Surprise!! Surprise!! SURPRISE!!!!!

[Jessika]

Has anyone else experienced having a mama this young and if so, how did it go???

My grandmother had a cat, a stray, who had babies before she was a year old. She was around seven months, too. The kittens all grew up happy and healthy and the mom was fine, too. Immediately afterwards though I took my grandmother to get the mother spayed and we found responsible homes for all the kittens.

[Pawsitive Thinking]

Poor little puss

[krazyaboutkatz]

Wow! What a surprise. I wonder if the father is the orange cat that was with Sweetpea. Whatever you decide to do I just want you to know that you have my full support.

When I was a young girl we had a female cat and she became pregnant at probably around 6 months old. She had 6 babies and they all survived and she didn't have any complications. Before we could get her spayed she got pregnant again and had 5 more babies without any complications. We were shocked that this could happen so quickly so we had her spayed as soon as we could so this wouldn't happen again. We found homes for all of her kittens.

[sirrahbed]

Oh gosh Lorraine!! What a shocker this is. I feel so sad that this sweet girl is pregnant and is still a kitten herself.

I think I would lean towards the immediate spay myself. My feeling is simply that the overpopulation problem is so huge already. But, I know this is your decision to make and I support that 100%. You still did the RIGHT thing for her by taking her in. I hope you can soon find a purrfect home for her (or maybe she is already there?)

HUGS to you my friend!

[Logan]

Good luck in your decision, Lorraine. What a tough situation! I think my decision would have to be based on what is best for "mom", right now. Poor little dear is only a baby herself! I've never had a pregnant cat, always made sure that mine were spayed right away, but then again, I've only ever had tiny kittens who were female, and i could control that. And of course, I stopped any future populating, immediately, when Butter (boy) came through my door, unneutered.

I hope the little mama and her babies will be just fine.

Logan

[Kirsten]

Oh Lorraine, that's truly a surprise!! Poor poor little kitty, just a baby herself, and already pregnant.

I wish I had any advice for you here, but I've never been in a situation like this. I think I would listen to the vet's advice to be honest, but it's so hard to tell what's the right thing to do...

Kirsten

[kuhio98]

Has anyone else experienced having a mama this young and if so, how did it go???

We adopted Halo when she was 9 months old. She had obviously just given birth as she was swollen with milk. (No one knows what happened to the babies) Halo weighed around 9 pounds. Today she is a big girl at almost 11 pounds. The vet is pretty sure that some of her health issues are a result of the early pregnancy. When you pet her, you can feel a difference in her ribs. Most cats have a gentle curve kinda like (__) Halo is like this <__>. She also walks kinda like a sumo wrestler. Her back legs are held wide apart and she waddles. She does not have strength in her back legs and cannot jump or spring like most cats. She ends up leaping as far as she can and then climbing or pulling herself with her front legs the rest of the way.

She has had some other muscle issues, so the vet can't say for sure that she was damaged from the early pregnancy. I too would lean towards and early spay.

[momoffuzzyfaces]

AW, this brings back memories. Grandma was just about that age and pregnant when someone dropped her off at my house. I never even considered aborting the babies.

She did fine and loved her babies a lot. She only had three but sometimes the first litter is a small litter. I stayed with her while she had them in case she needed help. She had them in a cardboard box on my porch. She didn't need any help but was sure proud of them. After one popped out, she would clean it up and look at me and I swear, she would smile like "look what I did".

I'd say let her have them and raise them until they were old enough to go to good homes.

[Maya & Inka's mommy]

This is hard..... poor kitty
If the vet thinks she can handle it, go ahead with it; But I would go and ask for a second opinion before I let him "operate" (and abort her kids )!

Good luck, in whatever you decide!!

[K & L]

Boy this one is a tough decision. When we trap a feral and it is pregnant we naturally abort them. You may never trap them again, you don’t want babies born out in the wild, and there really aren’t many choices as far as fostering a feral. If this were me my thoughts would be… would you be able to find homes for the kittens? If not, and they may have the chance of going to a shelter and destroyed, then I would opt for aborting. Yes, it is more costly to abort, but you have to think of the cost factor raising the kittens and maybe not finding a place for them. As far as dangerous, we’ve done this with ferals who had to go back out in the wild after a few days and did just fine. I know you’ll make the right choice here; this is just some thoughts for you to think on. Good Luck!!

[orangemm]

Poor little baby girl. Nature sure can be cruel sometimes. It's awful to think that a cat that young could get pregnant...it's just too soon!

I'm sorry I can't offer any advice about this since I've never been in this situation, but I know you will do what you think is best for this little one.

Keep us posted, please.

[Corinna]

I will undoubtable get hit for this one but, I think weight the costs a little more on spaying or vet visits and altering costs for at least 3 others plus mom .Not to mention shots and check ups. you just can't give un altered pets out I vote save you and little girl a lot of stress and possible health issuses.

[Donnaj4962]

Oh my.... what a shocker! I can only imagine your surprise when the vet told you she was pregnant!

I have no advice to offer, as both of my girls were spayed before they could be in contact with any little boys!

I know that this is a terrible decision for you to have to make... and poor little Sweety! She is so young, but she may do just fine. I am so sorry that you have to make this decision.

[sandragonfly]

lorianne,

remember my little girl? I found her young, pretty pregnant and dying on a chirstmas eve. she has a damaged stomach, and never will have a clean bill for rest of her life.

when I first took her to office where I used to work, the vet thought she felt 3 or 4 until we had xray to confirm the count; 4 heads and five backbones! then she gave a life to five, one girl was a runt and died ten days later. we think that's because her (5th) head was hiding waay back in intestines and wasn't getting much of food as her four (survived, piggy) brothers. so you might would like to see how they're doing "inside" too, an extra for your decision-making?

a year and half later after birth, two brothers (gus and echo) are still very healthy today, except for two of their other brothers (avalanche and chance) who died a couple of months ago...we still don't know why. FKS, probably? (fading kitten sydrome - undeveloped organs and died suddenly - you may expect that for sweetpea's babies). at least they have ended their life with our love and blessings!

I agree with kim, this happens for a reason. well, opposition of "adding to the problem," I hope. but I trust you trust your heart!

hope this helped a bit, good luck.

[rg_girlca]

I have read each and everyone's replies, over and over and over again and I want to thank each one of you for your input in regards to Sweetpea and her pregnancy.

Takes deep breath.......Okay now, after much agonizing over this, my hubby and I have agreed to let Sweetpea have her babies. I am putting her and her babies in God's hands now.

I know some of you will not agree with this, but all I ask is that you support us with this decision and as for Sweetpea and her babies, no matter what, they will have a home, if not with someone else, then with us.

Thank you all.