Ask Me Help Desk - Is my Cat in Labor

My cat is pregnant, she is shivering, and is lactating when I squeeze her nipples((last two days this began)). She won't eat, and hasn't She wants to be constantly around me or my other cats, And paces back and fourth to everyone. She is not nesting, or at least I haven't seen her nesting at all. She roughly got pregnant around the 17th of June. Yesterday((aug18)) she had some mucous/bloody discharge... I can't feel any babies moving, and she isn't very round, as she is a small/petite girl to begin with.

Please don't handle her unnecessarily. A lot of people claim cats don't have feelings, just instincts as animals but I disagree, I think she is wondering what's happening /is scared and getting clingy because she trusts you. You can fix whatever is happening to her(the labor pains) Has she changed size at all could she have already delivered, maybe hid the kits? Otherwise that is probably just a little fluid leaking out in advance of delivery, maybe fetuses are "sitting on her bladder" making it hard for her to go or causing her to strain.

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Originally Posted by cottoncandy

Has she changed size at all could she have already delivered, maybe hid the kits? Otherwise that is probably just a little fluid leaking out in advance of delivery, maybe fetuses are "sitting on her bladder" making it hard for her to go or causing her to strain.

She seems to actually have gotten small in the belly.. The mucous/blood discharge wasn't really runny... more mucous then anything.. I didn't know what it was at first till I wiped her clean with a clean towel. And wants to keep going downstairs which she just lies on the couch or gets attacked by the other cats, so I had to lock her up in our front porch with a box full of towels, her litter and fresh water and food.. she doesn't want to stay in there though. I was worried that she had them, as I left for two days, while she ran around the house, but I looked everywhere in my house, and I can't find nor hear any kittens around... I'm hoping that this isn't the case... I made a vet appointment for her tomorrow morning to see... but her weird behaviour, is startling, and I've never gone through this before. I just don't know how to tell.. I've read other sites about some signs, and the major one is temperature, and nesting... which other then her shivering.. isn't obvious.

A skittish little cat with her first litter could have had preemies which were deceased (stillborn) or she could just have freaked out and cannibalized them, or have hidden the litter real good which is why she wanted out of the cage so badly. We will bring very pregnant barn cats inside once in awhile. Have had kitten litters inside the springs of my couch, stuffed under that little gap under the kitchen sink cabinets, stuffed up against the coils/motor of the refrigerator. Have seen it all. Also sometimes she can lose the pregnancy but the fetuses are somehow absorbed instead of expelled. Something like a fever, stress, reaction to herself or another cat being vaccinated(which causes an increase in body temp) or allergy or reaction to something in her food. When pregnant her immune system is depressed because otherwise her body would react to the fetuses as being different from her own body