This gorgeous lass was dumped on Barry Island, probably because she was pregnant. All too often we come across cases where a family buys or adopts a female kitten but they don't bother to have their new pet spayed. When she, inevitably, becomes pregnant, they don't want her anymore. Many of the cats that we take in at the shelter are the result of this scenario and we suspect this may be what happened to Queenie.
Queenie gave birth to 4 beautiful babies on the 11th of June. Some first-time mums don't know what to do and Queenie certainly fell into this category. She refused to chew through the umbilical cord attaching the first kitten and wouldn't eat the placenta (cats birth one placenta per kitten and usually eat all the placentas). Luckily, SHUA have their own fully qualified (human) midwife on hand - so Kay cut the cord and disposed of the placentas for her.
Within a few days, Queenie developed pyometra - a very serious bacterial infection of the uterus. This is usually treated with an emergency spay but because her babies were barely a week old when it was diagnosed, the senior vet thought it best to hold off as long as possible. She was treated instead with very strong antibiotics and we kept her monitored. After a few more days she was still running a very high temperature and we also became concerned about her kittens, who were starting to become a bit restless as though they weren't altogether well themselves.
Without the spay, Queenie could die; but with the spay, she may be unable to continue nursing her kittens. We would then have to hand-rear her kittens for her, and their chances of survival then decrease significantly - because no matter how hard we try, cat mums will always be superior to humans when it comes to caring for kittens.
The decision was made to go ahead with the spay. Amazingly, she was able to continue nursing her babies. But we were still concerned for the little family and so started weighing the babies daily to ensure that they were putting on weight as normal, healthy kittens of their age should be. Thankfully, the operation and the following course of antibiotics did the trick; within a short while, Mum and kittens improved significantly and we now have a happy healthy Mum with 4 healthy little kittens!
Queenie is still a youngster herself and loves to play. One of her favourite games has been to shred toilet rolls (we moved her into the bathroom whilst she was ill because we ran out of space in the hospital & mum and baby units). We've lost count of the number she has had! Queenie is a just a lovely little cat.
Queenie and all of her kittens have now been reserved.
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