Phoebe's Family

Friends, I'm afraid our update today will be short and sweet. My human has been very, very sick with a sore tummy, has taken way more pain killers than she normally does, and is too tired from throwing up with the pain and blissed with the meds to write much for me. I'm sorry about that, and I promise I'll get to more interesting things tomorrow or late rin the week!






The only reason I could get her to write at all was cuz I shouted and shouted till she thought I might be going into early labour (Isn't she paranoid? I think I'll start calling her Marvin. Eternal smoochies to any of you who get the reference!). I wasn't, but I wanted to make her think it, cuz then she thought about Phoebe from yesterday and her babycats. That, as I had hoped, made her remember that she'd promised you an update.





In total, Phoebe now has five babycats, one white with cream paws, face and tail, two black with a white paw, one that looks like a tiger, and another that's a little tortie, or so says the mummypeople. They had to take her in to see the vet peoples who are shockingly ignorant when it comes to birthing. Phoebe wasn't passing enough chord to let the mummypeople cut it easily, and instead of giving her oxytosin straight away, the vet lady people advised the mummypeople to pull gently on the chord to ease out the placenta. Well, you don't do that ever, as she found out, as when you do, it tears the mummycat. Hardly surprising when you figure that the placenta is still attached to the wall of the uterus and will let go only when the mum makes an effort and goes with her contractions. Phoebe wasn't. Thankfully, the mummypeople was pulling real gently and as soon as she saw the first drops of blood she stopped, but that could have been real, real bad. The fourth baby was still attached when Phoebe pushed out a fifth, and it was then that she got took to the vet.





They cut the chord on the fifth one, but she didn't pass the placenta. Again, they showed their ignorance by telling the mummypeople that Oxytosin, although it would make her pass the placenta, would be painful for her, and the increased contractions would kill any remaining kittens. Well duh, stupid vet people, how do you think kittens get born in the first place? It ain't by relaxing! Instead, they opted for a course of preventative antibiotics to make sure that she couldn't get sick if she didn''t pass the placenta. If it was me they'd done that to, the human would be filled with dread. She tried to explain this to the mummypeople, but by that point it was too late and the antibiotics had been given.





So Phoebe is at home with her babies. Me and the human will wait to see how things develop. Three babies remained attached to mum with no slack in the chord, and the first born actually got tangled in its chord and mum did nothing to help. The second born was the only one in this litter who won't be at signifficant risk of abdominal hernea due to pulling on the chord.





Why do I tell you all these things, negative as they are? For a lot of reasons actuallly. Phoebe, at nine months old, was too young to be a mum, and made no effort to clean, de-bag or chew the chords on kittens. She didn't have the reserves necessary to complete a delivery due to being too skinny in my opinion (they didn't know they had to feed her higher quality food, and more of it, while she was pregnant). Four out of five kittens may have life threatening health issues in the near future. The mum may also face the same risk through infection. Lack of preparedness and being informed led to the lives of five cats being put unnecessarily at risk, and to the addition of five mostly unwanted kittens into the already over-crowded kitten world. The family now find themselves having to look after a large litter, a sick mum and pay all the expenses, and they're not rich. I tell you these things to illustrate how important it is to have your cat spayed or neutered if you're not breeding to a specific end or for a certain purpose. It's so, so important. I'm also telling you this cuz I know the human needs to rant, specially cuz it's her family who are being so unforgiveably stupid. She loves them, but she thinks they're idiots today!





That's all we have for now. I'll update you as soon as the human makes the talk noise on the phone thing with her auntie, the mummypeople, and I know more about how the new little family are doing today. Thanks for listening to our rant, and sorry there wasn't more interesting stuff to read!