Do Cats’ Waters Break? Our Vet Explains Feline Pregnancy Facts

4 months ago 52

The station Do Cats’ Waters Break? Our Vet Explains Feline Pregnancy Facts by Dr. Karyn Kanowski BVSc MRCVS (Veterinarian) appeared archetypal connected Catster. Copying implicit full articles infringes connected copyright laws. You whitethorn not beryllium alert of it, but each of these articles were assigned, contracted and paid for, truthful they aren't considered nationalist domain. However, we admit that you similar the nonfiction and would emotion it if you continued sharing conscionable the archetypal paragraph of an article, past linking retired to the remainder of the portion connected Catster.com.

Whether you’ve experienced it yourself, cognize idiosyncratic who has, oregon watched it connected practically each sitcom successful existence, you cognize what it means erstwhile a large woman’s waters break—it’s babe time!

If you’re awaiting the accomplishment of immoderate kittens, you’ll privation to cognize what to beryllium looking retired for. Will determination beryllium contractions, panting, screaming, and crying? Will you spot the telltale motion of their waters breaking? The answers are yes, sometimes, no, not usually, and not exactly.

So, what does a cat’s h2o breaking look like? For everything you request to cognize astir what happens erstwhile a feline gives birth, support reading.

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What Waters Are Breaking?

For humans, erstwhile the fetus is acceptable to permission the information of the womb, the cervix dilates, causing the mucus plug that has been blocking the entranceway to the uterus to dislodge, and the amniotic fluid surrounding the babe rushes out, sometimes discreetly, sometimes each implicit your shoes.

With cats, determination are usually aggregate fetuses wrong the womb—typically astir 4 to eight, with each contained wrong their ain amniotic sac. Much of the time, the kitten is delivered inactive enclosed wrong the sac, truthful nary amniotic fluid comes retired earlier the birth. If the sac does interruption earlier the kitten is delivered, you whitethorn announcement a precise tiny magnitude of fluid coming from the parent cat’s (queen) vulva, but astir of the time, she volition cleanable it up earlier you’ve had a accidental to announcement anything. The fluid whitethorn beryllium clear, greenish, oregon pink-tinged. Brown, red, yellow, oregon achromatic discharge means it’s clip to telephone the vet.

So, if you’re expecting a melodramatic flood of fluid to fto you cognize that kittens are connected the way, you’re successful for a disappointment. This is wherefore cats truthful often negociate to sneak disconnected and present their kittens without anyone noticing.

Pregnant feline  laying connected  a staircaseImage Credit: Jim Polakis, Shutterstock

What Are the Signs That My Cat Is successful Labor?

If we can’t trust connected breaking waters to fto america cognize that a feline is successful labour (also called queening), what different signs tin we beryllium looking retired for? Cats are notoriously stealthy erstwhile it comes to giving birth, and often, the archetypal motion we volition spot is the abrupt beingness of kittens by her side! Most cats similar to springiness commencement successful private, truthful don’t beryllium excessively committed to the thought of holding her paw done the process.

If you privation to cognize erstwhile kittens are connected the way, present are a fewer signs you tin ticker retired for:
  • Nesting: This mightiness see gathering blankets, getting comfy successful a furniture you’ve provided, oregon uncovering herself a cozy spot of her choosing.
  • Pacing: As the kittens are shifting into presumption and contractions are starting up, your queen whitethorn gait and look uncomfortable oregon unsettled.
  • Vocalizing: For cats, commencement is usually a reasonably quiescent affair, but immoderate cats mightiness fto retired immoderate tiny meows, squeaks, oregon squawks if things get a spot uncomfortable, peculiarly if this is their archetypal litter.
  • Licking: One of the main reasons you’ll spot precise small successful the mode of discharge before, during, oregon aft the commencement of kittens is that the queen volition beryllium focused connected cleaning her vulva, the kittens, and immoderate fluids. This is an evolved endurance technique, minimizing the scent of newborn kittens that could pull predators.

Before a kitten appears, you volition usually spot a “bubble” look astatine the entranceway to the vagina. This is the amniotic sac. The queen volition usually instrumentality attraction of breaking the sac and crushing the umbilical cord, truthful lone intervene if determination seems to beryllium a problem.

How Long Will Labor Last?

female feline feline  springiness  birthImage Credit: Anna Krivitskay, Shutterstock

Once queening has commenced, expect to spot a kitten astatine slightest each hour, but it is not antithetic for the transportation to beryllium overmuch quicker than this. It is besides not antithetic for determination to beryllium a intermission successful the transportation for the queen to rest, and galore feline owners person woken the adjacent greeting to find 2 oregon 3 much kittens!

What Are Signs of Problems?

In the immense bulk of cases, cats volition present their kittens with precise small trouble and without the request for quality intervention.

However, determination is ever a accidental of things going wrong, truthful present are immoderate reddish flags to look retired for:
  • Lots of licking, but nary kittens aft 1 to 2 hours
  • Brown, black, red, oregon yellowish discharge
  • Lethargy successful queen oregon kittens
  • Lack of involvement successful kittens oregon not allowing them to suckle
  • Crying, pacing, and distress—a small is normal, but if it continues, determination is apt a problem

Be definite to person your vet connected velocity dial successful lawsuit you person immoderate concerns oregon are successful request of advice.

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Should I Let My Cat Have Kittens?

Orange feline  snuggling with ownerImage Credit: rzarof, Shutterstock

It is simply a communal story and misconception that pistillate cats should beryllium “allowed” to person a litter earlier they are spayed. There is perfectly nary technological grounds to enactment this notion, having travel from the anthropomorphic (applying quality affectional experiences to different animals) thought that each females should acquisition motherhood.

If you are reasoning astir breeding your cat, archetypal see these statements:
  • Tom cats person a barbed penis, truthful intercourse is improbable to beryllium an enjoyable acquisition for females. Males besides usually grip the female’s scruff successful their teeth to halt them from getting away.
  • Kittens are weaned erstwhile they are 6 to 8 weeks old, and pistillate cats often don’t tolerate their offspring hanging astir overmuch beyond that.
  • There are astir 30 to 40 cardinal cats successful carnal shelters crossed the US.

This is wherefore our proposal is to spay and neuter your cat. However, if you truly privation to let your feline to person a litter, past delight guarantee that you person already recovered a loving location for each of the kittens. However, by bringing much kittens into the world, you would beryllium taking distant the accidental for already existing kittens to get adopted.

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Final Thoughts

If you are waiting to spot your pregnant cat’s waters break, you are apt to beryllium disappointed. Although they technically bash acquisition a akin process to that seen successful humans, the measurement of “water” is truthful tiny that it’s apt to beryllium missed, if not already cleaned up by the queen earlier you person a accidental to spot it. Additionally, astir kittens are calved inactive contained wrong the amniotic sac, truthful the fluid is contained until aft the birth.

It’s important to beryllium alert of what is and isn’t mean erstwhile it comes to queening, but adjacent much important is knowing that determination are millions of cats successful hopeless request of homes, and adding to that colonisation unnecessarily is thing that should beryllium cautiously considered. So, it’s often champion to spay oregon neuter your cats.


Featured Image Credit: Boy67, Shutterstock

The station Do Cats’ Waters Break? Our Vet Explains Feline Pregnancy Facts by Dr. Karyn Kanowski BVSc MRCVS (Veterinarian) appeared archetypal connected Catster. Copying implicit full articles infringes connected copyright laws. You whitethorn not beryllium alert of it, but each of these articles were assigned, contracted and paid for, truthful they aren't considered nationalist domain. However, we admit that you similar the nonfiction and would emotion it if you continued sharing conscionable the archetypal paragraph of an article, past linking retired to the remainder of the portion connected Catster.com.

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