Causes of Cat Dystocia: Common Reasons Explained

Difficulty in childbirth can affect cats throughout the year, but it is particularly common during the winter and spring seasons. This condition is most prevalent in female cats aged between 12 to 24 months, with a prevalence rate of 60% to 70%, and is often seen in firsttime mothers.

Causes:

Unbalanced dieting is a primary cause. While congenital narrow birth canals in cats are rare, they often develop due to improper feeding, leading to poor postnatal development. Clinically, nutritional imbalances are common, with feline selective eating being a significant factor contributing to dystocia.

As the number of pet cats increases, many owners overindulge their pets, frequently feeding them highprotein, highfat foods like fish, shrimp, meat, and sausages. This imbalanced diet can lead to excessive weight gain in cats, coupled with limited exercise due to indoor living. Lack of sunlight can disrupt calcium and phosphorus balance, leading to osteoporosis, particularly in the pelvic and lumbar regions. This can compress the birth canal, causing dystocia. Additionally, excessive fat in the mother's body can compress the uterus and birth canal, resulting in incomplete uterine contractions and difficulty in labor.

Fetal Oversize. Improper feeding during pregnancy can lead to oversized fetuses and multiple births, with weak vitality. The excessive consumption of calcium by the fetus can cause osteoporosis in the mother, making her more susceptible to injuries like fractures or spinal cord paralysis, which can lead to prolonged labor and difficulty in delivery.

Abnormal Birth Canal. This is primarily due to incomplete development of the pelvic area in the mother cat, leading to narrow or malformed pelvis, and thus an abnormal birth canal. Additionally, young cats (23 months old) may suffer from spinal injuries due to improper management, which can lead to vertebral deformities and narrowed birth canals during pregnancy, increasing the risk of dystocia. Some cats may also experience dystocia due to incomplete development of the birth canal despite reaching sexual maturity but not physical maturity.

Diseases. Feline distemper, a common infectious disease, can cause abortion, stillbirth, and mummified fetuses. Certain toxic diseases can disrupt neurological function and inhibit the secretion of oxytocin, leading to weak contractions and difficulty in labor. Other digestive system and parasitic diseases can weaken the cat due to energy depletion, leading to dystocia.

Causes of Dystocia in Cats:

There are many causes of dystocia in cats, primarily categorized into maternal and fetal abnormalities. Maternal factors include weak contractions and uterine spasms, narrow cervix and vagina, pelvic narrowness, and severe diseases in the mother. Fetal abnormalities include excessive number and size of fetuses, incorrect fetal position, and malformations.

These can be further categorized into three types: overnutrition and birth canal stenosis, insufficient exercise and mechanical injury, and diseaserelated causes.

Clinical Symptoms of Dystocia:

Dystocia is often seen in firsttime mothers, with varying clinical signs. Symptoms may include reduced appetite, even complete anorexia, a visibly enlarged abdomen, tense abdominal muscles, prominent nipples, and swollen vulva. Some mothers may have a discharge of bloody amniotic fluid. Some may show signs of discomfort, frequent urination, or restless behavior, often lying down and emitting a foulsmelling, reddish fluid from the vulva.

Other mothers may lick their vulva, kick at their abdomen, or roll on the ground. Some may have strong abdominal contractions and no kittens delivered after two hours. In some cases, the fetus's limbs may be visible outside, and if the fetus has decayed in the uterus or birth canal, there may be systemic symptoms like fever.

Dystocia Diagnosis:

Estimated Due Date. The gestation period for cats is typically 52 to 69 days, with an average of 60 to 63 days. If a cat does not deliver normally after 1 to 2 days past the estimated due date, the likelihood of dystocia is high.

Delivery Process. During normal delivery, a cat may vocalize softly for 2 to 5 hours and then deliver the kittens. If the cat continues to vocalize and move restlessly for more than 10 to 12 hours, with tense abdominal contractions and spasms lasting over 2 hours, and bloodlike discharge from the vulva without any kittens being born, dystocia can be confirmed.

Other Clinical Signs. If the mother's abdominal muscles are tense, the teats are swollen, the vulva is swollen, and there is a discharge of bloody fluid, or even dark, smelly mucus, it indicates that the fetus is being compressed in the uterus or birth canal, and in some cases, the fetus may have already died and decomposed. This can be diagnosed as dystocia.