Most postpartum emergencies in queens are visible before they are dangerous: discharge that changes color, a mammary gland that turns hot, a mother that starts panting. Check her twice a day for the first 14 days — temperature, udder, discharge, appetite, and the kittens' weight gain — and you will catch the four things that actually kill: retained placenta, metritis, mastitis, and eclampsia.
First 24 hours: count the placentas
Count placentas against kittens. A retained placenta is one of the most common reasons a queen looks fine at hour 6 and has a 40 °C fever at hour 24, and it is the setup for metritis. If the count does not match, say so at the check-up; an ultrasound settles it in minutes.
A queen's temperature in the first 24 hours can run up to 39.5 °C and still be normal. After that it should sit between 38 and 39 °C. Over 39.5 °C after day one, or under 37.5 °C at any point, is a call. She will be hungry within 12 hours: offer water and a small meal first, then free access, because a large meal on an empty stomach after labour is often vomited.
Lochia: what is normal, day by day
Normal lochia is dark red for the first 3 to 5 days, turns brown, then pinkish-brown, and stops somewhere in week 2 or 3. Volume falls steadily and it smells faintly of iron, not foul. Green discharge in the first 24 to 48 hours can be placental pigment and is usually harmless; green after day 2 is not.
| Time | Normal | Call the vet |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1–2 | Dark red, moderate volume | Green after 48 hours, or clots larger than a plum |
| Day 3–7 | Red-brown, decreasing | Foul smell, fever, queen off food |
| Week 2 | Brown to pink, light | Bright red bleeding returning |
| Week 3–4 | Clear or nothing | Still discharging at 4 weeks |
Discharge that turns thick and yellow-green, smells foul, or comes back bright red after it had cleared means metritis until proven otherwise. Metritis can progress to septic shock in 24 to 48 hours, so discharge plus a fever of 39.5 °C or higher, a queen who stops eating, or kittens that cry and lose weight is a same-day visit, not a morning decision.
Mastitis: check with your hands, not your eyes
Feel all eight glands once a day. Normal glands are warm, soft, and milk comes easily. Mastitis shows as one gland that is hard, hot, painful, and noticeably larger than its pair on the other side; the milk may be yellow, brown, or blood-tinged, and the queen may hiss when a kitten latches or refuse that side altogether.
Kittens on an infected gland get diarrhea and stop gaining, so mastitis often presents as "the kittens are sick" rather than as a mother who looks ill. Do not massage or express a hot gland at home, and do not let kittens nurse it. Most cases need antibiotics, and an abscess needs draining. The healthy side keeps working, so nursing continues on that side while you drive to the clinic.
Eclampsia is a clock, not a symptom
Hypocalcemia usually hits between week 1 and week 4 of lactation, most often in queens with large litters, first-time mothers, and small breeds. Early signs are easy to dismiss: restlessness, panting with no heat, ears twitching, a stiff-legged walk, and a temperature climbing to 40 to 41 °C. Then tremors, then a seizure.
Do not wait for the seizure. Keep her quiet and in dim light, do not move kittens in front of her, and drive. Do not give oral calcium during a crisis: a fitting queen cannot swallow and will inhale it. Just as important, do not add calcium to the diet through the last third of pregnancy or "just in case" during lactation, because oversupplementation is one of the things that sets eclampsia up. Calcium belongs in a balanced kitten diet, not in a syringe.
Feeding a nursing queen
Energy needs rise to 2 to 3 times maintenance at peak lactation, around week 3 to 4 with a litter of four or more. Free-feed a kitten-formula diet, typically 30 to 35 percent protein and 1.1 to 1.3 percent calcium on a dry matter basis, and offer 3 to 4 wet meals a day on top. Water intake can double or triple; a queen who stops drinking for 12 hours while nursing is a concern, not a mood.
Do not restrict food to get the pregnancy weight off. That is how milk production drops and how a queen loses condition she cannot afford to lose. Weigh her weekly: a small drop in the first week is normal, steady loss after that is not. Keep her away from intact males; a queen can conceive again within 7 to 10 days of giving birth.
When she refuses the kittens
Rejection has causes: mastitis, agalactia with no milk, eclampsia, metritis, pain, or a nest that is too busy. A queen who nursed well for a week and then refuses is usually sick rather than finished. Check her temperature, her udder, her discharge, and the kittens' weights before you decide she is a bad mother.
If the kittens are losing weight and she will not let them nurse, you have hours rather than days. Supplement with a kitten milk replacer while you call the vet, and if a foster queen is available, a kitten under 2 weeks is better off with her than with a bottle.
Metritis and pyometra
Metritis is a uterine infection after birth: fever, foul discharge, a uterus that stays large and doughy under the hand, poor appetite, and kittens that stop gaining. Treatment is antibiotics, sometimes oxytocin, and sometimes uterine flushing; untreated, it becomes septic.
Pyometra is the same infection behind a closed or partly closed cervix. It can follow a postpartum metritis, or appear 2 to 8 weeks after a heat cycle in an intact queen who never mated. Signs are fever, heavy drinking, vomiting, a distended abdomen, and a queen who sits hunched and will not settle. It is a surgical emergency and the treatment is removal of the uterus; waiting for the next heat is not an option.
Twice-daily check for the first two weeks
- Temperature, rectally, morning and evening.
- All eight mammary glands, by hand, comparing left to right.
- Discharge: color, volume, smell.
- Appetite and water intake since the last check.
- The kittens' weights, daily, on the growth chart.
If you are setting up for a litter, start with the whelping box and read the dystocia warning signs before the due date, because the decisions in the first hour of labour set up half of what happens in the two weeks after.
Frequently asked
How long should a queen bleed after giving birth?
One to three weeks, fading as it goes. Expect dark red for the first 3 to 5 days, then brown, then pinkish-brown, then nothing. The volume should fall every day and the smell should be faintly metallic rather than foul. Bright red bleeding that returns after it had cleared, thick yellow-green discharge, a smell you notice across the room, or any discharge still present at 4 weeks all point to metritis or retained tissue and need a vet visit the same day.
Is panting normal in a nursing queen?
Some panting is normal in the first day after labour, and in hot weather. Panting from week 1 to week 4 of lactation is not, especially with restlessness, twitching ears, a stiff walk, or a temperature over 40 C. Those are the early signs of eclampsia, and the seizure that follows can come within hours. Keep her quiet, do not offer oral calcium, and drive to the clinic rather than waiting to see whether it settles.
Should I give a nursing queen calcium supplements?
Not as a routine supplement. A complete kitten diet already supplies 1.1 to 1.3 percent calcium on a dry matter basis, which covers lactation. Extra calcium in late pregnancy and throughout nursing is associated with a higher risk of eclampsia rather than a lower one, because the queen's own calcium regulation is suppressed. Give calcium only if a vet has measured a problem and prescribed a dose. During an actual crisis, calcium goes in by injection at the clinic, never by mouth at home.