Pregnancy in your Pet

If you think your cat or dog might be pregnant

You may be finding this an exciting time or nerve wracking time for your family. It is important to know the gestation period (the time from mating to the time of giving birth) is typically 63-64 days for cats and dogs. After about a month you may note her belly is getting bigger. After approximately 6 weeks her nipples or teats will start to swell. Shortly before whelping (giving birth for dogs) or queening (giving birth for cats) the teats will start to produce milk. To confirm the pregnancy a veterinarian can feel the developing fetuses by hand or see them on ultrasound between 20 and 30 days. By 40-45 days the bones are formed to the point that an x-ray can tell you how many puppies or kittens to expect. It is important to know how many puppies or kittens to expect so that you will know when you can stop worrying and know that the process of giving birth is completed.

Diet & Feeding
Diets are often over looked in expectant dogs or cats. As soon as you think your pet is pregnant and continuing until their puppies or kittens are weaned (stop suckling at their mother’s teat), the mother should be fed a good quality kitten or puppy food. I recommend Purina ONE Healthy Kitten or Healthy Puppy formula. It is nutrient dense and full of extra vitamins and minerals providing for the mother and her growing offspring before birth and while they are nursing. You may need to feed the expectant mother many small meals during the day later in her pregnancy because her stomach will be compressed by the puppies. After giving birth the mother should be free fed (as much as she wants) until she stops nursing to keep up with the heavy calorie demand of feeding her young.

Prepare your home
Cats need little special care. Typically, a few days to weeks prior to queening cats will find a quiet, out of the way place like the back of a closet or a dresser drawer to create a nest. Often owners do not know their cat is pregnant until they show up carrying their newborns out of the nest. Dogs typically need more help.

What’s Normal
Labor in cats and dogs begins similar to humans with contractions starting 6 to 24 hours prior to birth. Prior to this you may notice nesting behavior, restlessness, and nervousness. The actual birthing fortunately is typically an easy process for our pets. A kitten or puppy should be born within an hour of heavy contractions and the placenta typically follows within 5 to 15 minutes after each birth. This continues until all the puppies or kittens are born. By instinct the new mother will clean up the newborns and eat their placentas. This is normal and not a bad thing. The newborns should be nursing within an hour of being born.

What is not normal - when is it a veterinarian emergency?

• If gestation runs more than 70-72 days.
• If you have a pug or bulldog or if a small breed female dog was bred with a large dog, the female will likely have a hard time passing the puppies and may need surgery to save the mom and her litter.
• If you see strong contractions for more than 45 to 60 minutes without a puppy or kitten being produced. This is why you want an x-ray in the 6th week of pregnancy to know how many newborns to expect.
• If the contractions are weak and the first puppy or kitten is not born within 2 hours or if the litter mates do not follow within 4 hours.
• Any time the mother is in obvious pain.
• Occasionally there will be stillbirths – this is sad but not an emergency if the other kittens or puppies appear healthy.
• There is a condition called pseudo-pregnancy or false pregnancy where a female dog will show all the behaviors of pregnancy and may even lactate but her belly will not get large and she will not give birth – this also is not an emergency but you should check with your vet.

After all this, your pet and your family are probably exhausted. Now is a good time call your vet and make a plan to consider neutering or spaying your pet to prevent future litters. Cats and dogs can be spayed when they have finished nursing which is typically when the young are 5 to 6 weeks of age. It is important for you to know that female cats can get pregnant again while they are nursing their kittens in those first few weeks so you will need to keep her separated from any intact male cats.

Important Facts about Spaying or Neutering
If your pet is pregnant it is clear she has not been spayed. There is a lot of discussion and a lot of incorrect information out there today about spaying and neutering your pet. Here are the top FIVE reasons my clients think they do not want to spay or neuter their pet.

1. I am never going to let my pet get pregnant or get another pet pregnant! Sadly, if people and pets kept their word on this there would not be a pet overpopulation problem. The drive for cats and dogs to mate when the female is in heat is so strong, even the best intentioned pet owner often cannot stop them. I have seen dogs mate right through a chain link fence. The question is - if you are not planning on breeding your pet, why not get your pet spayed or neutered?
2. I do not want to take away his manhood or her womanhood. I just want to mate them once. You got your cat or dog as a pet. Spayed and neutered animals make better pets and they are healthier. Mating for pets is not a memorable or even an enjoyable event just based on my observation. There is no reason to create more puppies and kittens when there are healthy ones ready for adoption at your local shelter.
3. I want to make back the money I bought him for by selling the puppies. As you see from the section on Pregnancy there are a lot of costs to breeding. All but the very top pure bred breeders breed their dogs as a hobby and they lose money in the process. Many experienced breeders would advise first time breeders not to “breed out of greed”. The only reason to breed is to improve the quality breeding lines and that takes a lot of research and investment.
4. I want my children to experience “the circle of life.” There are many ways for them to experience the circle of life without it happening in your home. Visit your local animal shelter – where there are always dogs and cats looking for a home. Teach your children by example that you are doing the right thing by helping shelter animals find a home, and by not creating more puppies and kittens.
5. It costs too much. Spays and neuters are massively discounted at veterinarians to encourage people to have it done. In my hospital a similar surgery would cost three times as much as we charge for spays and neuters. Many areas and states have programs to further reduce the costs of spaying and neutering. Then compare this cost to the costs of pregnancy or the diseases that unsprayed or unneutered animals often get and your least expensive option is to spay and neuter.

Top three reasons why you should spay and neuter your pet

1. You love your pet just the way he or she is! Neutering or spaying is the best way to prevent your pet’s behavior from changing. When they go through “puberty” at six to nine months of age pets can become more aggressive and territorial.
2. Disease and cancer. Neutering rules out health problems such as prostate disease, hernias, and testicular cancer. Spaying prevents medical problems like pyometra (puss-filled uterus) and reduces the chance of mammary tumors which often lead to breast cancer.
3. Pet overpopulation! Here is the tragic fact: The number of pets in American homes has been largely unchanging. Nearly every shelter is full to capacity. Unwanted pets are being euthanized (“put to sleep”) daily. You may do a wonderful job finding great homes for your pet’s kittens or puppies, but each of those newborns just took the home that could have gone to a shelter pet.

The only negative side affect of spaying and neutering is weight gain. Spayed and neutered pets do tend to gain weight if not fed appropriately. However, managing your pet’s weight by feeding a lower calorie diet or just less of his/her current diet is much simpler than dealing with the potential behavioral changes, diseases such as cancer and problems with pet overpopulation that occur when pets are not spayed or neutered responsibly.