Shreshtha Roy
Here I am talking about my lifetime experience with helping my close friend’s Persian cat who went into a complicated labor without any medics.
So, my friend Raj has about 22 cats, all of them are either rescued or adopted except for 2, they are pure breed Persian punchface. Well, they call them Dino & Dona but trust me they got a weird and hysterically funny nicknames ‘KHEDA & KHEDI’ (resembling their facial features). So, Dona is the female Persian and a year ago she was diagnosed with mouth ulcer. Due to her underlying medical condition the vet clearly stated than she will never be able to conceive. Yet she did conceive from Dino. On 24th Nov 2020 we get a sudden call from Raj’s mother with procuring emergency on Dona prepared for delivery and as she ran into her labor the urgency of the situation was on different level only because of her medical history. So, we rushed back at his house,
Raj made the nursery ready while I arranged the fresh towels handy. So, we laid a cotton towel inside a tub and placed Dona inside and gave her time to settle comfortably. Soon we see she started pushing her abdomen, so we helped her by rubbing her abdomen and pushing it gently in a particular downward motion. After a few moments we could see her first kitten coming out. He was wrapped by the placenta and we noticed that he was having a hard time breathing so we immediately cut open the placenta and with a blade carefully cutting the umbilical cord. But we could still see his abnormal breathing and stillness, so we kept rubbing his chest but all in vain he soon left us and there was this eerie silence and sadness, we were so disheartened. Exactly after 15-20 mins Dona tried to push out another kitten and honestly it took no time. the delivery was smooth as butter. We took a fresh towel; Raj got the blades to cut the umbilical cord and placenta. He kept them aside and kept the second kitten in the tub with her mother. According to animals they prefer eating the placenta as it is full of protein probably. GROSS FACT! As she couldn’t eat because of the ulcer we helped the kitten out of the placenta. But after the second delivery Dona got exhausted and tired so we had to get her water to keep her hydrated as she was frantically gasping for air. After exactly around 1hour 15mins she started showing the same symptoms so, we quickly understood it was time for the third one. We did the exact same thing as before and things got complicated when she stopped pushing with the kitten halfway out. The head of the kitten was stuck, and Dona was going through a lot of pain. So, Raj kept rubbing her abdomen with a little pressure whereas I slowly and gently pulled him out. Then we went ahead with the rest of the post delivery procedures as before. As we were not sure if there was any more yet to be out, so we kept a close observation on Dona’s movements. After another hour Dona started being uncomfortable and we got the hint. So, we again did the exact same thing and there we see little paws coming out, but Dona stopped co operating with us due to her weakness she could not push anymore but we had to get the kitten out because the longer he stays in halfway the more he lacks oxygen and lessening his chances of survival. So, after few more minutes with continuous rubbing and pushing the little one is almost out but his head got stuck and now even with Dona not pushing any longer, we had to opt for pulling the kitten out carefully. It was so fragile that even a little pressure while pulling could kill it, if not cause serious breathing problems or even hurt the mother. So, we were extra careful while pulling it out, and we were successful. So, we did the exact same post procedures, and he cleaned the place, changed the tub’s towel into fresh ones and laid Dona first then gave her three kittens to her.
Now they are as healthy and happy as possible. We consider them ‘MIRACLE BABIES’ as their mother made possible task impossible by proving the vet wrong. We named them Kaju, Pesta & Badam, those fluffy white goof balls are feisty and beautiful and as adorable as plush toys with button blue eyes they are some little kittens. And Dona is now an immensely proud momma cat of three sons. And that was success story.
