My cat has weaned her babies, when will the milk dry up?

Question

So about 5 weeks ago my husband and I found a pregnant cat. A very pregnant cat. She had 4 healthy babies the next day. She is an amazing mother, I never had to step into do anything. Which is awesome considering the vet said it was probably her first heat cause she's very young. The babies are on kitten food now, she doesn't have "nursing time" anymore. I noticed 2 of them trying to steal a drink the other day while she was standing up eating. Her teats are filling up with milk a lot, it seems uncomfortable for her. She also has this "3rd" nipple, its smaller than the rest, doesn't have a mate, and doesn't seem to produce milk, yet its very hard and lumpy around it. I'm hoping its not cancer, I worked at a vet hospital for a while and I watched a boxer get all 10 of he nipples removed in one large strip because they all had toumours on them. Does anyone know how long she'll be uncomfortable for? Anything I can do to help her? She's an absoloute angel and lets me do anything to her. I've never had a child either, I'm sure I'd have less questions if I'd gone through this myself.

Answer 1

5 weeks is very young to stop nursing. cut way back, yes.  i would guess she is going to nurse a little more.

sometimes mom weans to fast, then they back up a little.

weaning has to be adjusted depending on how much food is available and how healthy they are.

if she was uncomfortable, she would let them nurse, she is fine.

Answer 2

It'll probably take a couple weeks for it to dry up completely, but it should be noticeably less in a few days.  Milk is a supply and demand thing, so anything you do to take pressure off will just encourage more milk to come in.  She might like to snuggle up to a hot water bottle, but don't force it if she's not interested.  Puppies and kittens tend to have assigned teats, so if she's got more teats than kittens, any unused ones won't be as developed, and it's not unusual to have an uneven count.  It will seem lumpy because the blood vessels get very enlarged during lactation.