What Happens When Your Cat Aborts the Litter?

A cat can have spontaneous abortion, or the abortion can be induced by the veterinarian when the pet owner does not want the cat to have a litter of kittens. However, even in a planned pregnancy, there can be a spontaneous abortion in cats where the fetuses are either resorbed by the body or they are expelled out of the body before the pregnancy comes to term.



Cat owners should know that a female cat can abort one or more fetuses and still have a normal pregnancy for the remaining fetuses. Usually, in cats, early pregnancies are difficult to confirm before the 16th day after the fertilization. If early pregnancy abortion occurs, the vet may misdiagnose it as infertility at times.

  1. Abortion During Early Pregnancy

    • Spontaneous abortion in cats can occur after the pregnancy has been confirmed by the vet. This can occur without any warning or without the cat having any symptoms of an illness. At times, cat owners may not realize that the cat has aborted. It is when the cat is past the delivery date with no signs of labor or kittens that cat owners take their cats to the vet. On examining the cat, the vet informs the owners that the cat is not pregnant anymore. In such cases, the fetuses may have been aborted during the early stages of the pregnancy and resorbed by the body.

    Abortion During Late Pregnancy

    • When a cat aborts the litter during late pregnancy, it experiences contractions in the abdomen along with discharge from the vagina. Thereafter, the immature fetuses are expelled from the body. The fetuses can be live or dead. Also, in late pregnancy, conducting an ultrasound can reveal the presence of the fetuses. In future ultrasounds, if the number of fetuses is reduced, the doctor may diagnose it as a spontaneous abortion.

    Typical Causes of Abortion In Cats

    • A cat can abort a litter due to maternal or fetal causes. Maternal causes include illness, pre-existing disease, herpes, brucellosis, diseases related to the uterus and also problems with the ovaries that causes low levels of progesterone. Usually, it is best to check the cat for problems prior to mating it. Fetal causes could be abnormal development or the fetuses and in utero death of the fetuses.

    Determining Cause for Abortion in Cats

    • To determine the cause of the abortion, pet owners can request the vet to conduct a postmortem on the aborted fetuses. In case the fetuses are not available, the vet may conduct some tests to determine the cause of the abortion, which can prevent future abortions from occurring.

    Treatment for Abortion

    • Unfortunately, there is no treatment to stop an abortion. However, treatment measures adopted by the vet help to reduce the abortion of a litter in the future. Preventative care can be taken only if the cause is known.