Moral dilema-to spay or not to spay

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this question but here goes. I have a 4 year old queen who has never been bred or spayed. We've just never had the money to do and up until now all our male cats have been neutered. We recently got a new male kitten and have not gotten him neutered yet. He is 8 months old and I know he is capable of mating. My queen came into heat and he has started marking and attenpting to mate with the queen. I do not mind if they mate as we already have homes all the kittens could go to and if a few don't get placed we will just keep them so that is not a big deal. What I am concerned with is the fact that Tomas (the male) is tearing Scooter (the queen) up. She is painful to touch on all areas of her boby but her head and neck. She has a patch of missing fur on the base of her tail. I'm not sure if this is from Tomas or from her licking. She seems unstable mentally as she has never had a breeding experience. Now she is no longer in heat. I'm not sure at this point yet if she is pregnant or if she just came out of heat. Tomas is now marking everything and is being kept in the basement until his appointment with the vet. What can I do to help Scooter? I hate to see her this way. We would also like to get her spayed ASAP. If she is indeed pregnant and we don't know it yet and have her spayed will this cause her harm? I know it is unsafe to spay a dog if she is pregnant and didn't know if this applied to cats as well.

I have had experience with breeding cats but have never had anything like this happen. What could be causing her stress? I have also heard that not spaying a female can in time cause the eggs to become encysted in their ovaries. Is this true? Could this cause a problem if she is indeed pregnant.

I know I probably sound like a very irresponsible pet owner not having them neutered but money has always been tight and they don't go outside so I wasn't concerned with her becoming PG. I guess I don't know if I should go ahead and have her spayed or wait until I know for sure if she is PG or not. If she is PG I would like to wait until after the kittens are born and weaned before I do it. What would you do if you were me? BTW these will not be purbred cats. And I did not intend for them to mate but if they have, as I stated above, we do have prospective homes for them already.

Thanks for your help.

Kyttin

If you do not have money to spay then how will you be able to handle the extra kittens that come along? Granted, mom feeds them (unless for some reason she rejects them) but you have to feed her twice what you normally do and watch for signs of illness in the kitties. Not to mention, if she has problems in delivering, will you be able to rush her to the vet for emergency care? Add to that the time it will take to find good loving homes for her kittens.

I would get her spayed, especially if she is not purebred. You can find low-cost spay and neuter clinics all over the nation, and in January many regular vet clinics run specials, because of kitten season being so close.

After all, if money is tight, how can you afford the shots the kittens will need during the 12 weeks you will be raising the kittens? There is also kitten food, the extra litter you will be using, worming ect..
The only places she could be sore from breeding should be the neck and shoulders. Any where else that is too painful to touch means IMMEDIATE vet attention. Missing hair could be ringworm, or stress, or ??
Spaying any pregnant amnimal is risky due to the increase of blood flow to the uterus where the young grow and develop. With her being 4 and never having had a litter, there is a higher chance of needing a c-section because her bones are set. Her hips are less likley to open and pass a kitten. The fewer the kittens she has the larger they are likely to be.
What type of kitties do you have?
Good luck!

She is doing much better now as far as the pain she was having goes. She seems to be pretty much back to normal and is letting me pet and hold her. I know the missing fur is not ringworm. It could be stress and looks like she has been liking it or has been scratched. I know what ringworm looks like in cats and this is not it. She did not have this patch of missing fur until after Tomas started trying to mate with her.

As far as money goes we are now able to afford to have them both neutered but wanted to wait until the holidays were over as most of our extra money was going for Christmas. Money has been tight in the past and we have not been able neuter them until now. We've had many extinuating sircumstances that have prevented us in having it done. Her coming into heat was unexpected and we were not prepared for it in the fact that Tomas was not neutered yet and we were just going to have them done at the same time but now that this has happened I wanted to make sure that it was ok to go ahead and have her spayed as well, being that I'm not sure now if she is PG or not.

I know it may seem that I do not take very good care of my cats in that fact that yes it was irresponsible not to have her spayed yet. But my cats do get good care. They are healthy, and get their shots (I do them myself at home, $3.50 for a combination FeLv shot is cheaper than $16.00 at the vet and my vet says this is ok and just as good as if he did it.) and they get regular wormings. They have food, water and shelter and much love and attention. Please forgive me if I don't seem to quite make it to some of the high standards of care that some people's cats get. None the less, I love my cats just the same. Maybe some day I will have the money to provide them with the best care possible but until then I will do the best that I can.

I do appreciate all of your imput and suggestions. Thank you.

Have a wonderful New Year!!

Kyttin

From the comments made by Hissy and DragonLady about her age, etc...it seems like the best thing for your female would be to spay her now, even if she is pregnant.

I hate doing that, spaying a pregnant female. I have a hard time with it emotionally. But if you go to your local pound and take a hard look at all the kittens there b/c there are no homes, you will see it is a necessary thing. If your friends are still interested in having a kitten, send them to the pound to adopt one there. They will be saving a life!

Check around for a low-cost spay clinic. I'm sure if you call your local pound they can give you information. Austin has numerous programs to use...some even offer free services based on your income, or zip code. Check your area! I'm hoping you will find an affordable program soon!