I got to assist in my first C section on a cat since Coconut was born back at the Washington Animal Rescue League in DC, in 97.

To bring you up to date: we have a client (breeder- yeah yeah...I know, but at least she is a responsible one. All the kittens were already adopted) that her maine coon cat, India was way past due. I'm talking the cat was at day 71. Most cats queen at 58-63 days. So this was pretty late. India is also a rather BIG cat. Most maine coons are.

6 babies are seen on the xrays. Yay! We know how many to account for. Wrong. She has 7 in there. One so very tiny, that did not make it despite dorpram-V (respitory stimulant) Epinephrine and atropine.

Surgery goes great! Couldn't ask for a smoother operation. Cat accepts kittens with no problems, that's another plus.

Most of the kittens though are tough to revive due to the anesthetic. We used a bit of torbugesic for a pre-sedation and some Propoflo for induction. Isoflourane for the inhalent. (this is where the kittens will take longer to wake up. Propoflo is metabolized so fast that its good for cardiac patients if needed. Isoflourane, takes longer even though its not metabolized, but you do have anesthetized babies).

Kittens are a lovely shade of purple when the come out. I should also mention that C-sections on a cat are very messy. One or two incisions are made and the kittens pulled or pushed through either hole. Cats uterus are also shaped like a 'Y'. It has 2 horns to fit more babies.

Kittens anesthetized from a C-section are also a bitch to get to wake up right away. Lots of rubbing involved.

But they are HUGE kittens. They are the size of a 2-3 week old kitten to begin with! So they do well. Like I said earlier, I lost one. One that I did resuscitation for about an hour on it. It was so tiny and reminded me how small Coconut was when she was a baby.

I hope all goes well for India and her 6 babies. It was a lot of work.