she can't be in heat-she's fixed!!!

what's going on here? i have a female cat who is about 14-16 months old. she was fixed about 7 months ago and the operation went well and she healed beautifully. no problems until about 3 weeks ago. the first week she started meowing LOUD and sometimes chirping , putting her butt up in the air and just generally showing all the signs of being in heat, i was like what? called the vet and she said that maybe her "soul is broken" (i'm living in china right now and cats are very low on the totem pole) i have 3 cats- and 1 dog- all strays that i have taken in and we all get along fine, the vet said she doesn't know about cats she knows about dogs. (i remember when i got my dog fixed -again no problem/healed well etc. about 6 months later she started bleeding a little- called the vet and she said that the dog may go thru 1-2 "cycles" so fine, can deal with that. back to the cat. she meowed for a week, stopped for a week, and this week she is back in "heat" they are all indoor cats and healthy and happy. does a cat go thru a few "cycles" after to get it out of her system or whatever? i am going crazy with the constant meowing. she didn't do this before the operation. i had also gotten my male cat fixed and there have been no problems(he's about 18 months old). i have a young female who i want to get fixed this month but am really frustrated as to what is going on with the middle cat.any ideas?

ok, "her soul is broken" is just ridiculous. That doesn't even make any sense. Broken over what? I am not criticizing you, but your vet

It is possible that when they spayed her they missed something or didn't remove it all. This COULD happen to any vet really although it isn't common. I would hate for her to have to go back under anesthesia again but the vet can actually go back in her and see if they missed something.

Can you see if maybe there is a more caring vet around? or maybe someone, somewhere that knows a thing or two about cats?

I agree with Jen, and think it would be better if you could locate a vet who maybe specialised in cats, your kitty needs checking over again

Good Luck and keep us posted

I have only ever had 2 female cats, but neither of them had any heat-like symptoms after being spayed. I agree that maybe the vet didn't get everything and she should definitely be checked out again, preferably by a different vet! Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Given the utter rediculousness of your vet's reply I will go as far to suggest that either they completely botched the spay or, possibly because the vet didn't know how to do the operation but in order to save face, opened and closed your cat without doing anything.

You need a new vet, one who actually knows what they're doing. Look for a cat-only practice? Get references from friends for a good vet?

I think the vet may have just opened her up and closed her up without doing anything. Once a cat is spayed they do no go through ANY heat cycles, none at all.

Im quite suspicious about the dog also, you say she started bleeding 6 months later? That also is not normal. If the dog no longer has a uterus/ovaries they should not go through a heat, same with a cat.

I honestly recommend a new vet

That is EXACTLY what happened to Ling. She was spayed at about 8 months old and the following year (after we moved) she came into "heat" again.

She wound up having to be reopened. The vet that spayed her suspected cysts in the area of where the ovaries were - come to find out that is was was causing the false heat.

So have your vet re-evalute her and she probably will have to be reopened and "spayed" again. - Ling's cysts were on the left side. She's fine now, but that never happened to any cat or dog before.

And about a month later, the same vet had another case - cysts grew on the left side.

Did you say you were in China.

I say it sounds like the vet is a quack.

The thing about the dog is quacky too. I think you've paid for two snowjobs.

Check around for a more reliable vet.

FYI, there is always a chance that there can be ovarian reminants in some cats. It doesn't necessarily mean that they vet who performed the sx didn't know what they were doing. Even if another vet were to go back in, there's no guarantee that they could find it. These pieces can be extremely tiny. Sometimes they can use ultrasound to try and look for the reminant, but again, these pieces of tissue can be extremely tiny, considering that the ovary itself on a 7 month old kitten can be the size of a small pea (if not smaller.)

"Her soul is broken"?????? What does this even mean????

Anyway, yeah.

Find a different vet...one who hasn't worked for a psychic hotline prior to his/her current career. Blah!!!!!!!!

As far as her symptoms, it does sort of seem like she could actually be having a heat cycle. Once you find your new vet, I would certainly look into it.

Is it possible that the vet didn't remove the ovaries? I've heard that a few vets don't. That means she'd still have the hormones to make her go into heat.

This also happened to my first cat. She was spayed at 6 months and about a year later (after I moved as well), she started having heat-like behavior. I didn't know what was happening to her because I never had a cat before. The vet did a blood test and it came back with elevated estrogen levels. He said that he thought there might be some ovarian cells left that may be producing the hormones to make her go into a false heat. He offered to open her up again for free but I didn't want to put her through exploratory surgery, especially since it wasn't hurting her. So I chose to wait it out and fortunately she only went into the false heat a few times and I hasn't happened since we moved out of that apartment (it has probably been 3 years.)

In retrospect, my cat did not like that one apartment. She was really mean often tried to attack/scratch my roommates. She also tried to run out the door. She never did that at the other apartments. I think it had to do with having so many other animals living near us. It really stressed her out. There was literally a cat in every neighbor's window and people would walk by with their dogs all the time.

ok, thanks for your advice and experiences. i'm glad to see that i'm not the only one who was confused by "her soul is broken" at the same time i am wondering how this vet who did my dog and cat could mess up both operations. it was the same vet who performed the "operations" grrrr. so yes , i have already started to look for another vet- know that if i went back to the "psychic" there would be denial all over the place. i'm in a "small" city in china-only 6.5 million people in this city and finding a vet i get a good feeling from has been difficult-some of them i definitely don't want touching my animals. if i was somewhere like beijing or shanghai this would be a little easier. and finding a vet who has all the beautiful equipment -i haven't seen ANY ultrasound machines or x-ray machines-they just don't do that here. this makes me sad that i have to put my dog and cat thru this again.

I sympathize with your situation. The same thing happened to me when I had my cat spayed. After a few months she started going into heat again. When I called them, they said that she was exhibiting residual behavioral patterns. That sounded a little absurd so I went to another vet who thought that perhaps there were some ovarian remanants left inside her. I agreed to exploratory surgery and they found half an ovary! It was awful to put her through the operation twice, but she recovered well and has not been into heat since. As an added benefit, I have been with the second vet for 13 years and he is fabulous! See if you can find someone else with a little more knowledge about and compassion for cats.

Ok, did it. took the cat to another vet yesterday to get him to redo the operation and sure enuf after doing it, he said that the previous vet had messed up the original operation. i was very much relieved to find out that there was a problem and a solution. came home and kept her warm and in her cage to prevent her from jumping and today she is out of the cage resting on the couch.i think we're going to be okay. so now, i know this is a cat forum but what about my dog? earlier this week i was thinking that i just can't do this to my dog again- she's bigger and more difficult to control and getting her stitches out last time was not an option-she took them out herself by licking them to death- no infections/healed beautifully.(they don't have the soluble? stitches here) but after reading this week, i am a little concerned that she may develop big problems later. for example, mammary cancer, hormonal problems-which could affect her hair and skin. to be honest i think i could live with her bleeding a little if it only happens like twice a year as opposed to putting her thru this again. knock on wood that she has only been sick once since i've had her (had a cold). i have also asked the chinese vet about possible future problems with my dog and he said there would be no problems-which makes me think i don't need to do the operation again. i am confused as to the conflicting ideas. i have found that we(westerners) sometimes have very different opinions from the eastern and wonder if this is one of those cases.

I'm glad you got it resolved!! I'd take your dog back to the same vet you took your cat to and see what they say.

You could ask the vet if they can use tissue glue to close the wound rather than stitches. If not, try getting either an Elizabethan collar (the big lamp shade looking thing to wear around her head), or some cheap leggings or something like that and cut a leg off and use it as a sock over the dogs belly to cover the stitches and hopefully stop her licking them - if the op needs to be done again...

Good luck!

Those of us who have lived in Eastern or third world countries know how difficult it is to find both human and animal doctors who share our concerns and who are even competent. I am so glad you have managed to find someone to sort out your cat's problem. I cannot give advice ont he dog, but will you always be in China? Maybe you and she can live with it till you get somewhere else?

oh my god, i am at my wit's end here. as i wrote i had taken "inca" my cat to get spayed for the second time. this was January 13-wrote this on my calendar and recorded her progress also on my calendar for these 2 weeks. thought things were going fine.sleeping, eating, starting to jump/run around. until yesterday. she started chirping a little. today! she is showing all the signs of being in heat AGAIN!!!! what the heck? I would appreciate Any advice. do i have to do this operation again!!!!going for 3

China is a terrible place for animals, people too if you live in poverty, alot of the fur on toy mice here actually can come from cat fur/dog fur made in china. People there eat dogs and cats too. http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/ima.../angryfire.gif No wonder you cannot find a vet, its kind of you what your doing though. Keep looking and hopefully things will be better for you, sometimes when vets do surgry spaying, even here in America, they miss parts of the overies and these parts create hormones that make your cat have heat again. Its very very rare though but it might be what has happened in your case. I would play it safe with her and dont let her out. (about what I said eariler), I have nothing against China I think its a beautiful land, just has alot of problems http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/ima...lies/agree.gif

I would HIGHLY recommend going to another vet and double checking that she IS for sure spayed. Vets have been known to take money for a spay and then a few months later - oops - there is a pregnant cat!