Black&Tan Siamese kitten diary Tasa 2011

Today I close this last diary for Tasa. It is a sad day. We lost her kitten and she was spayed during emergency surgery. She is in the hospital at Tuft's University tonight. The greatest risk to a queen's life is when she has one kitten and that kitten is not enough to signal her body to produce the hormones necessary to deliver. A queen in this situation can easily lose her life.

If you are considering becoming a breeder make note we bought Tasa as an experienced proven breeding cat. Her purchase price plus the cost of two emergency c-section surgeries for her two pregnancies will never be covered by the sale price of her three 2010 kittens. Breeding will not make you money. It will cost you money and sometimes break your heart too.

Her incision is healing well

July 26th - A doctor at Tufts called to let us know that Tasa is doing well. She has a bit of a temperature but that may be the result of having had surgery. She is on schedule to come home tonight after 4 pm.

We picked Tasa up. She was quite frightened and very happy to be home. Her muscle wall incision is closed with dissolving sutures and the skin is closed with surgical glue. She has no external stitches to remove. Her whole tummy is shaved. Not having produced the needed hormones she is not lactating and doesn't seem to know she lost a litter. She is doing very well.

The written report I received brings up some questions. The biggest one is why is this information not consistent with what I was told on the phone by the student doctor. I asked to talk to a doctor about the report. The portion of the report that I have a problem with reads: " A cesarean section was preformed and one stillborn kitten was delivered. Resuscitation was attempted but sadly the kitten was unable to be revived. During surgery, Tasa's uterus appeared inflamed and you opted to have her spayed at the time."

Why would you try to resuscitate a kitten whose "appearance indicated it had been dead for quite some time". That aside, I made my decision to alter Tasa on hearing the word "friable". Friable tissue and inflamed tissue are two different things. When I questioned the doctor, who was the primary surgeon, She said the horn without the kitten had "a section where the wall of the uterus looked thickened and it had webbing that attached it to the abdominal wall." When I asked about the description of friable she said the inside was. Her final comment was this was not normal tissue. I can't help but wonder if what she saw was the scar tissue from Tasa's previous previous c-section. For my own education I want to ask my vet more about this.

July 25th - My Daughter woke me at 9:45 am. Tasa was having regular contractions. She continued to have clusters of contractions until 10:20 am when with a push she expelled the remainder of her mucous plug and fluid. The fluid was clear and normal. Then nothing. No more contractions. She fussed a bit about the fluid but she was relaxed and normal in her behavior. She drank some water and used the litter box several times. We put her food up just in case she might need c-section surgery. Tasa was not distressed in any way. As we watched the time pass I emailed my vet. She is out of town but took the time to advise me not to wait more then 3 or 4 hours before going to the ER at Tufts. We left for Tufts at 2:00 pm. They took her right in and we waited. I gave a complete history to the student doctor. This included the times of each kittens birth for her past litter and the details of her c-section in January of 2010. I also gave them my disk with Tasa July 6th x-rays from the kitten count. They took a new x-ray to see who was where. At 4:30 we spoke to the doctor. They could only see the one kitten. Based on its position and Tasa's history he advised we do surgery. The quote was three thousand to six thousand dollars for the surgery. The plan was to deliver the kitten and leave Tasa whole so she can breed again. They had to order a surgical team and find a time in the schedule for her surgery so he advised us to go get some dinner and they would call us with any news. We needed to make a down payment before we left. The deposit was $2250.00.

The doctor called and said Tasa was in surgery. She had only one kitten, not viable . He said from its appearance it had been dead some time. He also told us that they could close her as planned leaving her intact but that she would be at significant risk of infection. The tissue of her uterus was "friable". Friable means it is very delicate or falling apart. Hearing that word my only choice was to have her spayed during this surgery. I told the doctor to go ahead and alter her. Another doctor from Tufts called us when Tasa was in recovery. She said she was doing well. She also mentioned a thickening in the other horn of her uterus that could have been an infection starting. Tasa will stay at Tufts until after 5 pm tomorrow. When we pick her up I will receive a written report from the surgeon. If there is more information I will add it to this diary.

At this point one goes through all the I should have thoughts and the how could it be's. Like I really believe that I felt the kitten kicking me Saturday night and My daughter felt it moving this morning. The longer one breeds the more clear it becomes that there is no typical sequence for birthing a litter. What will happen will happen and we do the best we can to help our cats.

July 24th - Today Tasa has had a fair amount of discharge. I felt certain she will deliver today but again she does not progress into labor. Everyday this week I have been going over my calendar and sorting through my memory to verify the dates I noted that Tasa was bred. In ' A Manual for Cat Breeders' by Cowles, she states that Siamese can gestate for 60 to 72 days. Today is day 70 for Tasa counting from the first day she was bred. I felt certain that Tasa would deliver her kitten(s) and stayed up with her until 3:00 am. She has the birthing box as well as the knee hole cubby of my desk set up with towels for nesting. She also has two large beds. She's been acting normally, completely relaxed, but not progressing to labor. My daughter went to bed early and will get up at 5 am to check on her and watch over her while I get some sleep. If she does not go into labor tomorrow we will take her to the hospital.

July 23rd - Tasa had another small spot of discharge and nothing more today. It is normal to have discharge before labor begins it indicates the cervix is thinning and beginning to open. She has been over grooming her tummy a little. When she curls up to lick she can only reach to her lowest nipple so it has been getting cleaned to the point that it started bleeding. Her lowest nipples are very flat. Kittens can't nurse on them. We decided to put a little spot bandage on it to protect it. The circle bandage fits without getting into her fur and she doesn't seem to mind that its there.

July 21st - Tasa had a small spot of discharge this afternoon. I emailed my Vet to let her know and find out when she leaves for the weekend. Tasa has not progressed.

July 16th - In preparation we have moved Tasa into my office. She loves having her tummy rubbed and sitting on my lap. I can feel the kitten kicking my thigh when Tasa lays flat on my lap. She has a pile of towels under my desk in the knee hole that she can dig in and do her nesting. Most of the time she like to be on top of my desk lounging.

July 6th - Tasa went in to have a kitten count x-ray. Dr. Schaefer says it looks like she has two? kittens. We studied these x-rays because Tasa is huge again. Bones show up lighter. The rounder light shapes are a skulls and the longer zipper like shapes are spines. The big rectangles through the middle is Tasa's spine. A cats uterus is "Y" shaped so we expect to see kittens in each side. The kitten marked by the white line I added can be clearly seen. The green line marks the second kitten that Dr. Schaefer thinks could be there. She doesn't appear to have any kittens on the right side.

Top view

Lateral view

Again we can see the zipper of the spine and head of one kitten clearly but that is about all we can distinguish.

End of June - We haven't been able to feel kittens moving yet but Tasa's nipples have pinked up. This is a good sign of her having conceived. She is really round but she puts on weight very easily and alot of it could be fat.

Mid May - Tasa is in estrus again so she is back visiting Balor. She is still not sure she wants to be with him. We are placing Tasa in with Balor three times a day. As the days pass she is becoming more accepting but Balor seems to be having difficulties with the mechanics. Tasa has a thick strong muscle in the base of her tail. I think this may be getting in the way. Balor has been able to successfully breed Tasa multiple times now. Fingers crossed we get some kittens. Gestation is about 65 days. A kitten count x-ray can be done after 45 days. This is when the kittens bones have calcified enough to see them.

Spring 2011- Tasa is in estrus and has gone to breed with Balor.. This is a first breeding with Balor and Tasa. With the fist attempts to breed she totally rejected Balor and would not allow him anywhere near her. Some queens will never accept certain males we hope this is not the case. She spent the whole cycle in the enclosure next to his. When we put her with him she would roll and attack to get away. Balor is not an aggressive partner so he would back off and coo too her. We hope having her stay next to him will allow her to become comfortable enough to allow mating during her next cycle.

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