9 Week Bump

Poor Inds! She's huge, uncomfortable, and her bump has dropped- this is the equivalent to the head engaging in humans. As a result she's going to the toilet frequently as there's just no room inside her for anything but kitten. Unfortunately for me she has decided to toilet pretty much anywhere but the litter trays, despite them being clean... *sigh*... so I've been doing a lot of cleaning up and washing.

I have put down some relaxing spray stuff to see if that helps chill her out a bit as I'd really rather she used the (perfectly adequate!) litter trays, as opposed to my jacket, her beds, my (fabric) computer chair...

Still. The nest is ready, the sofa cavity is stuffed up with blankets so she can't get underneath there, ditto the cubbies in the cat trees. I will be sleeping in with Inds for the next little while and getting up every hour or two to check on her. The emergency vet number is programmed into the satnav, the equipment is sterilising, all the kittening supplies are ready and waiting. We're all set. All I need now is for Indie to do her thing and we'll have us some kittens!

8 Week Bump

She's  massive! She's so big now I even went back to check my dates AND last year's photos and notes to make sure she wasn't due this week as opposed to next, but my dates are fine, she's just huge.

Poor kitty. she lies down to wash herself now (it's pretty funny) as she tries to contort round her bump and I even had to wipe her bottom for her last night! Oh the indignation!

As one might expect, she is sleeping a lot these days (in her nest! Yay! she has weed in it a few times though lol) and when she isn't sleeping she's eating. She's putting piles of the kibble away now, but since changing it to the kitten food she's had no more nausea. Her poops aren't exactly as I'd like, but all pregnancies are different and this one for some reason just hasn't sat too well with her. I'll be glad when the kittens are safely here. Still, she's still pretty healthy given that she's eating for about... oooh 15, by the size of her!!!!

Poor Inds!

7 Week Bump

Not a great pic, (camera still missing *sob* and I don't think I'm using this camera phone at all the way I'm supposed to, all too clever for me) but you get the general idea. ie she looks as though she's swallowed a rugby ball. Hee! She's very much got the pregnant waddle now, and takes a long time to find a comfortable position to snooze in because her belly gets in the way. Poor Inds!

She's had a few tummy troubles this week, a bout of vomiting (but without the collapsing she indulged in a few weeks back, my God...!) and diarrhoea, and I suspect she's having trouble keeping up with the amount of food she's having to eat. So I've moved her onto the kitten food now, which is much more calorie dense. Hopefully she'll have to eat less of it to get the nutrition she needs, which will lessen the strain on her digestive system.

She's also getting wet food at night just before I go to bed, which means the others have to as well. Theo starts nagging me about 9pm for this despite the fact I don't generally go to bed for several hours after that! Blooming cat! I've got plain chicken ready in the freezer, but want to keep that one up my sleeve for if Inds starts to struggle feeding so many kittens after a couple of weeks, like last time... it worked a treat! And there will always be the Christmas turkey...

I'm still trying to guess how many kittens she's going to have. I've had a thorough, but gentle, feel of her other side whilst the babies were particularly vigourous this morning, and I think I felt two, (if not three) distinct areas of movement. With the three I think she has on her other side (cats have bicornate uteruses, two- horned, one on each side, and the babies grow in one or the other) that makes a whole lot of kitten! Five, possibly six, I'm guessing, this time!

Of course I guessed last time and got it wrong. Vets can tell, I believe, from quite early on, but I am not a vet and I'm not about to go prodding at my cat to find out, lest I do her a mischief. Besides which, cats regularly resorb fetuses. In fact I read somewhere that cats start off having 20 or more fetuses, most of which then die off in the early stages to leave the strongest to make it to term. Very clever. Even at seven weeks I believe this can happen (or an unborn kitten can die and become mummified) so five or six distinct wiggly areas now does not necessarily mean that number of kits in two weeks time.

But it is fun to speculate. And Indigo likes nothing better than to have her tummy rubbed at the moment, so any excuse really!

The Due Date

Is this big enough to have my babies in???

Last year I used this formula to work out roughly when Indigo was due: first observed (heard) mating + 9 weeks + 2 days. (or mating + 65 days, if you like). It was pretty successful, Inds delivered on her due date. So its bound to be completely out this year, of course *grin*

Anyway, this year the first heard mating was on Wednesday September the 28th, which makes her due date Friday December the 2nd.

Of course that's just a guide and it could be any time several days either side of that. Whatever, as long as mama and babies are safe and healthy. Other than that, I'm only hoping I don't have the flu this time!

Not So Tiny

The 5 week bump!

Where did THAT come from?

Tiny Belly

Indigo has! A very gentle dropping and roundness- you couldn't tell from a photo (and my camera is playing up again so apologies for the lack of pics lately) but I hold her and stroke her every day and I've noticed it. Of course she has baggier skin this year, and is a bit chunkier anyway so it might not be so obvious so soon.

Shall we do bump photos this year? I think so :) I'll start just as soon as she's got anything to show.

Speaking of shows... I actually made it to see one the other day, the Tonkinese Breed Club show in Bracknell. I didn't mention it before because I didn't want to jinx going... I'm not usually a superstitious person, but having lost out on the last three due to illness etc I was a bit wary!

I saw the lovely Monty, some descendents of Harry and lots of lovely cats, but mainly I was able to talk Tonk with lots of other breeders which was nice. Monty did very well and got another challenge certificate, but- and I didn't know this- it is from the same judge as gave him one before. So he still can't claim Champion status. The certificates need to be from different judges!

I've also joined the Tonkinese BREED club, which I've been meaning to do for a while. I'm now a member of both clubs. I don't think there's any others...

I think I've said it before, but I'm pretty ambivalent about the whole cats in cages thing (but I keep mine indoors and isn't that just one big cage? I am a hypocrite, I guess. Bear with me though whilst I unravel my thoughts a little...)

I like breeding within the structure- and the confines- of the GCCF because it gives set rules on what you should and shoudn't do, and these are almost always to the benefit of the cats. It would take a brave breeder to insist a kitten stayed for 13 weeks, for example, if we didn't HAVE to... when the non pedigree world expects kittens at 8 weeks. But the extended stay is good for mama and babies. If people didn't have to wait 13 weeks for their kitten to come home, they wouldn't would they, in the main, they'd go to the breeder down the road who churned them out callously at 6 weeks, and the decent breeders  would lose out. Kittens would be less socialised and less happy and the breeds would suffer as a result.

Shows ensure breeding animals are of a good type, so the breeds stay distinct and improve, rather than becoming... well, just expensive moggies, basically. The whole point of a pedigree cat is one that has been bred for a certain look and temperament, the opposite of a random bred cat which is, as the name suggests, random. I have no objection to moggies, if anyone is newly reading and doesn't know... I have two of my own :)

So the GCCF and shows are a good thing. I like the shows from that perspective, and its incredibly useful to see the cats, in terms of building up experience of colours and what is a good type and so on- I got a lot out of yesterday. But there's the part of me (I used to be a mildly hippy- activist type, reckon its that part!) that hates the cages and the fact we put our cats in then to be ogled by other people. I don't suppose it's much fun for the cats, although the cats themselves never seem scared as such. Mildly irritated, yes, and you aren't allowed to touch them (disease control) and they don't like that. Well the Tonks don't anyway, as they rub themselves against the bars and roll on their backs asking for a fuss.  But they don't... well they don't suffer, you know?

And reason tells me that if the downside of GCCF breeding is a cat having to spend a day in a cage every now and then, then surely it's better than the spoils of letting your free roaming cat get pregnant, exposing them to diseases and nasties. Not to mention the yearly problem of the shelters overflowing and the thousands and thousands of moggy kittens that simply end up being put to sleep because there aren't the homes.

I expect one day I'll want to show a cat of mine... but lets just say I haven't entirely resolved it in my own mind yet. I'm glad my own girl is a solid, and therefore ineligible... although the application for showing Tonk variants is being resubmitted, so she might not be ineligible for long!

Doofus

Me, that is.

After writing the last blog post, it occurred to me that I had a willing, and definitely un-pregnant mog hereabouts. Male cats, like male humans, have nipples of course!

Problem with Theo is he has so much floof, I couldn't actually SEE one to compare. I grabbed him to investigate, but he didn't take too kindly to all that rummaging, and stalked off with his tail swishing in a most annoyed manner. Sorry boy.

Later I accosted him whilst he was asleep, and whilst it did wake him, this time he responded by purring madly and enjoying the tummy rub, so I was, eventually, able to find one. Little, white, and not at all like Indigo's. Later on, I walked into my room to see Sofia snoozing belly up on the bed. And yup, Indigo's are much bigger and much pinker than hers as well.
What with the sickness, (now thankfully at an end) and the amount of food that's been magically disappearing from Indigo's bowl recently, I think we can now safely assume that she's pregnant :)

Whoohoo!

Indie's Eyes...

Ever get that feeling of deja vu?

Early pregnancy (touch wood) does not seem to be a good time for Indigo. She feels sick and tired, much like in a human pregnancy. Last year she had an ongoing and at the time unresolved allergy issue. You may be sure I have been anxiously feeling her head many times a day for any lumps, bumps or anything unusual, but so far (again, touch wood) nothing.

However, I was cuddling her the other day, she was purring at me and looking at me through partially slitted eyes and... well one didn't look quite right to me. I wasn't sure, so I pounced on her later and had a proper look and sure enough, her inner eyelids weren't retracted fully. Later on it was fine, later still not retracting again and so on. Also her eye looked watery. I rang the vet, but being Sunday I wasn't able to get an appointment till today. Not too worrying, as she's fine in herself, alert and playful.

Cats have a second, inner, eyelid to help protect their eyes- it swooshes over them to remove dirt a bit like a windscreen wiper. It helps to keep the eyes moist. It's normal enough to catch a glimpse of this lid when a cat is sleepy, but it should fully retract when a cat is alert and awake. When it doesn't, it can be a sign of illness.

Anyway, Indigo's diagnosis is, paraphrased, 'Possibly A Bit Under The Weather, Not Otherwise Specified'!!!! In other words, she just has sore eyes, the vet doesn't know why and I'm left thinking 'we've been here before...'

Actually I'm being overly dramatic. Inds has sore eyes, but it isn't like last year at all, I'm just rolling my eyes at a cat of mine having another mystery illness. They never go in for anything clear cut, my mogs! She has drops to use, as a precaution, so she will hate me for a few days I am sure, but there's no pus, no crustiness or sign of anything infectious, just a little soreness.

No photos, because I don't want to irritate her eyes further by flashing cameras about the place, I don't know if it would bother them, but why take the chance? Otherwise she's alert and happy, not seeming unwell- although see my next paragraph- and the vet isn't worried. It should go on its own within a couple of weeks, and I don't need to go back unless it develops into something else. Which she doesn't think it will. As an aside- I love my vets!  *I* know I worry overmuch about my pets, *THEY* know it too but never make comments or make me feel silly for doing things like- well bringing in a cat with a mildly sore eye. Heh!

No sign of pregnancy yet, but I didn't expect it. The vet had a feel, but all she could feel was a large and well formed poop! However, Indigo has lost a small amount of weight, and been a little nauseated and tired, which is exactly the same as last time. She's also been extra cuddly, which again is like she was before. So I'm willing to state that I think she IS expecting. Hurrah!

Thoughtful

Sweet Kenneth, half asleep. I love his serious little face!

I'm feeling fairly thoughtful myself. I took Indigo to the vet last night. The lady I saw today was much more clued up about allergies and the like, and she agrees with me that it looks like a food allergy. (finally! A diagnosis!) To what she couldn't say, but she agreed that eliminating dyes and artificial preservatives would be a good start. She also recommended buying food with just one source of protein, rather than multiple sources like most cat foods.

So Indigo needs new food. Because it's come on so badly, she also recommended I change it now, rather than wait till the kittens have moved on, so contrary to what I said before, we've changed food after all. There wasn't an awful lot of choice in the food despite the vet being in a large pet store, but I eventually found a complete kitten wet food and a complete kitten kibble, both chicken, for them to have temporarily. This will give me time to decide on what food i want them to go on with, and make an order from an online specialist. Zooplus, probably!

Which means, incidentally, that I have a whole, unopened, 4kg bag of Royal Canin Babycat (rrp about £30!) and half a big packet of Royal Canin kitten, probably about the same amount. I can't use them but I'm not throwing them out, as it's good stuff so I'm off to the Cats' Protection sometime in the next few days to see if they can use it... bet they can!

As for where this allergy came from? Well, it seems to have been precipitated by her pregnancy... so be warned, any random reader, if you are thinking of breeding your cat... just... don't! Seriously, just don't, unless you are VERY serious about it. Don't do it 'just once', for fun, please. I know my kittens' families won't, so I'm not talking to them now but I mean anyone else who has happened on this blog and is reading... don't put your girl through it and risk her health. Bottom line is, if I hadn't mated Indie, she may not have developed this allergy, and I feel very guilty about that. On the other hand, if it was dormant then it might have started any time, if she was ill, for example.But she'll need special food from now on for life.

I did ask if allergies were hereditary, and the vet said not. Cue a huge sigh of relief all round I think! I also googled last night to make sure (yeah, I know!) and to be honest there's not a lot of info on it... but from reading it seems that whilst there may be a small hereditary component for some airborne allergies- pollen, etc- food allergies are not known to be heritable. It's just MY cat who is dramatic, it seems!

So, a few changes for us here. I've switched the dry food, I've got a few sachets of wet food I will feed the kittens over the next couple of days (keeping Indigo away!) and then I'll switch that over too. I'm to carry on with the aloe inside and out, and the vet was most impressed with the comfycollar! Indigo's also got a course of nursing-safe antibiotic, so hopefully with all those things together, we should see an improvement before too long.

I did comment to someone yesterday that I thought it had improved a little already, unfortunately Indigo slipped out of her collar and scratched herself raw again... silly girl!

On a more positive front, she's got a rather round belly now, a far cry from the appetite issues and general skinnyness of Christmastime, and other than the allergy issue, seems to be blooming. She's going to get a shock when the kittens are gone, and she no longer gets three plated meals a day plus biscuits... my cats are mostly kibble fed with just the one wet food meal per day as a treat. Guess she'd better enjoy it while she can!

Evidence Of A Theo

Originally posted on my private blog- posted to http://indikon-tonkinese.blogspot.com/ on 06/01/11

Theo is an intuitive cat. When another of my cats is unwell or not quite right, I'll often find that Theo gives me more clues by HIS behaviour than the unwell cat does. He is the same with humans... he has a sense for vulnerability and likes to be on the spot, protectively. I mention this because Theo has spent a good proportion of today so far grooming and snuggling with Indigo.

Indigo has been most tolerant of all this attention, although when Theo got into her bed (on my desk, this isn't her kittening box that's much bigger) with her she wasn't too impressed. It's not really big enough for two full grown cats, especially a big old floof and one with a very wide load of kittens, and it was a bit of a squash. I removed him shortly after I took the photo! Indigo was rather relieved!

Anyway the point being that he's showering attention on Indigo today, to the point where I've noticed it and wondered what vibes he's picking up from her. I've had a good cuddle with Indigo myself, and haven't been able to feel any contractions, she's not had a show, her bump hasn't 'dropped' as I've read about, but I am wondering if the evidence of Theo's concern means something is imminent. Her behaviour IS different today, now I think about it. Yesterday she was running (well waddling) and playing, today she's been very quiet and been content to stay still... not sleeping, but- how can I express this- waiting?

I wonder if it will be today...?

Of course now I've posted this, nothing will happen till Sunday. :D Bet you anything... lol.

Aaaaaand Waiting...

Originally posted on my private blog- posted to http://indikon-tonkinese.blogspot.com/ on 06/01/11

Dunno what you're looking at me like that for. I'll have them when I'm good and ready!

Kittening box

Originally posted on my private blog- posted to http://indikon-tonkinese.blogspot.com/ on 06/01/11

Well, Indigo did discover the kittening box... and went to the toilet in it.

*rolls eyes*

She is now sitting on the window sill looking incredibly pleased with herself, the minx!

Luckily, I'm used to her ways by now, and the whole box was lined with a plastic sheet and with a large plastic box inside that... so cleanup was no issue at all really. It's basically a large underbed storage trug lined with soft fleece, inside a very large cardboard box with a hole cut in the end- the trug takes up most of the box. It looks nice and cosy, for all Indigo thinks it's a new kind of litter tray.

But then again, knowing Indigo she might have been marking it hers... so it might be a good sign. I remain ever hopeful!

Waiting...

Originally posted on my private blog- posted to http://indikon-tonkinese.blogspot.com/ on 06/01/11

LOL her head looks TINY here in comparison to her bellyful o' kittens.

8.5 weeks... and counting...

Originally posted on my private blog- posted to http://indikon-tonkinese.blogspot.com/ on 06/01/11

Indigo is now just under 8 1/2 weeks pregnant and probably has less than a week to go. I've noticed several things...

She has a fairly impressive cleavage, growing by the day!

She's struggling to keep her back end clean... she can't reach it. However she's unwilling to let Theo oblige. I've been helping her out, and she's been letting me.

She doesn't upend herself on my lap any more, as she can't get up, and she struggles to find a comfortable position on my lap or otherwise... she's all kitten. She made a concerted effort to climb into my neck earlier, as a kitten she used to perch on my shoulder.

When on my lap she will purr and purr and do happy paws ecstatically all over me... I've trimmed her nails as I was getting a bit too punctured!

She doesn't like being on her own at night any more. It's time for me to start sleeping in the living room I think.

She sleeps a LOT. And when she isn't sleeping she's resting with an expression of patient endurance... I well remember that feeling!

If she jumps, even a small jump, say the sofa to the floor, she makes an 'oof' sound as she lands hehe. She doesn't try bigger jumps any more- she wouldn't make it!

She's also started acting anxious if I have to go out, like today. Fortunately, bar the teenager's school Christmas performance, I'm clear now for a week and a bit... I work from home, handily. And the lad understands that I may not make it to his performance if anything happens that day.

So yes, definite end of pregnancy signs, I think. She hasn't really seemed to be looking for anywhere to have the kittens yet though. Naturally, she won't go anywhere near the kittening box I've prepared for her... lol!

Mah Belleh...

Originally posted on my private blog- posted to http://indikon-tonkinese.blogspot.com/ on 06/01/11

Let me show you it...

8 Week Bump

Originally posted on my private blog- posted to http://indikon-tonkinese.blogspot.com/ on 06/01/11

From the top...

... and side.

Indie is 8 weeks now... only one week to go, hurrah! As you can see her bump isn't any bigger from the top looking down, but it gets ever lower the further along she goes. What is more, her bump becomes more and more 'solid'. Whereas at six weeks, she had more flexibility, her growing belly was still quite soft and she could contort herself into the many peculiar positions cats are so fond of, now she can't... her bump gets in the way.

The kittens were all going bananas yesterday as Indigo was on my lap, so I was looking at where the wriggles were coming from, and comparing this to how big a newborn kitten is, trying to work out how many kittens there were in there from the kicks! Now of course this is only a bit of fun, but I reckon I saw four distinct kicking areas which I assume is four kittens, unless the kittens are very very very long indeed in which case less, but I don't really think so.

Of course she could be having MORE... but I can't see where she'd put them! Who knows. Alternatively she could have a bellyful of live snakes. It looked a bit like that the other day!

One Extra

Originally posted on my private blog- posted to http://indikon-tonkinese.blogspot.com/ on 06/01/11

Indigo has nine nipples!

She has! Apart from the eight standard ones, in pairs along her belly, on her right side, between the top two and the bottom two is an extra. It looks perfectly normal, feels normal (I was washing them gently the other day) it's just there- an extra one.

I would make some quip about how I hope she doesn't have one kitten for each nipple, but I've heard of Tonks who have had large litters of eight and nine so I don't think I'll tempt fate... we'll have a rather smaller litter than that, thanks, Fate, if you're listening!

In other news, Indigo does now have a third wave of spots... one on each ear, a couple elsewhere but the majority this time are at the base of her tail. Thumps. Head. On. Desk. Still painless though, thank goodness! I've changed my washing powder, cleaners, stopped using any perfumes... you name it I've changed it and still she's getting these allergic reactions... I don't know what to do next.

7 week bump

Originally posted on my private blog- posted to http://indikon-tonkinese.blogspot.com/ on 06/01/11

And here she is showing off her bump from beneath (yes, the carpet needs a serious vacuuming session...

 

6 week bump

Originally posted on my private blog- posted to http://indikon-tonkinese.blogspot.com/ on 06/01/11

6-ish weeks anyway. Isn't it lovely?

Indigo's bump is mostly at the sides, her abdomen isn't THAT much lower than beforehand. But she looks like a pregnant cat, certainly.

Only three and a bit weeks to go :)

Update: 5 weeks

Originally posted on my private blog- posted to http://indikon-tonkinese.blogspot.com/ on 06/01/11

Indigo would NOT look at the camera for me. LOL.

Ok, so she's (over) 5 weeks pregnant now and it's all going rather well. She's gently rounded, but not big or slowing down any as of yet. Nose is frequently in the food bowl, and the nausea that troubled her in earlier pregnancy no longer seems to be an issue.

Allergy wise... I just don't know. The second wave of spots are now receding, but I'm not saying anything more about it, as when the first lot were receding, that's when she got the second flush of them! I've been speaking to another breeder who has been very helpful... (thank you very much!) one of her cats had a similar sounding reaction- it was an allergy to penicillin. Now I simply can't work out where Indigo would have had penicillin- she hasn't had it prescribed, the other breeder suggested mouldy bread but Indigo doesn't go out to scavenge in rubbish heaps and the like... it's a mystery!

Still, she's off the antibiotics now (NOT penicillin, I might add!) and where the first lot of spots were, the hair seems to be regrowing, so she isn't going to be bald! LOL.

You can see on the side of her face the only patch that's bothering her now... two or three swellings very close together, which of course she's scratched, and they've bled and scabbed and she's scratched them again... the last time she scratched them off was this morning hence they are looking VERY sore today. the vet suggested she may need an antibiotic again if it gets infected, but to be honest, i'm not that keen on her being on antibiotics any longer than is strictly necessary given she's just BEEN on them for two weeks. So I'm bathing with slightly salty water for now and hoping it heals up on its own.

Other than that she seems quite content, very cuddly indeed but still wanting to play as well. She's such a lovely cat!