Kitty questions

angelfire9

Ok here goes
Am bringing my female foster kitten to be spayed on Wednesday
Will be catching her semi feral mother & getting her done too (appointments made for both)
Will the two recognise one another? If so would I be better trying to keep them seperated as mammy cat lost her last kitten last week (run over) and is very depressed and I don't want her to meet my girl and lose her again (if you get my drift)

Secondly, as the servant of exclusively male cats up to know what's the post OP situation with females?
I have to keep the feral mammy until she's ready to go outside again have a crate organised for that but what about my foster kitty?

Any advice?

Pumpkinseeds

Ahh that's so sad about mummy cat. When we had our foster kitten Molly spayed about 3 weeks ago she was fine. She had the cone of shame on but her neck is tiny to we had to put a bandage through the loops to keep it on. She didn't bother her stitches at all and kept finding ways to get the cone off. She was back to herself by the following day but we kept her play buddy Jazzy away from her for the week just in case as they really play rough together and it's usually Molly who is roughest.

Molly's incision was very small and she had disolving stitches in so that might have helped. She still has a tiny scab left but it's nearly gone, if she'd been more interested in it she'd probably have washed it off ages ago.

I really hope all goes well with them both, poor ferals/semi ferals get an awful time in life. At least the spaying should improve things for her.

morgana

Our kitten got spayed about 2 weeks ago. Our vet made the incision on the flank rather than the belly so she couldn't reach it and no hazel with her trying to get to the stitches. It is a hysterectomy after all and Sammi was groggy the day after and slept normally through day 2. After that she felt better every day and was pretty much back to normal after about 4 or 5 days. She was pretty good not hopping on to high spots at first, it must have still hurt a bit. The stitches came out 9 days after the op without any bother. She has now fully recovered and the incision has healed very well.
We were not really worried just a bit anxious as any aanaesthetic carries a risk albeit a small one. But all went without any hitch and this is usually the case.

janmaree

Keeping the cone on them is very important and not that easy either. One of my semi-ferals slithered out of everything, cone, body stocking and the house. She removed all her own stitches and went through a second surgery the next day to put everything back. Seriously. We do our very best for them and they do their very best to thwart us. "Simples". But we still love 'em and they still make it all worthwhile. Good luck, hope it all goes smoothly.

rannerap

When my 2 girls were done they never got a cone. The vet said it was internal stitching and there wasnt too big a scar. They stayed away from the scar mostly anyway and they healed perfectly. They were really out of it for a day but healed quite quickly and were back to their normal selves in no time.

Zapperzy

Had a kitten done 3 weeks ago. No cone but she had a close eye kept on her all evening and sleeps beside us at night so was able to keep a half eye on her then. The few times she turned around to sniff at and half heartedly lick the stitches I distracted her but she wasn't too bothered by them. She'l be very very groggy and confused after the anaesthetic. What I'v noticed with them is they walk around and won't settle in one place and keep wanting to move about. Confine her to a small room with no where she can jump up and hurt herself and give her small little bits of food often if she'l accept it and keep it down. She might've been too nervous to pee in the vets and may have held onto it so make sure she's got easy access to her tray when you bring her home. Mine staggered straight out of her box and straight into her tray for a pee, didn't poo til the following day.

About 2 days post op she was back to her normal self running about, still quite sore and sleeping a lot but with little energy bursts. Was completely 100% about 7 days post op, not a lose on her then. Stitches out between 7 to 10 days.

I had a feral done a week later and just kept her confined and warm until the following day and let her out then. Dissolvable stitches so no hassle of catching her again to remove them.

And if your thinking of microchipping her ask them to do it when she's being spayed, the needle for inserting it is quite large so less trauma than having it done awake.

angelfire9

Zapperzy wrote: »

Had a kitten done 3 weeks ago. No cone but she had a close eye kept on her all evening and sleeps beside us at night so was able to keep a half eye on her then. The few times she turned around to sniff at and half heartedly lick the stitches I distracted her but she wasn't too bothered by them. She'l be very very groggy and confused after the anaesthetic. What I'v noticed with them is they walk around and won't settle in one place and keep wanting to move about. Confine her to a small room with no where she can jump up and hurt herself and give her small little bits of food often if she'l accept it and keep it down. She might've been too nervous to pee in the vets and may have held onto it so make sure she's got easy access to her tray when you bring her home. Mine staggered straight out of her box and straight into her tray for a pee, didn't poo til the following day.

About 2 days post op she was back to her normal self running about, still quite sore and sleeping a lot but with little energy bursts. Was completely 100% about 7 days post op, not a lose on her then. Stitches out between 7 to 10 days.

I had a feral done a week later and just kept her confined and warm until the following day and let her out then. Dissolvable stitches so no hassle of catching her again to remove them.

And if your thinking of microchipping her ask them to do it when she's being spayed, the needle for inserting it is quite large so less trauma than having it done awake.

Very good idea re chipping!
Am worried about the feral more than my foster lady

Anyone have any clue if the two cats are likely to recognise each other?

janmaree

It may depend on how long they've been apart because it seems to be a lot about scent as well as individual mother/kitten communication. I wouldn't be surprised if you see some animosity between them at first as in hissing and spitting but I'm sure they'll settle down together if they're left to sort things out between them. I think we tend to attribute human emotions to our pets, (I'm probably more guilty than most!) where they don't really belong. They are far more capable of adjustment than we are frankly, IMHO. In a nutshell, see what happens and try not to worry?

Pumpkinseeds

Zapperzy wrote: »

Had a kitten done 3 weeks ago. No cone but she had a close eye kept on her all evening and sleeps beside us at night so was able to keep a half eye on her then. The few times she turned around to sniff at and half heartedly lick the stitches I distracted her but she wasn't too bothered by them. She'l be very very groggy and confused after the anaesthetic. What I'v noticed with them is they walk around and won't settle in one place and keep wanting to move about. Confine her to a small room with no where she can jump up and hurt herself and give her small little bits of food often if she'l accept it and keep it down. She might've been too nervous to pee in the vets and may have held onto it so make sure she's got easy access to her tray when you bring her home. Mine staggered straight out of her box and straight into her tray for a pee, didn't poo til the following day.

About 2 days post op she was back to her normal self running about, still quite sore and sleeping a lot but with little energy bursts. Was completely 100% about 7 days post op, not a lose on her then. Stitches out between 7 to 10 days.

I had a feral done a week later and just kept her confined and warm until the following day and let her out then. Dissolvable stitches so no hassle of catching her again to remove them.

And if your thinking of microchipping her ask them to do it when she's being spayed, the needle for inserting it is quite large so less trauma than having it done awake.

Definitely worth getting the microchipping done at the same time, we had Molly chipped when she was spayed, I won't tell whoever adopts her either as if she ends up on the streets I want her returned to us.

angelfire9

janmaree wrote: »

It may depend on how long they've been apart because it seems to be a lot about scent as well as individual mother/kitten communication. I wouldn't be surprised if you see some animosity between them at first as in hissing and spitting but I'm sure they'll settle down together if they're left to sort things out between them. I think we tend to attribute human emotions to our pets, (I'm probably more guilty than most!) where they don't really belong. They are far more capable of adjustment than we are frankly, IMHO. In a nutshell, see what happens and try not to worry?

If they get on it will break my heart to seperate them again
But I can't take another feral in to a 5 cat household the hubby would kill me

boomerang

I know that with feral cats, if you take an individual out of the colony for more than three weeks, they will have difficulty being accepted back. And being mother and daughter is no guarantee at all that they will get along - even if they had never been separated.

If the mother cat is feral/semi-feral, then providing there are no complications during surgery I'd recommend you release her within 24-48 hours post-surgery. The stress of confinement will outweigh any benefit in keeping her indoors to recover. The outdoor cats are tough out, believe me.

angelfire9

Well they are gone to the vets this morning mammy stayed here last night so that I could ensure she was fasting and the three fosters definitely knew her
Diamond the smallest of the three slept beside her crate all night

Bringing her back tonight for the 24 hours before releasing vet said no cone which is great, dissolvable stitches even better and getting her chipped as well
The 3 fosters are already chipped to me since last lot of vaccines

Pumpkinseeds

It must be heartbreaking to see, but you have to focus on the positives. Mummy and kittens are spayed and they're going to have happy healthy lives without the burden of multiple litters every year. If the mum had been left to fend for herself and the kittens maybe none of them would have survived. At least they aren't out in this storm.

Narsil

When we got our two female former feral cats neutered, the momma cat hissed and swiped at the kitten when we brought the kitten back after her neuter. This only lasted a while though, maybe two weeks. We had only one kennel for them as they snuggled up together, but when they were on the outs with each other we decided to buy a second kennel so they wouldn't fight. Two days later they snuggled up together in one kennel again :rolleyes:

angelfire9

Couldn't collect them damn storm trees down so they have to stay overnight at the vets
Poor kitties