Two days ago I discovered that Wen, one of our pregnant girl, was struggling with her breathing. She held her head up and her mouth partially open and she breathed very slowly. She was on her 55 day in the pregnancy and I got more and more worried about her. After observing her for about an hour, I called the Vet and told him about how Wen acted. He managed to put her in between all the other patients and I took her with me at once after finishing the conversation with the Vet. We waited for a time until he ould look at her, and I felt so helpless because her breathing only got worse. Finally we came in to his office and the examination started. She had no fever and it was not possible for the Vet to listen to her lungs because she was purring all the time. The Vet thougth Wen had an upper respiratory tract infection because the only thing he could find was that her laryngeal was a bit swollen. At first he would not give her any medication because of her pregnancy, but I managed to talk him over   Optimistic Finn-Ove went to the pharmacy to pick up the medication (Clamoxyl tablets (amoksicillintrihydrate)) and home we went. We managed to give her the tablet, and we were quite satisfied and just waited for the medicin to kick in. The next morning Finn-Ove was able to give her the tablet, and we hoped that she soon would be well enough to drink and eat. We tried to get her to eat, but nothing helped. We gave her some water with a syringe in her mouth, but everything came out again. I followed her closely throughout the day, and I cold not se any improvement at all. She just laid behind Finn-Ove´s chair for several hours, struggling with her breating. In the middle of the day she walked, or rather swayed 3 meters from the chair and she did not look good at all! When I picked up Finn-Ove after work, I told him about Wen and he called the Vet at once. The Vet told us to come with her and off we drove. This time the Vet could hear that the infection has reached her lungs as well, and she was quite dehydrated. It was not possible to get any water in her through her mouth and the Vet gave her saltwater under her skin. He tried to find something to reduce the swelling in her throut, but there was nothing that was safe to use for a pregnant cat. We got a new medicin for her, (Baytril - Enrofloksacin) and since she was not able to swollow, we got syringes to give her. Baytril are not recomended for pregnant cats, but she was in such a bad state that it was necessary to treat her. The Vet told us that we had to be prepared that she migth would loose her kittens. He checked her with ultrasound and at least there was one little heart beating in her stomach.....   

We tried to give her fluid in her mouth but it only came out. Nothing helped at all. But we hoped that Baytril would help on her throut, and make it less swollen. This morning Wen came to Finn-Ove when he sat on the floor, and wanted to cuddle. He tried to give her something to drink, but no. Everytime she got water in her mouth, she refused to swollow. I have tried throughout the day to give her water we have boiled chicken in, but it was the same result as before. I called the Vet again, and he told us to come with her. Today she got Cortisone and Glucose in addition to the salty water under her skin. Hopefully she will respond to the Cortisone and make it possible for her to swollow. We are taking her back to the Vet tomorrow for the same treatment - water with Glucose and Cortisone under her skin and we cross our fingers hard and hope for her to be able to eat and drink. She really needs everything she can get to be able to take care of her kittens - if they survive this. The Vet was not happy with giving a pregnant cat Cortisone, but he had to if she should have a chance to survive this.

I´m worried!

Today we started to fix the bedroom at the groundfloor because we will have  mother and kittens there the first couple of weeks - if Wen, Faffa and Mischa wants to stay there. We have used this room for some of our cats, especially our girls when they are in heat. Joker has also been in there for some days, but he does not like to be separeted from the group and he has destroyed some of the flooring    Since there was another flooring under it, we just removed the top-flooring. And suddenly I got an idea   The storage-room where all the litterboxes are placed did not have any flooring, and we started to empty this room after we have cleared the bedroom. And in no time the storage-room had a flooring! It is much easier to clean the floor now, and maybe next week we will be able to put up some shelves as well! When they are in place we will put all the stuff that we have for the cats in this storage-room, like cages, bags, things we use when we are attending cat shows and so on. It will be rather nice to have it all in one place!

As you can see we managed to find place for the wooden pellets we use in the litterboxes. We have made a hole in the door and put a cat-door in there so we can close the door to this room and the cats still can go in there to do what ever they does in their litterboxes   

I hope that we will find time to paint the bedroom downstairs before Wen deliver her babies. Now it is painted i a strong blue colour, and it is not so nice. I do want a light colour on the walls, because then we will have a better possibility to take photos of cats and kittens. Now it is quite dark in the room and the colours of the cats are rather bluish because of the blue colour on the walls. I am really looking forward to finish this room for our girls! It will be a new experience to have the mothers and their litter in a separate room, our first 6 litters are born in our livingroom and they grow up there as well. Some of our cats love to be with the kittens from the very first day, Joker especially.

This is what we love to see:

Wen with Kikki´s newborn kittens (October 2009)

   Kikki, Joker (he is not the father of the litter) and the kittens in our Hamsun-litter

Joker helping a little one to peepee   

Kikki, Joker and the kittens 

Kikki, Joker, View and the kittens. View is not the father of the litter either

Kikki, Joker, Wen an the kittens

In the bed - Kikki, Wen and the kittens.

At the floor - Doc, Nani, View and Faffa

Mischa, View, Faffa and little Eleseus

And some photos of the Fighterplanes-litter:

Joker, Spitfire and Tornado. The kittens are 6 days

Kikki and Hellcat

Joker and Griffin

Kikki with the kittens in the bed, Joker in the tube

Joker and kittens, kittens are 5 weeks old 

Joker and Foxbat, Foxbat  are 4,5 weeks old

We like that all our cats can participate in raising the kittens, but now we will try to have the litter in a separate room with their mam the first weeks as I wrote earlier. The only reason that we will try this is because "everybody" tells us that it is better for the mam and her babies to have their own room, both other breeders and the veterinarians. And we can´t say that this is better or worse if we do not try it.

Our redpointed girl Wen is on her day 54 today, and she looks like she has eaten a football    She spends her time eating and sleeping, and she prefers to lay on the back of Finn-Ove´s chair. Her kittens are active and now we can se them moving in her belly.

Her belly is a bit larger than it was when she expected her first litter, so maybe there is more than 3 kittens?

Faffa´s belly has started to grow, I can se the difference on the size from yesterday! Hopefully she will not have as many kittens as her mother got in the litter when Faffa and her sibblings was born. They were 7......   

We suspect that Mischa is pregnant as well, not everything goes as we plan. We would rather wait a couple of months to mate her, but we can make plans and the cats decides what to come out of our plans. This is the drawback to have a group of cats, and the girls do not get the pill. We did not discover that Faffa and Mischa was in heat until Muffin mated them.... But we do not want to separate Muffin from the rest of the group if we do not have to. So we just have to be happy about our three litters coming almost at the same time. Well, of course we are happy about this, we love kittens    But we have to admit that it´s a bit inconvenient. Nevertheless, we hope for strong and healthy kittens! And 3 small litters?

Vasco and Puma are the best friends ever, they play-fight a lot and Puma sounds like a big male when Vasco wrestles with her. But when Puma wrestles with Vasco, she is quiet   They are running like mad, jumping and plays with the grown ups cats tails. Sometimes they hide and wait for a cat to come by, and when the cat comes, they both jumps on it. It doesn´t matter at all that the cat might be twice the size that they are.. And when they get tired, they they find a place to sleep - together   

In Pawpeds G3 we have started our 5th week. Week 4 and 5 are genetics, and I am struggling with it! I do understand the most of the Swedish language, like when I look at a film. But to read the texts in Sweedish is actually quite difficult at times. I will be soo happy when I have finished the tasks in these two weeks!

From October 21st I will be one of the instructors in Pawpeds G1-course, and that will be a qouite new experience! I´m looking forward to it!