Tweedle went back in to the clinic for surgery. We used Iso on her, and she still turned quite blue. They did get her spayed, but they highly recommend that she never go under anesthesia again. She has been living at my house now for a while, and is trying very very hard to become a member of the family. We are resisting, but she is a pretty unstoppable force! She takes no guff from the other kitties, and fits in very well. We'll see.
I brought home a pregnant cat on the 8th. The shelter named her Dixie. She was extremely pregnant and not eating, so I assumed she would go at any time. After five days, I was pretty concerned, and brought her into the clinic where I work for a physical. She showed no signs of distress, and her xray showed five or six kittens. Her temp was down, which is a sure sign of impending birth. I brought her home and spent the evening with her, but still nothing.
The next morning, there was one kitten and part of the placenta in the cage, so I brought her in to work for observation. Considering my past history with pregnant cats, I wasn't taking any chances.
She gave birth to one kitten an hour. She loved having her belly massaged. The first time I did it made the weirdest noises, like there was air and water inside her. I would massage till the noise went away, and the next time I would check in there would be a kitten. By 11:30 we had four kittens, all looking exactly alike.
Then nothing. She pretty much stopped being in labor. I could feel what I thought were two kitten heads, but I wasn't sure. They just put in the new xray machine at work, so I volunteered her for an xray. There was one kitten left in her. At four PM there was still no progress and I was getting concerned. I massaged her belly more, and this time heard the squishy noises again. At 4:30, I went back in to check on her. I couldn't see things very well because she had her butt to the back of the carrier, but it looked like she was in the middle of delivering another kitten. One of the other kittens that was delivered breech, I found half way out of her, and I was concerned she stopped half way through this one too. I unscrewed the carrier, and found this to be the case. She was cleaning the kitten off, but didn't seem to be pushing any more. I got a doctor, and the doctor pulled the kitten out, but things just didn't seem right. She was stiff and unmoving. We rubbed her, and she breathed, but I was still concerned. There is so little you can do for such little kittens, so I left her with Dixie to clean and stimulate. At 5, I took them home, and she still didn't look right. Her arms were out in front of her and stiff, so when you went to put her on her belly, she'd fall over. She had no suckling instinct, and was cold. I stimulated her by rubbing her and moving her arms back and forth. I even made up some KMR, thinking the warm food would help "bring her around" Nothing really helped. At one point she did seem to want to suckle on my thumb, so I put another drop of KMR in her mouth, but she didn't seem interested. I had to go out, so I put her with her siblings, and left, expecting to find her dead when I got back.
I was wrong. She is doing really well. Four kittens that look exactly like their mother, and one black one. Four girls, one boy. The boy weighs about an ounce more than his sisters. I was weighing them, and mom got a little concerned. By the time I was done with the last one, she came over, and picked her up, and brought her back into the cage. It was the cutest thing.
Now if I could just get tweedle off my chest, Id go give Emmy and Jack a bath. Emmy has tons of dandruff, and jack's fur is so thick, that he still has flea dirt on him. But she looks so sweet, half asleep.. I can't bring myself to disturb her.
