# Is it better for spaying stitches to be internal or external?



## coonconnoisseur (Sep 16, 2010)

Is it better for spaying stitches to be internal or external?

If the stitches are internal, what happens to them? Do they stay inside the cat forever?


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## Vivid Dawn (May 31, 2010)

If they're internal, they're probably dissolving kind. That's what they use for ferals, since you really can't bring them back to have stitches removed.
I don't know which is better, though.

I always worry about cats licking the stitches and tugging them apart. I'm going to try to keep my ferals in a puppy crate for a few days, just to be sure nothing comes unraveled before it has a chance to "set up".

When I got two teeth pulled, I had stitches to hold the gums together over the hole. After a few days, the stitches turned white and swelled up a little...they were still kind of stiff. After another few days, the extra parts sticking out broke off. Now I have a nice little seam line right in the middle of my gums! LOL


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

Spay stitches are BOTH internal and external.

I think internal stitches are used separately to hold the abdominal peritonium membrane layer and the abdominal muscle layers together while external stitches hold the skin together. The internal stitches are absorbable and while they are there the cat's body forms a protective layer over/around the "foreign body" forming a hard lump. After they dissolve, the body has no need to maintain the protective barrier so the body's precautionary response slowly dissipates and the lump eventually fades away. The external stitches can be either disolvable or permanant and requiring stitch removal after a short period of time that allows the skin to knit together.


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## Julie Carvill (Jun 30, 2010)

When I got my cat from the shelter she had one of those hard lumps from her spay. I was all worried about it, but the vet said it would go away. She was right, and it did!


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## coonconnoisseur (Sep 16, 2010)

Thanks for the info.



Heidi n Q said:


> The external stitches can be either disolvable or permanant and requiring stitch removal after a short period of time that allows the skin to knit together.


For this part, which of those two options is better?


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## ChelleBelle (Sep 14, 2009)

Both of my females had outside stitches that dissolved on their own. Since they were done at the spay and neuter clinic and it just meant I didn't have to take them to the vet to have them removed later on.


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## Kobster (Feb 1, 2007)

I personally prefer they use burried subcuticular sutures to close the skin on spays on cats, simply because cats self groom, and when they encounter something foreign with their tongue, instinct is to lick/chew it out.


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

Agree:


Kobster said:


> I personally prefer they use burried subcuticular sutures to close the skin on spays on cats, simply because cats self groom, and when they encounter something foreign with their tongue, instinct is to lick/chew it out.


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