Newborn Diary
Introduction
At the Rogue's
Gallery you can see their week-by-week development
without having to wade through the daily pictures
What do I have under my
desk? Kittens. This is where all my litters used to
be born. The desk was at the end of my bed, so day
or night I could be on hand for the big event. (Now
my bedroom and study are separate, so the babies
are born in the box beside my bed - or sometimes on
it!)
This is how it all worked in 2000 though. The
kittens stay in the big box until they're about 2
weeks old (assuming the mother is prepared to hang
around that long without moving house), when they
start screaming and demanding more space to
exercise, then they move across the room, but still
very close at hand for my work and sleeping space.
They don't migrate to the nursery (across the
passage) until they're 3-4 weeks old, when no box
is big enough to hold them, and they need a lot
more space, and a cork-tile floor which can be
easily wiped! They're allowed the run of the house
as long as I'm nearby to prevent accidents, but the
nursery is a nice warm safe place to grow up, and I
can see through the mesh door from my seat at my
desk.
If you've never seen young kittens, you will never know just how fast they develop and how much fun and WORK they can be! If you've ever thought of breeding 'for fun' there are many many things to consider, and an awful lot you have to know about feline diseases and genetic problems before you start. Nobody wants to put their precious girl at risk, but ignorance of breeding and the problems you may encounter is the biggest killer of new queens. You need to know your bloodlines and pedigrees before you can even choose a queen or a stud cat for her, but the help of other breeders is the best way of learning all this.
Most of this diary consists of daily picture updates of Missie's first litter (Rameses Kismet) with some brief progress notes, but immediately below I have given a short description of the labour and birth, which weren't exactly text-book!
(Missie)
Missie started out by going into labour a day late
(one sleepless night lost - you must never leave an
expectant queen alone in case she has complications
in labour which could kill her), then she started
having big contractions at 8 pm and didn't start
pushing really hard until 10 pm. It should all have
been over by Midnight, but Missie was having a lot
of trouble and the first kitten was not showing
himself. After a while I decided she was struggling
so called the vet out. Picking up the phone usually
shifts the problem, but this time it didn't. When
she arrived, liquid parraffin in hand, Sarah had a
quick 'feel' and to my relief found a tail (which
meant that though it was a rear-presentation, it
wasn't a real 'breach' birth. About 40-50% of
kittens are born feet/tail first. A true breach is
when the kitten presents his lower back first).
Sarah watched for a while and we agreed that Missie
was becoming more distressed and exhausting
herself. She was migrating around the room trying
to find a place to escape what was happening.
Feeling inside her seemed to have dilated her a bit
further, and we began to see a bubble of the
anmiotic sac, and then a tail. However, even
pulling hard on the tail during contractions didn't
shift the kitten, and it looked as if his head was
jammed further up. Sarah gave a shot of calcium to
try and strengthen the uterine contractions, and we
decided to wait for that to take effect before
taking the drastic step of deciding on a caesarian
section. It was evident by this time that Missie
was being very brave, but she was in a lot of pain.
A c-section is not desirable because of the stress
to the queen and the delay in the milk flow
starting. However, if you wait too long, the queen
is too exhausted to survive the operation. It's a
difficult decision to make. Sarah called up one of
the practice nurses just after midnight, and after
persuading her it wasn't a joke, asked her to get
the surgery ready for an emergency c-section.
As if on cue, Missie decided that this was no
longer a joke, and 'Cochese' as he came to be
known, stuck his bum and ankles out into the light.
(Another reason for his name was that he appeared
to have a black tail with a white tip, like a
red-indian head-dress feather!) I managed to wiggle
one of his ankles out enough to get a leg out so
that he couldn't get back inside, and from there
things moved much more normally. After such a long
time coming, Sarah and I didn't hold out much hope
for this one's survival, but once his body was out,
though his head was still inside, Cochese started
waving his arms around, and it was clear he was
planning on arriving kicking and screaming, which
he did at about 12.15 (am). It seemed that the
Calcium did the trick (thank you Sarah!). Cochese
is a big strong kitten: within hours he had had a
long walk around his kittening box, and exercised
his lungs well. He has a slight depression about
half-way up his tail which could be damage caused
by pulling on it. I'm hoping it is due to swelling
and will go down soon, though it could be more
serious - perhaps a break.
He's not a huge kitten, certainly not large enough
to have warranted the trouble he caused, so next
time Missie is pregnant I'll be treating her with
Red Raspberry Leaf (RRL) capsules to strengthen her
uterus. The other kittens were quite slow too, and
it seems that the internal contractions were
painful but not really strong enough to get the
kittens moving. Some people use RRL with every
pregnancy, but I have concerns about its safety,
and I also don't believe in tampering with a
process that should work well naturally. Missie is
old to be having a first litter as she was very
late to call, and that may have been another
contributing factor in the slow and tiring
delivery. I was very relieved that she only had 4
babies, as she was really too tired to have any
more. She had finished by 2.15, but I stayed up for
another hour to make sure she was really finished
and not just having a rest. Poor little mouse, she
was so relieved it was over!