 |
 |
|
|
|
Arwen is now a real mother! Unfortunately not the natural way, she had a caesarian section. She started having contractions late last night, (ooh by the way, I made a small mistake in the days, yesterday was day 65 when you count the first mating as day 1), it really set in around 2-3 o'clock early this morning (I didn't go to bed) but by the time it was 6 in the morning, no kittens were out yet. only a sack with some fluids. So I called the vet and het told me to come right away, so we did (my mum was with me). At the vets, he felt if she had any dilatation, but she didn't at all! So I could either give her a injection to loosen things up in there and wait and see if it would help, or do a c-section immediately. I chose the last, this was the choice with the lowest risk to the kittens possible. It could well be that the longer they stayed in there the weaker they would get. So Arwen had a c-section this morning and she "gave birth" to 4 cute little kittens, 2 male, 2 female. They weigh from 78 to 85 grams For pictures, see my website, right now I haven't translated everything to english yet, but on the dutch page you can see them, i hope to be able to translate it all soon
Monday 5th January 2004 When I come home in the afternoon after a quick errand, I couldn't find Arwen anywhere. I do hear a loud snoring in the livingroom. Then I see two lights from inside the climbing pole, where she normally never sits. There's a fleece blanket inside, but I can hardly see anything in there. I feel her belly and I can clearly feel two kittens in the lower part of the uterus. I went to my pc to check my mail and Arwen followed me and jumped into the delivery box I made for her. I turned the climbing pole later on, so she couln't go into it anymore. During the evening the kittens seem to be lowering towards the "exit". Arwen really wants to stay near me and will follow me if I stay away longer than five minutes. We watched some tv together (and I corrected some tests). I decide not to go to bed for sleep. Around half past one in the middle of the night (this means it is now Tuesday 6th January) Arwen flinches and meows. She jumpes up and want to go to the climbing pole, but she can't get in. So I gently pick her up and take her to the delivery box. It's in my small room where I have my pc. Every couple of minutes she's having contractions, it's five minutes past two oçlock now. I can type this without any problems, Arwen is right beside me in the box.
A quarter past three o'clock, Arwen is having contractions and meows then while pushing her legs against the box. In between she's snoring very loud. Four o'clock, still nothing has changed. 04.33 u, a piece of membrane with fluids is now visible and is partially sticking out of Arwen's vulva. Arwen inspects it and takes a break. 04.45 u Arwen cleans her vulva, she apparently bit the membrane with fluids and licked everything.
At six o'clock this morning still no kitten was born, and it didn't seem like they were moving closer to the exit, so I called my vet. He didn't have night shift, so I had to call the replacement vet. I told him what was happening, what Arwen's belly felt like and he told me to come over with her, to him it sounded like a caesarian section was necessary. So we took the entire box with Arwen in it to the vet , it was pretty crowded on the highway, at 6.15! But we got there.
The vet felt Arwen, from the outside, she seemed very healthy to him, and he also tried to enter Arwen's vulva with his finger to check the dilatation, but she didn't have any, he couldn't enter with a finger, so the kittens couln't get out. There were two options, he could give her an injection which would make the muscles more relaxed so that perhaps the dilatation would come and if it hadn't after two hours a caesarian section would be needed or he could do a c-section right away. After some debating I chose the c-section, this was the choice with the lowest risk to the kittens possible. It could well be that the longer they stayed in there the weaker they would get.
Around a quarter past seven, half past seven the little ones were born. Four of them, two boys and two girls. It took a very long time before they were really alive, they were sleeping from that sedative Arwen got too. It took a lot of rubbing to wake them up and get them breathing, the vet's assistent and I were busy doing that while the vet sewed up Arwen. Everything is alright now, their weights are between 78 and 85 grams. The boys are heavier than the girls.
10.00 u Arwen is not her own self yet, she's still groggy from the sedative and hasn't developed maternal instincts yet, the little ones are on a hot-water bottle wrapped in a towel. They are next to her, but she's trying to get up all the time and she's not able to stand up yet.
19.00 u Arwen is completely awake now, I gave her some kittenmilk and some food, she ate it all. I tried some crumbled cat candy to sprinkle on the kittens to get Arwen licking them and get those maternal instincts working, but it didn't help. When she was completely awake and the kittens drank milk a couple of times she did. We put the kittens on her nipples all day, to get them sucking. Now Arwen has surrendered to motherhood, the kittens are either sucking or sleeping, Arwen lets them and licks them now too. She really looks happy. And when she's happy I am too.
 |
 |
|
|
|
