Most postpartum emergencies in queens announce themselves inside 72 hours, and all of them show up in 3 places you can check without equipment: rectal temperature, lochia, and the 8 mammary glands. Take readings at 0, 6, 12, 24, 48 and 72 hours, write each one down, and judge the trend rather than a single number.
Temperature: the trend beats the reading
A queen normally runs 38.1-39.2 °C, and up to 39.3 °C in the first 12 hours is common after hard labor. Hold 39.4 °C or higher for 6 hours, or see it climb across 2 checks, and metritis or mastitis moves to the top of the list. The opposite direction is the more urgent one: a drop under 37.8 °C with trembling, twitching or a stiff gait points to eclampsia, which usually lands between day 1 and day 21 and is most common in litters of 5 or more because calcium demand scales with kittens. Treat a low reading with restlessness as an hour-scale problem, not a next-day one.
Lochia: color, volume, smell
Normal discharge is reddish-brown for the first 24 hours, brown-pink from 24 to 72 hours, then scant and clear by day 7-10. Green-black staining in the first 24 hours can be placental, but green after 48 hours with any smell means infection. Bright red clots after hour 24, or discharge that soaks more than one 10 x 10 cm pad in 4 hours, needs the vet that day. Count placentas as they arrive: 1 per kitten, and a missing one after 6 hours of labor means a retained placenta is likely.
Mammary glands: all 8, every check
Cats have 8 nipples in 4 pairs, and the 2 inguinal pairs carry most of the milk in the first week. Feel each one at every check for heat, firmness, and symmetry, and look at the milk: thin and white is normal, colostrum is yellowish for the first 24-48 hours. One gland that is hot, hard, purple-red, or painful when the kittens nurse is mastitis until proven otherwise, especially if the milk turns yellow-brown or bloody. A firm pea-sized lump with normal milk is usually a plugged duct, which clears with warm compresses for 5 minutes, 3 times a day.
Normal range, alert value and action window
| Measure | Normal at 24-72 h | Alert value | Act within, hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rectal temperature, °C | 38.1-39.2 | 39.4 or 37.8 | 1 |
| Lochia, pads per 4 h | 0-1 | above 1 | 2 |
| Days of discharge | 7-10 | still red at day 3 | 24 |
| Gland-to-gland gap, °C | 0-0.5 | above 1 | 12 |
| Food, % of normal intake | 150-200 | under 50 for 24 h | 6 |
| Weight, % of pre-birth | minus 5 to minus 10 | still falling at 48 h | 24 |
| Water, mL per day | 150-250 | under 100 | 12 |
Appetite, water and weight
Lactation is the biggest energy demand in a cat's life. A 4 kg queen needs roughly 240 kcal a day at maintenance, 1.5-2 times that in week 1, and 2.5-3 times by week 3-4 when milk output peaks, so offer food 4-6 times a day and leave it down. Water intake commonly runs 150-250 mL a day while nursing; a queen that stops drinking for 12 hours is at risk of both dehydration and mastitis. Weigh her on day 1, 3 and 7: a 5-10% drop in the first 24 hours is normal fluid and placenta loss, but weight that is still falling after 48 hours is not.
Kitten weight is the queen's vital sign
You can check the whole milk supply in 2 minutes by weighing the litter. Kittens should gain 10-15 g a day from day 2, and no kitten should lose weight 2 days running. If 2 or more of a litter of 4-6 drop for 2 consecutive days while the queen looks fine, suspect a gland the kittens cannot empty rather than a queen who is ill, and check all 8 again before calling the vet.
Handling, light and hygiene during checks
Keep each check under 2 minutes, work in dim light, and put the kittens back in the same order so the queen does not re-sort the litter. Wash hands before and after, and wear gloves for the first 72 hours if you have other cats, since metritis and mastitis both shed bacteria into bedding. Change the bedding daily and at any soak, and keep the nest at 30-32 °C during checks so a 3-minute examination does not chill a neonate. Two people make it faster than one: one steadies the head, the other reads the thermometer, and 90 seconds is enough for all 3 checks.
Call the vet within the hour for these
- Rectal temperature at 39.5 °C or above, or under 37.5 °C with trembling.
- Lochia that smells foul, or bright red bleeding after 24 hours.
- One or more glands hot, hard and painful, with kittens crying at the teat.
- No food for 24 hours, or vomiting 2 times in 6 hours.
- Any seizure, collapse, or a queen who ignores her litter for 30 minutes.
Bookend the 72 hours
Write down the pre-birth baseline before labor starts, so the 5-10% weight drop has something to be compared against: the queen pre-mating check lists the values worth having on paper. Once the first 72 hours come back clean, the queen recovery check takes over at day 7 with the same 3 measures, then a re-weigh at day 21.
The 72-hour log: 5 lines per check
- Time and rectal temperature, 6 checks in the first 72 hours.
- Lochia color, volume against the pad, and smell.
- Each gland: warm or hot, soft or firm, milk color.
- Food taken as a percentage of the bowl, plus water in mL.
- Litter weight total and the lightest kitten's weight in grams.
Frequently asked
Is some bleeding after birth normal, and for how long?
Reddish-brown discharge for the first 24 hours is expected, then brown-pink to day 3, then scant by day 7-10. What is not normal is bright red bleeding or clots after 24 hours, discharge that soaks more than one 10 x 10 cm pad in 4 hours, or anything green with a smell after 48 hours. Those 3 patterns mean retained tissue or metritis and need a vet the same day.
How do I tell mastitis from a normal full gland?
A full gland is evenly warm, soft, and symmetric with the matching gland on the other side, and the kittens nurse it without complaint. Mastitis is one gland that is hot, hard, purple-red or painful, often with milk that turns yellow-brown or bloody, and kittens that cry or abandon that teat. Check all 8 at every one of the 6 checks and compare left with right.
What temperature means eclampsia rather than infection?
Infection pushes temperature up to 39.4 °C or higher; eclampsia pushes it down, usually under 37.8 °C, and comes with trembling, twitching, a stiff gait or restlessness in a queen with a large litter. Low temperature plus neurological signs in the first 72 hours is an emergency that can progress to seizures within hours, so call before you try anything at home.
Related guides
- Postpartum Lochia: 14 Days, 3 Colors, One 24-Hour Rule
- Queen Check at 24 Hours: Temp, 8 Teats, 3 Signs
- Pre-Mating Check for a Breeding Queen: 4 Items
- Retiring a Queen: Age 6-8, Two Litters a Year, Then Spay
- Postpartum Queen Care: Lochia, Mastitis, Eclampsia
- Queen Postpartum Heat: Timing, Risk, and Rebreeding Gaps