Hello everyone.
This is my first post in this forum. I'm hoping some of you who are more experienced with whelping can help me out a little.

Here are the details:

In mid January, when it was bitterly cold here in Ontario Canada, we brought in a stray little girl kitty. She has been roaming the neighbourhood for about a year now, but when I saw her eating sunflower seed shells in my neighbours back yard, I couldn't stand it anymore. I finally gained her trust, snatched her up and brought her home. We already have 2 resident cats (ones at least 11, and the other is about 4, both are spayed females), along with an Ark full of other animals as well.

Anyway, this scrawny little calico kitty, bone thin, and totally unaccustomed to human contact took up residence in our basement. She bonded with my husband, and became "his cat".
Over the next 8 weeks, we watched her belly grow at a very alarming rate, with the rest of her body remaining quite thin.

Yup. Pregnant.

On March 8th, Gabby (this cat NEVER stops talking!) went into labour at lunchtime. The first baby was born at 8:30 that night, and 4 babies were born between 8:30 and 10:30 that night.
She did everything she was supposed to do with her babies. Cleaned them up, began nursing them as soon as they were ready.
At 10:30, her belly was still rather big, and I could feel movement inside still. I work midnights, so I headed off to work, leaving my 16 year old daughter to watch over Gabby.
When I got home at 7 the next morning...still no more babies.
But, there was still movement in her tummy.

Off to the vet we went. Gabby had "dystocia". Absolutely no contractions taking place, even after an injection of Oxytocin to try and restart labout.
After an x-ray, we could see that there were still 2 babies inside. One laying in position as though it was ready to be delivered, and another kitten with it's head facing toward Gabby's spine, and it's bum facing toward her belly, but the kitten was in a very alarming S shape, when it's head hyperextended backward.
Gabby underwent an emergency hysterectomy to get the kittens out.
The kitten in the odd position was stillborn, as I expected it to be, but the other little fellow was delivered with a heartbeat, but not breathing. The vet gave him mouth to mouth, and stimulated him with some rough rubbing with a towel to get him breathing on his own. After a couple of hours "Thumbs" began nursing on his own (he is the only one of the kittens born with extra thumbs, just like his mom has. We joked with the vet that maybe his big thumbs got caught on something, and that was what was keeping him from being born!).

Gabby has been an absolutely amazing little mom. Considering she had that huge incision on her belly, and of course her tummy had been shaved bare, she still nursed her babies like a trooper, even though they would mistake her incision for a nipple and try to suck on it (OUCH!!!). Her naked tummy was all scratched up from those little unretracted kitten claws, and she still didn't reject them. Each kitten grew by leaps and bounds and all reached their milestones as they should...except Thumbs. He does everything slower than his siblings. We think he might be...special.

Fast forward to this past Saturday. My daughter brought Gabby to me and said, look at her nipple mom!
Ugh!
Swollen, hot, very hard, very very red, with the nipple itself almost purple. I was unable to express any milk from that particular nipple.
I was thinking mastitis. Dammit!
Sunday morning, I called the vet. They assured me that mastitis in cats is very rare, and that it could wait until Monday to be dealt with.
I explained that there were 5 babies relying on Gabby for thier food and nourishment, and that I didn't feel it could wait a few hours let alone another day. I explained that with the slightest amount of pressure on that nipple you could see the pus under the surface of her skin. They said bring her in then.
I ended up with the same vet that did her surgery...and I think he's just wonderful.
Sure enough, mastitis.
What more is this little girl going to go through???

Anyway, the vet said, since the babies were 4 weeks old, it's time to get them started on some "gruel". High protein kitten food, thinned down with some water. To ease some of the burden on Gabby. She is on antibiotics, and her nipple is starting to look much better.

So...after all that...here is my dilemma. Firstly, after 4 days of trying to convince these kittens to eat solid food, only one shows any interest at all. I'm at a loss as to how to get the others to give it a try. Gabby is still nursing her babies regularly, and doesn't seem particularly interested in slowing down anytime soon. So, I think they have full little milk bellies most of the time.
My next issue is, Gabby insists on her babies being downstairs, where she used to spend most of her time. Since delivering her babies, she has started coming upstairs more frequently herself, but becomes very fretful when we try to bring the babies upstairs.
We want to move them into the kitchen, as our basement is NOT kitten friendly. Like lots of other people, our basement is a storage area for boxes, furniture, bikes etc.
The kittens are now trying to climb out of the box they are in and are anxious to explore.
We have set up the kitchen with a dog proof door, and had planned to move the babies into there.
Gabby will tolerate that for about 30 minutes at a time, then she begins to try and take them back downstairs. They are much to big for her to be able to carry them around easily, and it seems to hurt them when she does get a hold of them.

So, that's my next question. How do we go about moving the babies and making Gabby feel comfortable with that?
Any suggestions or advice at this point would be greatly appreciated!
I haven't had a cat have kittens since I was a kid myself, so it's been a long time since I've had to deal with any of this. I'm a fanatic about spaying and neutering, so I've managed to avoid this scenario for a lot of years.
I'd forgotten how CUTE and exciting this can be.

Since my post is so incredibly long and probably boring...I'll make it up to you by posting pictures of mommy and babies for you to see!

Gabby and babies. See what I mean about what a good mommy she is! She looks positively blissful just to be nursing her babies, even AFTER having surgery! That's Duke, our dog, looking on and wondering if all those little baby kittens are for him.


This is "Tiny". She is the smallest of all the kittens but by far the most adventurous. She's hilarious, because she's not afraid of anything, but is SO little!
She is the only kitten that will eat the solid food I offer them.


This is "Moo". Unlike his sister, Moo is afraid of everything. He prefers to be in his kitten box rather than out in the big wide world.


The little orange kitty on your right is "Thumbs". He even looks special, don't you think? When I took Gabby to the vet on Sunday, I took Thumbs with me, so Dr. Jason could see how much he's grown. We discussed whether or not Thumbs might be delayed, and he said it's a very real possibility that he may have suffered a hypoxic brain injury from being left inside for so long after Gabby's labour had stopped. But, as he put it: "He's a cat. He'll never have to write SAT's or anything like that. All he HAS to do is eat, sleep and play, and even special kitties can do that"
Good point!


The orange and white kitten looking at the camera is "CryBaby". This little girl would complain vigorously about everything, until her eyes opened. If one of her siblings bumped into her, she'd cry, if we picked her up she'd cry...you get the idea. Now that her eyes are open she hardly makes a peep, so the "CryBaby" name doesn't really suit her anymore.


And lastly, this handsome little devil is "Bubba". Bubba was the first baby born, and has maintained his Bubbaesque physique since the day he was born. He's a big boy, with a big head, and always got the premium nipple location, top/center. Unfortunatly it was one of Bubba's favorite nipples that became infected. I thought for sure that would encourage him to eat solid food, with a somewhat decreased milk supply...but no way. He's a nursing kind of guy, no matter what!


There you have it. The newest members of my zoo!

Thanks for any help you can offer, we really appreciate it!

Kim and the gang.

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