Third time lucky – Elmirka’s pregnancy

Elmirka turned 6 years old last June. Maximal age of breeding queen is 8. Which means that slowly we will have to think about withdrawing her from breeding. Elma is very nice girl, with good contrast that remains, despite her age. She always got good reviews on cat shows. That’s why we considered having one more of her daughters in the cattery (apart from Helen). This time in seal point color.

Last June Elma was microchipped with melatonin (to block the cycle for the time of Whispers treatment) but she got in heat already in July. 

We didn’t want to wait. Prolonging heats may lead to ovarian cysts. And we’ve just managed to treat that problem in April. We’ve had few candidates for mating. In the end we’ve chosen a lilac point male from Russian cattery. He is a Supreme Champion Fife (highest possible title in this organization).  This guy was currently in cattery Fancy Diamonds*CZ by the end of August. This is the same cattery Cody comes from. But the chosen male was not related with this Thai line. We could safely leave an offspring after that mating without risking inbred (mating in close relationship). 

After completing all additional tests (ex. vaginal and preputial smears to exclude reproductive tract infections), we’ve taken Elma to Czech. 

We’ve a chance to visit Jana and her cattery Fancy Diamonds*CZ, where Cody comes from.

Because we know them, we also knew that Elma would have the best care during her stay. And we also got the chance to see Cody’s parents again – Frayer & Abigail.

Of course we didn’t come empty handed. Czech Thai cats were fond of the “stinky fretthen” with catnip that most know from zooplus store.  We’ve also had some snacks for them. But also, my purse furry fob got a lot of attention from cats.

Elma was almost a month on her “holiday” During that time she had more than a few romantic moments with the male. Considering the distance, we wanted to be sure we’re not taking her home to soon. While she was there, also Helen and Cody had a few dates. We’ve hoped to have two litters in the same time.

Unfortunately, when we got Elma back, it turned out she wasn’t pregnant. Maybe it was due to the long journey and stress, staying at unfamiliar place (although she has had a great care).

Since we got back, she got another heat but even mating with Cody turned out unsuccessful. We’ve done all the possible test – ultrasound, smears – to exclude infection, blood tests, hormones levels etc. Everything was normal. 

In October I was participating in weekly wet labs by European Veterinary Society for Small Animal Reproduction and a congress on weekend. Even there we couldn’t figure our what could cause that. We’ve already done all recommended tests that excluded all reasons mentioned in the books. But as I found out during training – fertility problems are challenging aspect of veterinary medicine and there is a lot of research that needs to be done in cat breeding. It’s not as developed as in dogs and there are significant differences in those species.  

But I also had my own little theory about that regarding also the fact that Helen turned out to have only one kitten in litter U. I suspected, that maybe after the melatonin block (for the treatment of Whisper), fertility may not come back exactly at the same time as first heat. But that was just my theory… 

I started to lose hope, that we may have kittens from Elma anymore. So, we focused on treating her oral issues and searched for cat show dates. We were planning to complete her titles that required traveling abroad. Meanwhile Elma got in heat again. As we didn’t really believe she can get pregnant anymore (and wanted to get some sleep), we let her stay with Cody. After she calmed down, we’ve assumed that her cycle stopped naturally for winter. It meant we’ve had a break until spring. 

Back in the time, we had some renovation done around the living room as the fireplace had to be rebuild. Considering cats safety, they’ve spent most of the time in their rooms. It took only one week to be done. When we were able to let the cat run freely around the house, we’ve also noticed that Elma became more cuddling. At first, we thought she has missed us and that’s how she shows it. But after a few days her nipples became pinkish. While palpating her belly I felt three little “balls”. Because this is not a reliable test, we’ve also done ultrasound. This showed that Elma was pregnant 🙂 

We were really happy that infertility problem turned out to be just temporary. I assumed my theory, that she needed more time, after melatonin block, to be able to get pregnant could be correct. What’s more, after treating ovarian cysts she got better than before. This time we expected at least 4 kittens. Last time she has had that many was with litter J and it was 4 years ago.

On the other hand, we had to forget the plans about cat shows and for the time of pregnancy, put her off her treatment for gingivitis.

Little ones developed perfectly during the whole pregnancy. Ultrasound done in the second part of pregnancy showed healthy, beating hearts. 

Considering the measurements done during control checks and date of mating, we’ve calculated date of birth for 21st of January + half a day. We assumed that the kittens will be born on a night from 21st to 22nd of January. I was a bit worried, because I had morning shift during that week. Just in case we kept camera on. During work, we checked upon Elma in turns. She has picked up a perfect moment for delivery. I got back from work on Tuesday around 3 p.m. I even managed to take a shower after my shift before we realized something is going to happen soon.

Parturition started around 4 p.m. and the last kitten was born at 6:20 p.m.  She had 3 boys and 2 girls. 

Elmirka did perfectly and was very brave as usual. After everything she was tired, but then we were not surprised by that at all.

For the past 4 years she had only 3 kittens in the litter. Now, after ovarian cysts treatment and a year of break in breeding, she delivered 5 little fur balls. We were really happy about it as, after problems mentioned above, we had some doubts if we’re going to see any offspring of her anymore. 

After she was done, we felt relieved that everything went so smooth and had perfect timing. Although next morning we went to work a bit tired, as we took turns to watch over the kittens. Now they are growing up nicely. But first few days we had to take a closer look on one of the girls as she wasn’t eating as much as the rest. I even decided to give her some glucose just in case. Additional energy turned out to give her some energy to fight better for the milk. Now she gets bigger every day and even has a temper to loudly complain when we separate her from her mom for the time of weighting. 

 

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