Pregnant cat - lots of advice needed, please.

[Yvonne]

Hi Karen,

You appear to be doing everything right and Jasmine is very content at the moment.

My cat had three litters so if you want to give me a ring for a chat you would be very welcome.

I will send you a personal message with my phone number.

 :catplay:

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

Karen lives in Ireland and she said last night she doesnt drive and another vet is 8 miles away. I believe in Ireland they dont tend to love cats as much as us,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Karen does but not the nation as a whole. I seem to remember a plea for help on CC from Ireland cos they do not have the amount of rescues and stuff that we have.

[COSMIC CREEPERS]

find anouther vet

i know i can always get in at mine even if i have to sit and wait

ring em again and insist say that your worried and need advice or just turn up .... i would

we go to vets 4 pets they are all over look on the web and find anouther if they wont let you go

[scattycat]

Indeed - doesnt the vet have emergency appointments avaliable? Ours always have an apmt at the end (when they're meant to be closing) in case of an emergency - and to be honest a cat which you've found and is pregnant and needs looking at would be classed that in my eyes.

I'd have a look in your directory or online to see if there are any other vets in the local area to you if your friend is being kind enough to lend you the money.

[Desley (booktigger)]

I agree with Ela that it is outrageous to wait that long for an app - is there any other vets in the area you could go to?

[Ela]

rang the vet and they've got no appointments until the 15th,

That is outrageous

[Tan]

Karen we are all in the chat of ya wanna pop in ask away any thing hun
x

[karenjet]

Well...I rang the sanctuary, they can't help with vet fees at the moment, but are sending me a voucher to have her neutered afterwards. So I asked a friend for the lend of money to take her to the vet, no problem, rang the vet and they've got no appointments until the 15th, although they said to phone everyday to check for cancellations which is what I'm gonna do. I also borrowed a cat carrier. So now I need more advice, please. She's none too fond of strangers, my friend tried to pet her the other day and she darted away so fast she went skidding across the floor  Is there something I could put into the carrier to calm her, her blanket or toys maybe?
I'm also a bit worried that she'll have a chip when I take her to the vet, and that someone owns her. I really hope not because I've fallen for her now, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

It is stuff I got from the pet shop for worms, so I'll mention that to the vet when I go.
She does use the littertray and seems to have no interest in going outside now. I'll be keeping her in from here on in. I'm worried enough about all this without her disappearing on me.

You'll all regret welcoming me with the 1000's of questions I'm gonna have 

Thanks!

[Tan]

Ooo karen she is georgeous 

Great to have ya with us from over the water, i love the Irish accent 

Hopefully the rescue in your home town can help with vet fees for Jasmine. Great name for her 

She does look healthy and no fleas is great. As Lottie says though the stuff you can buy at the shops aren't good for worms or fleas (except I have heard Frontline is starting to appear in shops now). They dont work very well. I use stronghold drop on a month which also covers some worms and ear mites as well as fleas.

Theres loads of freindly mad cat slaves  on here that can give ya advice and support, so if you have lots of questions, we'd be really pleased to help all we can.

Ya wont look back now you let her into your life , well , take over your life   

[Lottie (Team Svartalfheim's)]

I seem to recall (although I would double check first) that Stronghold is ok to use on pregnant and lactating cats. If it's not then just combine Frontline spot on (for fleas) with Milbemax worming tablets as these are both fine to use.

[CurlyCatz]

ah she's lovely and from the pic does look to be in good condition.

will you be taking her to a vet like we all advised ??

be careful with treatments that they are appropriate for use on pregnant cats wont you, and also jsut to let you know that pet shop / supermarket treatments DONT WORK so please dont waste your money and get decent stuff that your vet will sell or online ie VETS UK

does she use a litter tray ?? im just worried since she's not been with you too long she will take off somewhere and have the babies outside, its much better to have her "housebound"  during this time.  and also re the vet visit...they'll be able to give you good time scale when they are due and tell you when you can book her in to get spayed...or she;ll be pregnant again in no time.

[Marie]

she is a sweetie, if I was you I would have to keep her too.

[karenjet]

Thanks alot for the advice everyone. Six months is total guesswork on my part. I've never kept cats before. I had a dog for 12 years who passed away in September, and I swore there'd be no more pets but this little lady kinda found me! She is a lovely little thing though and I'm so pleased to have her.

I've called her Jasmine and here she is (I think I've attached it to this)


Thanks a million for that link, Tan, there's a sanctuary type place in my home town that I didn't even know about. It says calls after 6pm so I'll give them a ring then. I live in Ireland.

I do feed her good food. And have wormed her, I also got stuff for fleas but she doesn't have any.

I'm quite excited at the prospect of having kittens around the place, but am worried about her too. I've set up boxes, one in an old wardrobe upstairs with no clothes in it, and one in a cupboard downstairs she likes to lay in sometimes, but from what I've seen online they choose their own place and get on with it.

[Ela]

I agree that a vet check ASAP is the wisest course of action.  If she is only 6 months and very pregnant it is not good. As mentioned perhaps you could ask your local CP to help with the cost. I know I would if you lived near here. If she needs spaying CP should give you a voucher and if you can afford nothing they can pay the full cost with the new Yellow Voucher system.

[Tan]

Hi Karen

  to Purrs.

Well done for taking this little one in. She obviously needs a warm caring home and has bonded with you well.

Do you have a pdsa vet or local Cat protection in your area ? The PDSA help with pets for people on benefits with lower vet fees or as Lynn has said your local CP could help you get her checked over quickly.  You could also ring your local vets to see if they can help with delaying the fee for a couple of weeks.

Where abouts are you hun? There's a big database of cat rescue and PDSA vets on the Cat chat site here http://www.catchat.org/adoption/index.html

Let us know how you and little one gets on. When ya both ready, we would love to see a pic of her 
What are ya going to call her?

[scattycat]

I agree that she really should be checked over at a vets asap - is there anyone you can ask for a loan - not sure how much £ you'd need but our vets charge £23 for a consultation.

[CurlyCatz]

ps she also needs to be scanned for an id chip altho i doubt she got one she should still be scanned at the vets.

[CurlyCatz]

if you are willing to take responsibility of this little one then first thing first,.,she needs a thorough health check at the vets !!!!! PRIORITY !!!

she will need appropriate worming for pregnant queens etc and generally before us going into long speels of what to do / not do you could be down at the vets this afternoon or tomorrow and gets it from the horses mouth themselves. If spending out money etc seems abit unfair then perhaps you could go and phone your local cpl to see if they could offer any assistance ?

She should be being fed on a high quality cat food, you could even give her a high quality brand of kitten food.

if you are keeping her then keeping her in prior to partuition would be best so she doesnt have the kittens outside (if you cannot accomodate this then again cpl or local cat rescue may be a better option) as in inexperience little cat may often not know what to do with them and leave them..they'd die quickly without milk and warmth.  Of course you'll need to arm yourself with knowledge on cat labour stages and what signs to look out for and problems that may occur, when to call vet etc.  Most cats labour sucessfully on their own even the smallest ones but never the less you need to know what COULD go wrong.

When you take her to the vets best you write down a long list of questions first to so you remember to ask all you want to know, and also treatments regarding worming the kittens / artificial kitten formula / feeding bottles etc etc should there be problems with mum feeding.

[karenjet]

I've been feeding a stray kitten for a couple of months now, but lately she's been hanging round more and more, so I let her in and in she's stayed. I've asked around and no-one seems to know who owns her, and no collar. so I think she's been abandoned by someone.

The thing is, she's pregnant. Or I think she is. She's very small still, I'd say about 6 months old, her belly's gotten bigger, her nipples have about trebled in size and she's eating double what she was. Her tummy also feels hard. I'm happy to keep her, assuming nobody claims her, and one of her kittens too. After being quite wild at first she's gotten to be really affectionate. She's become a house cat, I've got a litterbox for her and she seems happy here. I can't afford to take her to the vet for another 2 weeks though, and I'm scared she'll give birth before that. What do I do to prepare? How will I know when she's ready to give birth, and what do I do to to help? I'm also worried cos she's so small the kittens will be stillborn, although she seems perfectly healthy, and I feed her well. Any advice would be much appreciated!