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!

Mouser

A very good one at that. Fortunately (for me!) we don't have any of the live variety, but Theo does like a good stuffed mouse to bat about. Silly old floof.

Here are Theo's back feet, and why he wouldn't do well had I decided to show him. Birmans' feet are meant to have neat little gloves on them, and his back feet have jaggedy bits at the top like seams- these are called runners and are a fault. His front feet too, one of them has a grey splotch on a paw pad- they are ideally perfectly white. Theo's actually a pretty good example of his breed, but not up to show standard which really is only for those closest to the breed standard only.

(Besides which, I didn't pick Theo because he was show quality, I picked him because he was cute and made me laugh! But I thought you might be interested. Show standards are very exacting in all breeds!)

No news on the Indigo front... as before, I THINK she's pinked up, but I'm just not sure! Neither Ava nor Sofia are the kind of cats that will let you poke around their nippes (so I could compare theirs to Indigo's) and last time the change was obvious and dramatic. I suppose though with humans it varies from one pregnancy to another, so no reason why it should be any different with cats.

I'll have to wait a bit longer, I suppose!

Tummy Rub

The time is approaching where I become slightly obsessive about my cat's nipples. Yes you read that correctly! I have been checking them daily for any signs of swelling or 'pinking up' which would indicate a pregnancy. Yesterday I thought they looked a bit pinker than usual, today I'm not so sure.

Looking at last time, I can see she pinked up well and truly three weeks and four days after going to stud- three weeks and one day after the first suspected mating. This time Indigo went to stud on the 25th of September, was heard possibly mating on the 28th and was seen definitely doing so on the 29th. So today is the equivalent day this time round (three weeks and 4 or 1 days, depending)... which of course means nothing other than I'm a complete nerd LOL. But I am expecting to know really quite soon :)

It's just as well Indigo adores having her tummy rubbed really isn't it? If you could hear the purring!

Boobs!

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

Forgive today's post, which is entirely on the subject of Indigo's nipples. Yes, there's no end to the excitement you find on this blog. I may have mentioned before I lead a very sad life... lol.

But she is now showing DEFINITE signs that she is pregnant. Did I say her nipples had turned the faintest, rosy pink? Just two days ago??? Look at THESE...

Woah mama!

The photo quality is, as ever, appalling, and I did lighten the picture a little, but you get the general idea. They are now bright pink, and much larger than they are ordinarily. This is known as 'pinking up', occurs at about three to four weeks of pregnancy, so Indigo is right on cue :)

As well as changing colour, the surrounding areas are now ever so slightly fuller. Not in terms of milk coming in, that won't happen yet, but she'll be having changes in the tissue to allow this to happen.You can see where the fur on her belly is now slightly displaced. That's Indigo on my lap, by the way, having deliberately turned herself upside down and is sticking her feet in my face. She likes to have them massaged. Such a peculiar cat, she is!

Obviously we still have the lab test results to come, but I've decided I'm going to act like that isn't an issue. What will be will be, and worrying about it isn't going to change anything. Obviously if I had other Tonkinese, and was showing them, I would be keeping them away from shows, I'm not going to any shows myself, and I'm staying away from other cats in general. I'm still taking all the necessary precautions, as it were.

But in terms of preparing for the kittens' arrival and enjoying Indigo's pregnancy, I'm not going to let the lab tests hang over us. Indigo is pregnant, and I am delighted :)

Relief

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

I'm so very relieved! Indigo's initial results are looking good.

They took two scrapes of Indigo's head- quite deep ones including the scab, the skin around it and some of the hairs. They then looked at these under a lamp and microscope to see what was going on.

Now, in about 50% of ringworm cases, the hairs/skin flouresce under a special lamp... and there was no flourescence in Indigo's sample. The hair shafts also looked mormal, another indicator it isn't ringworm as the fungus (NOT a worm!) usually does something funny to the hair shafts. There was also no sign of mange mites.

This was the best possible result today! I'm so thankful. Now it doesn't mean it's absolutely definitely NOT ringworm... the only definitive test is a culture, which will be started with Indigo's skin sample and grown over the next few weeks. But the lack of flourescence and the normal appearance of the hair shafts make ringworm fairly unlikely. The fact that Indigo is a house cat and doesn't come across other cats or dig around in soil other cats have dug in etc makes it even more unlikely.

The stud owner was pretty pleased too! She's been lovely about all this, but obviously she's had to put her stud into quarantine, in case Indigo was carrying something infectious when she went to stud! NOT the sort of reputation one wants to build up when one is just starting out in the breeding process, really! It's been highly embarrassing for me.

The pictures are pre scrape and show the lesions and the surrounding hair loss- I haven't got a photo of her head post scrape because it's too sore to touch. So I haven't been touching it, obviously.

The vet says there's only been a very slight improvement since she saw them before. I agree, but I think the wounds are 'further on'... the lumps are less lumpy and more crusty, which could mean they are starting the healing process. More importantly there are no NEW lumps, which I'm choosing to see as a very positive thing. So we're carrying on with the pregnancy safe antibiotic, and a general air of let's keep an eye on her see what happens.

We're still no closer to finding out what caused this in the first place though. Some kind of allergy, perhaps... but what?

I will say one thing though. This result couldn't have happened at a better time. Last night, as I was stroking her, I felt again a fullness to her undercarriage that wasn't there before- and it was NOT because she needed to use the litter tray this time! And her nipples, I'm ALMOST sure, have gone from a creamy-white colour to the palest rosy pink...

A Short Post

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

... as I am full of cold and feeling icky! Urgh!

Last night the cats spent a semi- peaceable half hour in my room together. Then I popped to the loo, and of course a face off broke out. Sigh. I'm working on it!

No signs of pregnancy yet. I'm looking especially for 'pinking up' of the nipples, but it would be early for that yet, that usually doesn't occur till 3-4 weeks pregnant. Because Indigo is such a cuddler, I'm able to get a good view of her undercarriage on a fairly regular basis. But all looks and feels normal at the moment.

I did think they were a little fuller the other day, but no sooner had the thought crossed my mind but she got up from my lap, into the litter box and did a big poo. *rolls eyes* I swear I wasn't pressing that hard, or even pressing at all, actually!