# Getting my cat spayed; what should I expect/be ready for?



## raquelmaria15 (Jun 26, 2012)

Tomorrow Cookie is going to get spayed because she's already 6 months old and definitely needs to get spayed before she goes into heat.

Now, I've never gone through this on my own before since it has always been someone else's responsibility. Now it's mine. I want to prepare her today for the surgery and prepare everything for her post-surgery recovery. 

The only thing I'm aware of having to do today is to stop feeding her after 12 midnight. 

For tomorrow after her surgery I'm planning on emptying a small room/area for her to stay in for about a week or two. I know she's not supposed to run or jump too much. I think I'm supposed to feed her again tomorrow at around 8pm. I'm planning on buying her one of those E Collars. Wow, I just looked them up on Petco. Why are they like +$30?? Is there anywhere I can get a more affordable one? I need to buy her dust-free litter. Any suggestions for this? 

Besides those things what else do I need?

To be honest I'm actually really nervous about this. :/


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## Alzenia (May 18, 2012)

You can use Yesterday's News Cat Litter: Purina Yesterday's News Paper-Based Cat Litter at Petco . The e-collars at Petco are more expensive because I think their meant for more than one time use. Amazon has a few by Kong going for 10 bucks, so if you have prime, I would definitely go for it.


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## librarychick (May 25, 2008)

Honestly I'd skip the e-collar. I didn't use one for any of my cats when they got altered, or for any of the 5 others I took in.

Keep an eye on her the day after, if she's licking it a ton try and encourage her to leave it alone. If that doesn't work THEN buy the e-collar.

If you can get away without it it's way better not to. e-collar add tons of stress that they don't need on top of the surgery and all the stres that goes with being at a vet's office.

I'd also get plain polysporin to put on her incision. Licking off a tiny bit won't hurt her, but putting it on will help it heal faster.


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## Ritzpg (Dec 7, 2010)

Cookie, I'd never had a cat before I adopted Ritz and was a nervous nelly, too.
Ritz was around six months when she was spayed. She'd gone into heat once. She was a little wobbly after the spay, and threw up once (the vet said she may, from the anesthesia). She didn't have much of an appetite. 
She sleeps in the bed with me so I slept on the floor on the night of her spay so she wouldn’t be tempted to jump up. I also didn’t initiate playtime for a day or two. 
The next day I was folding laundry on my bed and she jumped up to ‘help’ me. The vet said she shouldn't jump or play, but that is usually said out of an abundance of caution--Ritz was back to normal the next day. The vet didn’t give me a cone, but he said to watch to make sure she wasn't scratching her stitches, or a cone might become necessary.
I’d try not to worry too much—easier said than done I know.


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## Ritzpg (Dec 7, 2010)

PS: the vet gave me Metacam to give to Ritz. Because the surgery was a one-time event (i.e., pain would last only a little bit) and because of the sometimes severe side effects Metacam can cause, I elected not to give Metacam to Ritz. 
Second what everyone has said about the e-cone: don't use one unless Cookie scratches a lot.


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## raquelmaria15 (Jun 26, 2012)

Oh, I didn't know the collars/cones were optional. I thought it was a necessity. That's good to keep in mind since buying something she doesn't need (yet) will just stress her out and hurt my pocket. Thanks!

haha I'll try not to panic too much, but it's definitely hard to do. she's my first kitten. haha I feel like she's my first child. I'm especially freaked out about all the possible complications I've read about online. Lol maybe I shouldn't be pouring over this and imagining it all happening to her :/ I just want to be ready.

Is it really safe to use Polysporin on her?


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## Arianwen (Jun 3, 2012)

The stray queen we have at present is having her stitches out tomorrow.

Being honest, she was totally perky by the time we picked her up from the vets! We were told that we should keep her quiet for about two days and then basically let her have a fair amount of freedom to do her own thing. We were told that if she worried at all with ehr stitches (she didn't) we should take her back to ahve a collar fitted and that if the wound became inflamed (it didn't) we should aslo take her back. She has been almost totally normal (including eating habits) from the word go.


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## catinthemirror (Jun 28, 2011)

When Moxie was spayed I was very worried too, but try to stay calm. She'll probably be running around like nothing happened in a day or two! Trying to keep Moxie calm was a loosing battle - we were going to keep her confined to my brother's room for a week or so to let her heal. She tolerated that for about a day before she was jumping onto the window sills, and dashing the door every time it was opened :roll: She did get pain medication but she was still groggy and seemed uncomfortable that first night after the operation, but after that it was like nothing happened.

Anyway I would agree not to use the e-collar unless as a last resort. They put the e-collar on Moxie when we came to take her home, and she was so determined to get it off she struggled out of it before we even got home. I tried to put it on a couple more times after that, but once it was on she would stop at nothing to get it off. I finally just got rid of it - she was so stressed and upset by the e-collar I was more worried about her hurting herself trying to get out of it than I was about her licking her stitches. 

She did lick her stitches a lot though, so what I ended up doing was cutting a sleeve off my favorite pajama shirt and making Moxie a little shirt that covered her stitches. It helped keep the litter box dust out too I guess (which was something the vet never even mentioned I should be concerned about). She wore the little shirt until she got her stitches out, and it didn't seem to bother her at all.


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## raquelmaria15 (Jun 26, 2012)

oh the little shirt idea is great!
I hope Cookie has an easy recovery time too.


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## Kitty-The-Cat (Apr 8, 2012)

When I got my cat spayed ... oh boy.

The first night back she was drugged up and definitely seemed ... stoned and basically out of it.

I was told to use the cone thing on her for a week or two. I had it on for maybe a day or two, but she was VERY good at squirming out of it, so I just gave up. She licked her incision area a bit, but it wasn't too bad.

But after maybe just a day or two, she INSISTED on doing all her usual stuff. And being a 7-month-old kitten, you know what that means. Any attempt to keep her calm and not move too much ended in epic failure. You pretty much can't control a kitten who wants to do what she wants to do.

Fortunately no real harm happened, and she recovered and healed as normal.


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## Kitty-The-Cat (Apr 8, 2012)

Oh yeah, one other thing ...

When I first took her to the vet about a week after I took her home (she was a stray), she didn't mind going to the vet and seemed friendly to the people there, and everything. It was like an interesting adventure. This was a few weeks before I got her spayed.

After she got spayed, every time I start driving her to the vet when we've got an appointment, she starts yowling in the car, dreading what's about to happen. Getting spayed completely changed her perception of going to the vet.


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## marie73 (Jul 12, 2006)

My bratz were running up and down the cat tree the evening they got spayed. But they were only 9 weeks old and young kittens seem to bounce back faster. I'm sure Cookie will be fine, but we still worry about our babies, don't we?


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## raquelmaria15 (Jun 26, 2012)

Hi guys I just got back from the vet. Cookie is with me, I'm on the floor with her. Of course when she got out of the cage she could barely walk and the poor thing kept tumbling over. But besides that she doesn't seem to be in pain. She's currently on the ground licking my toes. She's been walking around for a long time now. That's all she does. Walk around the room. Kinda wandering about. Not really sure of anything. Aaaand she just sat down on her favorite blanket... nope went back to wandering. It's been like this for awhile. But I'm glad she's not in pain as far as I can tell. I'm assuming I'll be able to tell if she is. I put water out. And her litter box with dust-free pellet litter. But she probably won't be using it since she hasn't had food. 

Oh man she just tried to jump up on the bed :c and could not of course. she fell. I really didn't want her to be jumping. :c :c :c


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## raquelmaria15 (Jun 26, 2012)

So she's licking the surgery area a bit now... I got her attention away with a toy. But I'm worried about her licking. Should I get her a cone?


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