Birthing of Persian kittens

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Delivering Kittens

Pray for an uneventful labor but have your veterinarian on standby just in case your queen needs an emergent C-section.	Persian kittens have very large heads that often get stuck, necessitating surgical intervention, not only to save the lives of the precious little kittens, but of the queen.

Good job, Babe!	A very content Margo!
A-5 clippers to clip the fur around the nipples, Betadine solution, a bulb syringe, sterile hemostats, and sterile scissors are a few of the items you may need in order to assist your queen in delivering kittens.	I place non-tippable food and water bowls, and a litter pan in one side the cage. Then I pin down a baby blanket (comforter) after all the wet bedding is removed to the wire sides of the cage so she can't accidentally bury her kittens. I cover the top and sides of half of the cage with a large, thick blanket to provide privacy and warmth. I check on her frequently to make sure that all the kittens are nursing and warm. I immediately warm up any kitten found chilled by placing it in a bowl of warm water and then blow-drying it on low or medium heat. Then I return it the queen's belly or place it with the other kittens.

A week before the queen is ready to deliver, I shave her belly hair using A-5 clippers with a # 10 blade, carefully, avoiding the teats. To do this, the queen must have a wonderful temperament and I always elicit the help of another person to place their finger over each teat, so that I know exactly where it is when I'm clipping her. It is easy to clip a nipple right off, so this is a job for two competent breeders and a very calm queen. I do this because I have found that the newborn kittens often get their little claws entangled in the mass of thick, sticky, milky fur and can become very distressed when unable to break free, especially if they are attempting to get to a nipple. I have found this practice to be very helpful.

The queen's claws should be clipped at least 24 hours before delivery so she does not accidentally scratch the newborns. I find that queens often knead while nursing their babies, even while lying on their sides, and not only can they scratch a newborn, but they can pull any loose bedding up over the kittens. This can be dangerous for the kittens since they can get buried in the bedding and be unable to get to the mother to nurse. This has happened so frequently that I no longer use baby blankets (as shown above) inside of a plastic (drawer-sized) storage container or the bottom portion of a cat carrier ( but I actually pin down the baby blanket to the wire of the cage after the babies are born. This can be a hassle since the bedding needs to be changed daily, but it's given me peace of mind to know that I won't discover a "buried" kitten.
Ideal supplies to have on hand to assist in delivery of kittens:

Sterile gloves
An ear-bulb syringe (like they use in human nurseries to clear mucus from the nose, or some computers come with them for blowing dust off delicate internal parts)
Betadine (to use on the cord after it's severed and clamped-off)
Sterile hemostats (or use can hold pressure on the cord with your thumb and index fingers until the bleeding jhas stopped)
Sterile scissors (to cut the cord if the queen does not)
Sterile gauze (use this between your fingers and the cord when applying pressure to the cord, otherwise it will be slippery with your gloves on)
Clean, dry cotton rags (cut-up cloth cotton diapers work well for this)
Large towels, layered, and remove one each time a new kitten is born and the bedding gets wet (so that the just born kittens won't lay on a wet bed and get chilled)
A clean bowl (to fill with warm water in case a kitten needs rapid warming)
A hair dryer (used very carefully on medium heat, if necessary, to dry a wet-chilled kitten)
A warm water bottle (with a towel over it to place in the kittening box so that all the kittens will be kept warm while the queen is busy delivering more)
Oxytocin and a sterile TB syringes (you should only need one, but in case you contaminate the needle, you should have an extra one available)

It is important for you to know when things aren't going normally so that you can call the vet. If a queen has been actively straining for an hour and hasn't produced a kitten, it's time to call your vet. Most births are uneventful, but most of my queens do require help because they won't get the kittens out of the sacs quick enough, or they won't sever the cords, or they will forget about one kitten that is wet and cold while they are straining to produce another one. This is why you should always observe a queen that's in labor. A kitten that becomes chilled can die.
I focus on the kitten's airway. I want that kitten out of that sac as soon as it is born and the airway cleared of all that thick, slippery, mucous-like material. If this is not done quickly, the kitten will aspirate fluid into its lungs, be deprived of oxygen, and suffer brain damage or a number of other complications, or develop aspiration pneumonia and die later from it. A kitten in trouble will gasp for air, or breathe using its accessory respiratory muscles causing chest retraction as it breathes. To prevent this you must rip the sac open over the kitten's head, wipe it dry with the gauze or a freshly washed soft cotton rag, and use the bulb syringe to suction the mucous out of its nostrils. You can do this without upsetting the queen because she can still be licking the kitten's body, or eating the placenta. Another way to get the job done efficiently is to hold the kitten's face and head upside down (so that any fluid drains out of the nose and mouth instead of down into the lungs) in front of the queen's mouth so that she will focus licking the kitten's face. Her tongue is very rough and this is good for licking off the slippery stuff, and at the same time stimulating the kitten to breath.

Once the airway is clear, focus on stimulating the kitten by encouraging the queen to lick it, or by rubbing it with a dry, soft cotton rag. A lethargic kitten is in trouble. Stimulate it so it will breath.

Next, you can hold the placenta above the kitten so that all the blood drains down from the placenta into the kitten. Placenta's are full of blood and the kitten can always use a little more. There is really no big hurry to cut the cord, five or ten minutes after the birth is fine. As long as the kitten is being kept warm.
To assist the queen in severing the cord, hold the kitten with one hand, and the placenta with another (always above the kitten) and position the cord near the queen's mouth. She will probably sever it herself with her teeth. If she doesn't, then clamp it with the hemostats (if you don't have hemostats, then put pressure on the cord with a gauze over it, by holding it between your thumb and forefinger) and cut it with the sterile scissors above the clamped-off area (not below). Leave the clamp there for a minute or two to make sure that the umbilical artery won't bleed or re-bleed. A kitten can bleed to death quite quickly if hemostasis is not achieved since the umbilical artery is a very large artery. If the queen wants to eat the placenta, let her, but don't let her eat all of them because ingesting all that blood will give her diarrhea. The next focus is on keeping the kitten warm. The best way to do this is to:

Dry the kitten as thoroughly as possible, use the hair dryer (on low or medium heat) if you have to
Keep the bedding dry
Keep the room warm, make sure there are no drafts (I use baby crib bumpers around the inside of my cages for this purpose)
Place the kitten on the mother's belly
Cover the kitten or kittens if she's busy delivering another kitten
Place them on a water bottle filled with warm (not hot) water that has been covered with a towel
Have a lamp with a light bulb over the nest (make sure the wattage is correct for the type of lamp)
Do not place the kittens on a heating pad, I've found that the pad gets too hot and the mother often refuses to lay on it because she gets too hot (remember she's been working hard at labor),
Most importantly, keep the queen's nest in a kittening cage so that she's confined with her newborn kittens. Have her food, water, and litter in the cage with her. Otherwise she may move her kittens to a place that's too cold, or she may not be attentive to them. This bonding period can make the difference between survival and death for your kittens.

I hope that this was helpful to you. Please make sure you can recognize when you need to call your vet and read all the articles and books that you can get your hands on before breeding Persians. This breed of cat probably has the most problems with delivering kittens because not only are their heads very large and often get stuck, their nasal passages are smaller then those of other breeds because of their brachycephalic skulls. Can you think of a more challenging cat to breed?

Honey licking her first born kitten.
Honey trying to push out her second born.	She's doing a good job keeping them warm.
She's exhausted and her kittens are nestled together trying to keep warm.