Queen Postpartum Monitor: First 72 Hours

Most postpartum problems in a queen surface inside the first 72 hours, and nearly all of them show up first as a number: a temperature that slides 0.5 °C, a bowl that stays 40 g full, lochia that turns from red-brown to green. Three readings a day on 4 items tell you more than any impression you form by watching her lie in the nest. The 6 signals near the end of this page are the ones that mean stop logging and call.

Split the 72 hours into 3 blocks

0-6 hours, 6-24 hours, 24-72 hours. Each block has 1 question. For the first 6 hours the question is whether she is warm and settled; from hour 6 to hour 24 it is whether she is eating and letting the litter nurse; from hour 24 to hour 72 it is whether the discharge is moving the right direction. Write the block heading on the sheet before you write a value, because a number means nothing without the hour beside it. A temperature of 39.4 °C at hour 3 is a different fact from 39.4 °C at hour 60.

Temperature: 3 reads, 1 threshold

Take a rectal temperature at 08:00, 16:00 and 22:00 for 3 days, and write the hour next to each value. A queen in the first 48 hours normally sits at 38.1-39.2 °C. A rise to 39.3 °C in the first 24 hours is common and deserves a note, not a call. The line that matters is 37.8 °C: below that on 2 consecutive reads 4 hours apart, call. A queen who read 38.6 °C at 08:00 and 37.7 °C at 16:00 has lost 0.9 °C in 8 hours, and that downward slope precedes uterine infection far more often than a fever does. Do not re-take a low reading 10 minutes later and keep the better one; re-take at the scheduled hour and write both down. Continue 2 reads a day to day 7, because most cases are caught on day 3 to day 5.

Food measured in grams, not in appetite

Weigh what goes down and what is left at the next meal, and keep the bowl out of reach of other cats. A queen nursing 4-6 kittens in week 1 usually takes 1.5-2 times her pre-pregnancy intake; for a 4 kg queen that is often 90-140 g of wet food a day across 4-6 small meals. Free-feeding hides the only number you have. The trigger is time, not volume: under half her expected intake for 24 hours, or a complete refusal for 12 hours, is a call rather than a tastier topping. Water gets the same treatment, 1 bowl within 1 m of the nest refreshed twice a day, and you note whether she actually leaves the box to drink. A queen who has not stood up to drink in 8 hours is a queen whose gums you should check for tackiness.

Lochia: read direction, not a sample

Normal discharge runs red, then red-brown, then brown, then pink-tan over 72 hours, and the volume falls at each step. One sample tells you little; the sequence tells you almost everything. Odor is the cheapest test available: normal lochia smells of iron, and anything sour or rotten is a call at any hour, with or without a fever.

Hours after birth	Color	Pads per day	Odor	Call if
0-6	Bright red, thin	3-5	Iron	2 pads soaked in 2 hours
6-24	Red-brown	3-5	Iron	Green or black tint
24-48	Brown, thicker	2-4	Iron, faint	Volume rising, not falling
48-72	Pink-tan	1-3	Nearly none	Any return to bright red
72-168	Clear-tan	0-2	None	Discharge after day 10

Millilitres are hard to judge on bedding, so count stains instead: a stain that soaks a 10 cm circle on a pad is roughly 5 mL. Pads per day, written in the same column each day, is the number a vet can actually use.

Udder and a 60-second behavior check

Once a day at the 16:00 feed, run a hand over all 8 glands, 4 pairs, feeling for heat, hardness or a purple tinge, and count how many are being drained. A gland that stays hot and firm and is not emptied after 2 nursings in a row is the pattern worth a call. Then watch 60 seconds of nursing: 4-6 kittens attached, tails flicking, no crying after 3 minutes. A litter that cries for more than 5 minutes after she settles, or 1 kitten that is pushed off at every feed, is a weight problem before it is a behavior problem. Weigh the litter daily at the same hour and expect 10-15 g per kitten per day in week 1.

The 6 signals that mean call now

These are the whole point of the log. Print them and put the sheet where you feed her.

Temperature under 37.8 °C on 2 reads, or over 39.7 °C on any read.
No food for 24 hours, or vomiting 2 or more times in 12 hours.
Lochia that is green, black, or smells rotten at any hour.
Bright red bleeding that soaks 2 pads within 6 hours after hour 24.
A hot, hard or discolored gland, or a kitten that cannot latch for 2 feeds in a row.
Panting at rest, trembling, or a queen who will not settle with the litter for 30 minutes.

Hand over 1 page, not a story

The vet does not need your description, they need 3 days of numbers: highest and lowest temperature with hours, grams eaten per day, pads per day, daily litter weights, glands checked, and the hour any of it changed. Photograph the sheet before you leave the house, because the original tends to stay in the consult room. If you are deciding whether a call is warranted at all, the postpartum check timeline in the postpartum check schedule tells you what is normal at day 1, day 3 and day 7, and the uterine infection guide covers what the 6 signals above are pointing at.

Four steps for tonight

1. Draw a 5-row table on paper with the columns used above and fill in the hour before you fill in anything else. 2. Set 3 alarms, 08:00, 16:00 and 22:00, for temperature and food weight. 3. Put 1 pad under her and count pads rather than estimating millilitres. 4. Weigh the litter once a day at the same time and write the total, not individual guesses. Then keep 2 reads a day until day 7. If you are still choosing between watching and calling, the 6 signals are the tiebreaker, and the breeding decision quiz walks through the same thresholds one at a time.

Frequently asked

Is a temperature of 39.3 C right after birth an emergency?

Usually not on its own. A mild rise in the first 24 hours is common after the effort of labor and often settles by hour 24. What makes it meaningful is direction and company: a rise that stays above 39.5 for 6 hours, a rise paired with a hard hot gland, or a rise followed by a drop under 37.8 within 8 hours. Write the hour next to every value and call if the pattern, not the single number, looks wrong.

How do I measure lochia volume without a scale?

Count stains on pads instead of millilitres. A stain that soaks a 10 cm circle is roughly 5 mL, so a pad with 2 such stains holds about 10 mL. Record pads per day in the same column every day, and treat a rise in pad count after hour 24 as a signal even if the color still looks acceptable to you.

Should I keep logging after day 3?

Yes, at a lower intensity: 2 temperature reads a day and 1 litter weigh-in until day 7, then 1 read a day to day 10. Most uterine infections are picked up on day 3 to day 5, and late discharge or a queen who stops eating at day 6 is easy to miss once you have stopped looking. The log costs about 6 minutes a day.