina, however in a “closed” pyometra you may not notice the infection until it’s become very severe. The only treatment for pyometra is an emergency spay which is more complicated, expensive and time consuming than a routine ovario-hysterectomy which means that it will cost substantially more to spay a queen that has developed pyometra. If a queen with pyometra isn’t treated there’s a chance that her uterus will rupture spreading infected material throughout the abdomen which significantly decreases the cat’s odds of survival. Other common symptoms of pyometra include fever, lethargy, anorexia, vomiting and behavioral changes. A queen that’s been spayed early in life is substantially less likely to develop breast cancer which is just as serious and life threatening as it is for women. Cats have evolved to be quite good at hiding any signs of illness or injury to avoid becoming prey themselves in a wild environment so you wouldn’t necessarily notice that either cat was sick until the situation was very serious.
Proper care of a pregnant queen can be quite expensive. Ideally you’d want to have your queen examined by your vet prior to mating her to be sure that she was healthy enough to carry a pregnancy and deliver healthy kittens on her own (provided of course that everything goes as nature intended it to). Regular pre-natal check ups with the vet including ultrasounds to assess the health of the kittens before birth are important in terms of making sure that the babies are growing as they’re meant to, mom’s eating the best possible diet, getting enough calories and gaining an appropriate amount of weight at each stage of the pregnancy. Having a vet on standby in case something goes wrong with the delivery when the queen does go into labour is a good plan just in case mom or the kittens get into trouble during the labour and birth. Sometimes it’s necessary for the vet to perform a caesarian section in order to save the lives of the kittens and the queen if complications arise and the vet can’t just assist with the delivery of a stuck kitten without surgery.
A pregnant queen should be fed the best possible food that you can afford to feed her and it’s not uncommon for an expectant mom’s appetite to double, triple or even quadruple. (for more on feline nutrition check out the following websites: www.catinfo.org, www.catnutrition.org http://www.felinespride.org and http://www.halopets.com/pet-education/pet-articles/pet_food_what_you_need_to_kno... I routinely recommend these sites to pet parents with questions about nutrition, in my opinion they’re very informative. Most pet parents are surprised at what they didn’t know about pet food, trust me, up until the 2007 Menu Foods pet food recalls I thought I was fairly knowledgeable about pet food. The cat food I was feeding was supposedly vet recommended, premium, high quality cat food that was safe, nutritious and species appropriate.  A couple of years later and countless hours of research since my cat nearly lost her life after eating tainted cat food I’m still amazed at the misconceptions most people have about the pet food industry and the regulations in place to ensure the quality of the products, the safety of the pets eating these foods and the role that the pet food industry plays in terms of educating veterinarians and pet parents about proper nutrition for their pets. If you’re interested in learning more about this topic I’d strongly suggest that you check out a Canadian documentary that occasionally airs on CBC television called A Dog’s Breakfast.
A pregnant queen needs to be kept comfortable, especially towards the end of the pregnancy. Setting up a room with a birthing box, food, water, litter boxes, toys and cozy places to sleep is important as a way of minimizing stress. Mom and her newborns should be kept separated from other household pets and it’s important to keep in mind that nursing a litter does NOT prevent mom from becoming pregnant again, in fact it’s possible for queens to become pregnant again as early as 24-48 hours after giving birth. Mom’s room should be quiet, dimly lit and it’s important for mom to have her privacy especially during the first few days after she’s given birth. In my experience it’s best not to introduce the newborn kittens to young children yet since feline babies are fragile, unable to maintain their own body temperature and they have minimal antibodies to fight bacterial or viral infections at that stage. Any cleaning, maintenance and handling of mom or her babies (the bedding should be changed in the nest box or mom’s alternative nest site when the kittens have all been born and whenever it become soiled thereafter) should be done by an adult. It’s okay to handle newborn kittens for short periods of time as a start on their road to socialization with people, but it’s also very important to keep in mind that newborn kittens are meant to eat and sleep so that they can grow so longer cuddles have to wait until the babies are a bit older.
You’ll need to have clean towels to line the birthing box with, I use dollar store ones because giving birth can be a messy process that stains towels, so can raising a litter of newborns. I generally place a blue plastic disposable pad underneath the towels to soak up any fluids from the birth as well as any other wet messes (similar to puppy training pads, but cheaper at Walmart, they‘re very practical and your carpet/floor will thank you when it‘s not stained with blood or amniotic fluid). It’s not a bad idea to keep a basic feline first aid kit handy with such basics as gloves, clean towels, a bulb syringe (the kind used for cleaning mucous from a human newborn’s nose) to clear away mucous in the kitten’s mouth, the phone numbers for your own vet and the nearest 24 hour emergency vet clinic, brand new oral syringes (the kind used to give human babies liquid medication), powdered kitten formula, a small kitchen scale measuring to roughly 3-5 lbs if you can find one with a bowl to hold squirmy kittens that’s ideal, special tasty treats for mom in case she needs encouragement to eat. I‘ve found that chicken, turkey, lamb or beef and broth baby foods work nicely, but do avoid those with vegetables, onions, salt and other spices. Mom’s cat carrier should be easily accessible in case of emergency, if you leave it open in different rooms throughout your home you won‘t have a fight on your hands that could stress mom or her unborn kittens by fighting to get her into the kennel. I‘d recommend that you plan ahead for the worst case scenario and have a separate cardboard box lined with towels, a hot water bottle or microwaveable heat/cold packs wrapped in a heavy towel to keep the babies warm for the trip since they’re not able to keep themselves warm. Wrapping the heat source will prevent the newborns from overheating or getting burned. If at all possible it’s a good idea to have your queen’s vet records and copies of her chart showing the prenatal tests and medical care she’s had. Beyond the basics I‘ve mentioned it‘s important to provide your queen with the usual creature comforts, but don‘t forget the fact that the kittens grow quickly and they‘ll need a kitten sized litter box in order to avoid the problems caused when kittens have trouble getting into and out of  adult sized litter boxes.

Now that you’re more familiar with the ethical considerations regarding whether or not to breed your pets here is some other information for you. Most female cats will become pregnant when they are mated with an intact male. If your queen truly is back in season then she's not pregnant, but to confirm with 100% certainty that she's not actually pregnant it would be a good idea to have the vet evaluate her. Sometimes matings can result in false pregnancy which could be why you were seeing signs of pregnancy and she hasn't gone into season in such an extended period of time. Labor and estrus cycles are very different, if your girl is restless, pacing making a bed in a quiet, dimly lit place, etc then she may be in labor, estrus cycles often result in very loud vocalizations, the queen will often rub against people, furniture and other objects to mark it with her scent and queens in season will often present their hind end and paddle their back legs as a way of showing intact toms that they are ready to be mated. Based on the information you've provided the only way to  be absolutely certain of whether Cali is in a family way or not is to have a vet perform a physical exam, if things still aren't entirely clear then the vet may recommend performing some x-rays (don't worry it's safe to x-ray a pregnant queen and if she is pregnant the fetal bones will start showing up on x-rays around 53 days or so give or take).

To be completely honest with you I'd have to say that I strongly discourage mating pet cats for a number of reasons the major one being that far too many unwanted cats and kittens are euthanized in shelters every day across North America and beyond. Intact cats have more behavioral problems than their spayed/neutered counterparts which is also significant since the leading cause of death in North American cats is euthanasia secondary to behavioral issues. I believe that humane education is one way to stop the endless cycle of unwanted pets being born into a world where they may be abused, abandoned, bounced from home to home, neglected or even euthanized either as a matter of convenience or because they've developed health/behavioral problems that can be prevented (or the risk of them happening is substantially reduced) by having that pet spayed or neutered as early as possible.

I can certainly understand the desire to watch kittens be born and grow up in your home and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, but my recommendation to you would be to offer your services as a foster home for pregnant or lactating queens for your local animal shelter or feline rescue groups. By performing this kind of community service to vulnerable pets coming from abuse, abandonment, neglect or other bad situations you can metaphorically have your cake and eat it too - you get to watch the babies grow up from a very young age and the babies will be put up for adoption when they're old enough. If you wanted to you could potentially have a few different litters at any given time depending upon the space that's appropriate and available in your home. You may also be able to foster sick or orphaned kittens depending upon the policy of the local animal shelters and rescue organizations. Fostering offers you an amazing opportunity to see the miracle of birth, the amazing transformation from newborn kittens that are born helpless, blind and deaf to bouncy, playful and mischief loving young cats ready to go into loving forever families. I've fostered before and I have to tell you that in all honesty it's absolutely amazing to be able to help sick, injured, abused, neglected, homeless, unwanted kittens, pregnant queens, new moms with their litters and cats that without you wouldn't otherwise have a second chance at life. There are so many pets and so few foster families willing to take on the often special needs of these animals that are so dependent upon the compassion, loving environments to recover in and the boundless generosity of foster families who give of themselves regularly. Another wonderful thing about fostering cats or kittens or both from your local shelter is that in many cases you don't have to worry about the cost of medical care or behavioral modification programs as these issues are normally covered by the shelter. In some areas shelters provide food, litter pans, kitty litter and other necessities, others are prepared to issue a tax reciept for the cost of basic items like those I've mentioned as well as collars or harnesses to attach shelter ID tags to. This is a loving and responsible way to enjoy the perks of caring for new mothers, young kittens and cats who otherwise wouldn't have a chance within the shelter system based on their individual needs and you get to feel good about the fact that you are part of the solution rather than contributing to the already crushing overpopulation problem that our society has deemed must be fixed by ending the lives of unwanted pets, those that have behavioral issues (that with time, patience and the right course of action are fixable), pets that have become orphaned after their human caregivers have passed away or gone into long term care or assisted living facilities. Sadly there are a surprising number of pets who are surrendered to shelters or euthanized by private veterinarians simply because they've become an inconvenience to pet parents who made an impulse purchase of the cute kitten in the pet shop window, pets that have simply become inconvenient or in some cases pet parents who simply don't understand what they're getting themselves into and what a commitment having one or more cats, dogs or other pets really is. In terms of cats and some of the smaller dog breeds there are pets who live 20+ years, many people tend to view pets as a disposable item that they can throw away when they're finished playing rather than the wonderful, loving, loyal, sentient beings that all animals great and small truly are. If you have any further questions, concerns or you’d like me to clarify anything in this answer please feel free to contact me again, I’d be happy to try and help you out to the best of my ability.