The story of the mother cat following emergency Csec brought back memories
of our first (cat) birthing experience in our family.  Our purebred
frostpoint Siamese (4 lbs full grown) had ONE large kitten, breach and
would not stay in labor. She was sectioned and after surgery I was told to
come get her and take her home. She was still groggy and kitten wasn't even
dried off (where WAS that vet!?).  I was given kitten replacement to give
the baby and instructions for heating and syringing it into him.

I refused; instead, took a look at mom, who was sutured only on one side
and thus bandaged only on that side (the horn of the uterus where the
kitten was). I said (in the lobby of the vet hospital) to the vet who
should have known better. "Her other teats are available. Let's get that
kitten nursing!"

"But she can't even sit up yet"@! said vet.

"So? She can lie down and feed the baby. See. (at which point, I moved the
kitten in the right position, he nuzzled around, found an avaialbe facucet
and immediately got down to business. Flicka lay back and began to purr. It
didn't matter that her head was whirling (she acted sort of drunk).  I took
them both home nursing and that kitten stayed latched on for at least 24
hours without moving much.

Five months later, he was STILL nursing, weighed 5 lbs (more than mom) and
I ended up weaning him as she seemed not inclined and I was concerned about
her heatlh (she dropped him when attempting to carry him off the couch and
back to box when it was time for child to go to bed!) Poor dear.  But he
didn't seem to mind being dropped--or dragged across the floor. (She could
not lift him).

Imagine having a child bigger than you are! and at only 5 months of age!!! :-)

PS. With another cat, I taught another vet about induced lactation (which
also took place at our house). Was it ordained that I shoujld be an LC for
four-legged AND two-legged critters?




Def. of LC service: "We are all faced with a series of great opportunities
brilliantly disguised as impossible situations."
Kathleen G. Auerbach,PhD, IBCLC (Homewood, IL)- [log in to unmask]
WEB PAGE: http://www.mcs.com/~auerbach/lactation.html