We are gutted that the poor cat was in such poor condition that she had no chance to save herself or her babies. We thought at first the reason she wouldn't eat when she came in on Thursday night was that she was scared of her new situation, from being semi feral to a home situation. We obviously kept the pen covered completely to guard against possible infection, and also to make her feel more calm.
She still was not interested in food, and by Saturday morning we were getting concerned, so much so that I cooked her fish at about 2 am! Again she refused it, so the next trick would have been the vets, but she had given birth some hours later, and in the morning before everyone was up, I was faced with 3 kittens still attached to their placentas bar one who looked at death's door. I grabbed that one, and ran upstairs to Graham, who didn't get his usual cuppa, but a kitten to warm up and revive.
I had a vet appointment booked, so when we had settled the babies onto the milk bar, and all seemed calmer, I went to see Ross, and obviously told him what had happened. He agreed there wasn't a lot we could do, as hand feeding is best avoided, and not always successful. I also had been told earlier in the morning, that my older daughter may be going down with swine 'flu, so we went in search of Tamiflu. All kittens were feeding, but Mum was spaced out and in shock. We looked in about half an hour later, and found she had birthed another two kittens. Again they seemed to be feeding well.
But Mum was just not interested, so we were worried that she was so shocked or may be ill. Graham spent all of Saturday night sleeping on the sofa, and every time one baby cried, he did it's bottom, as Mum did,t do a thing. I stayed down until 3 am, but he told me to go up and then in the morning I would be of more use. So we ended up at our vets again, not our usual branch but one of their own vets, who set a drip up for her, she spoke to Ross, and we brought her back with her drip in place. We had to turn the dial to a different setting at about 8 pm.
Again Graham spent the night with her, sometimes he got up every quarter of an hour to place a kitten with Mum and to make sure the heat pad was under them. Whilst I went to bed, having decided that our Old Boy with the mouth tumour will have to go to Rainbow Bridge tomorrow to save his dignity, as his ability to eat and drink on his own had now almost ended.
We had a car full today, with the Old Boy, two girls to be spayed, and also the poorly Mum and remaining 2 kittens. One died at about 11 pm Sunday night, one at about 7 am, and the third one at about 7.25 am today.
I signed the paperwork for the spay ops, and we held the Old Boy and he purred his way to a peaceful sleep. Ross gave him a top up of medication and his heart stopped beating. We brought him home with us, and let the animals that he shared the kitchen with say their goodbyes.
We obviously left the kittens and their Mum to be looked at as soon as possible. Ross telephoned later, he said that her uterus didn't seem right, so he would open her up, and check for FIP, and also send off what he needed to the lab. She didn't have FIV or FELV, as he tested her for those. He said we would probably lose the other kittens soon too. If she looked like she had FIP he wouldn't wake her up, but let her go quietly.
True to his word, he 'phoned me later to let me know it was FIP, and that the kittens had also died. He asked me to let Angie know.
I don't think it has hit me yet, with all of this going on, but as usual, humans are to blame, she shouldn't have caught FIP, and she definitely shouldn't have been pregnant, she looked quite young, and looked as if she had been around for a while. It is lucky that the girl asked us to help, everyone else said they couldn't due to room. RSPCA offered to pts, as did a local vets without even seeing her. Perhaps they would have been right in the end, knowing what we know now. But if she had have been left on the streets, she and her babies would have had an awful death. So let's be positive and hope we did the right thing in the circumstances. Usually we get them for longer before they give birth and get to have a good relationship with the Mums to be, however not this time.
I have been washing all related laundry on a very hot wash, as recommended by our vet nurses, and they have disinfected the kitten cage, and my litter tray and the scoop we kept for that tray. Whoops, I have accidentally washed my Snugglesafe heat pad on a hot wash with some bedding.
