Mango Is getting fixed this week.. Questions !!!

Hi everyone,

Well Mango had his first visits to the vet this past month and so far he has a clean bill of health as well as many compliments from the vet office, I am very happy for him

But this week I have made an appointment for him to be neutered... and I have a few questions.. I have never had experience with a cat being fixed and none of the other cats at my house are.. So I have a few questions. Maybe some people who have experience can answer me how things worked out for them..

Does it usually hurt much afterwards? The vet told me in most cases no, but they do have pain medication available if needed.

What is usually the reaction afterwards? Will the cat be up and running the next day or does he need allot of time to heal? (How long?)

Is there usually any "problems" that the neutered cat would encounter with non-neutered cats? Such as territorial issues? Should I have him separated from the other cats for a time being?

Anything Particular I should be aware or concerned about?

I know everything will probably be fine, I am just worried, I don't want anything bad to happen to him.

Males will recover sooner as its not major surgury like spaying. However, a male can still get any unspayed females pregnant for up to 2 months after being neutered so he has to be kept away from them.

How many other cats do you have and are you planning on getting the rest of them spayed/neutered?

If you have other unneutered males they may still fight him. Depends on how aggressive he was before the neuter. The sooner you have all of your cats spayed and neutered, the more peaceful your house will be.

The only thing to watch for is to be sure the area is kept clean after using the litter pan. Check once or twice a day to be sure there is no litter stuck to the fur or it looks irritated.

As Golden Kitty said, Mango should be fine. I just got our boys done about a month ago, and even though I was a nervous wreck, everything went smoothly and I feel so much better knowing that all three of our kittens are all fixed and healthy!

As for your questions - our boys didn't get any painkillers after the operation. Our vet didn't feel it was necessary, and he said he would prefer them to be in the slight discomfort (very slight - seriously!) for the first 24 hours so they don't over-extend themselves. Our vet said the whole thing is so simple and painless, it would just be like a very dull ache - nothing big (nothing like what the girls have to go through...).

Healing - ask your vet what he recommends about his activity immediately after the surgery. Our vet is a bit cautious and he asked us to keep the boys in their carriers for the night after the surgery and to give them no food or water immediately following bringing them home (they were still recovering from being put under - too much food/water could make them sick!). So, we let the boys out the next morning when we got up and gave them half rations of food to make sure they were able to keep stuff down. They slept A LOT the next day, but seriously - by the evening following the surgery, our boys were running around and playing. Recovery was very quick.

I have no experience with relations between neutered/un-neutered males, so hopefully your questions were answered by others!

One thing to remember - ask your vet how long you need to withhold food/water before the surgery. They can't have anything in their system, because the drugs they give them when they go under combined with food/water can make them vomit during the surgery (which is NOT good). Our vet asks us to not feed them after 8pm the night before, but I know my friend's vet says 10pm and I have heard others say midnight.

When I had Males done they were fine the same day. Yoshi stayed overnight because I went late in the afternoon.

Thanks for the responses, everyone

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

Males will recover sooner as its not major surgury like spaying. However, a male can still get any unspayed females pregnant for up to 2 months after being neutered so he has to be kept away from them.

How many other cats do you have and are you planning on getting the rest of them spayed/neutered?

If you have other unneutered males they may still fight him. Depends on how aggressive he was before the neuter. The sooner you have all of your cats spayed and neutered, the more peaceful your house will be.

The only thing to watch for is to be sure the area is kept clean after using the litter pan. Check once or twice a day to be sure there is no litter stuck to the fur or it looks irritated.

Click to expand...

ATM there are 5 cats at my house, 4 males (Including Mango) and 1 female, none are fixed as of yet, which is part of the reason of my questions since I have not seen it done... I don't want Mango to end up as the "test cat"

But everyone I talk to says it is pretty simple and over fairly quickly.

The other cats have plans to be fixed definitely, but money is an issue, Mango is the only one that is really mine and I plan to take him with me when I eventually move.

I don't notice too much aggression, they fight sometimes (all the cats) but it is usually over in a few mins after we break them up and not all the time so I hope it wont be an issue, Mango is pretty chill and the fighting is usually done over the female cat.. which he doesn't seem to have too much interest in yet (some.. but not as much as his dad sleek and one of the other cats in the house.. they are usually the ones to fight, along with the female who is bigger and usually bats them away).

I will be sure to check him and around the litter box frequesntly though, thanks allot for that tip and everything else.

Originally Posted by wendyr

As Golden Kitty said, Mango should be fine. I just got our boys done about a month ago, and even though I was a nervous wreck, everything went smoothly and I feel so much better knowing that all three of our kittens are all fixed and healthy!

As for your questions - our boys didn't get any painkillers after the operation. Our vet didn't feel it was necessary, and he said he would prefer them to be in the slight discomfort (very slight - seriously!) for the first 24 hours so they don't over-extend themselves. Our vet said the whole thing is so simple and painless, it would just be like a very dull ache - nothing big (nothing like what the girls have to go through...).

Healing - ask your vet what he recommends about his activity immediately after the surgery. Our vet is a bit cautious and he asked us to keep the boys in their carriers for the night after the surgery and to give them no food or water immediately following bringing them home (they were still recovering from being put under - too much food/water could make them sick!). So, we let the boys out the next morning when we got up and gave them half rations of food to make sure they were able to keep stuff down. They slept A LOT the next day, but seriously - by the evening following the surgery, our boys were running around and playing. Recovery was very quick.

I have no experience with relations between neutered/un-neutered males, so hopefully your questions were answered by others!

One thing to remember - ask your vet how long you need to withhold food/water before the surgery. They can't have anything in their system, because the drugs they give them when they go under combined with food/water can make them vomit during the surgery (which is NOT good). Our vet asks us to not feed them after 8pm the night before, but I know my friend's vet says 10pm and I have heard others say midnight.

Click to expand...

Thank you very much, I will make sure I find out everything from the vet and see what he thinks is best. Mango's vet said no food after 10pm. So he will have to be staying in my room for the night

IMO its the unspayed female you should be worrying about first. With all those unneutered males, you are looking at a heck of a lot MORE kittens to be dealing with.

Can you separate her and keep her from the males now before she's pregnant and then set up a spay ASAP?

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

IMO its the unspayed female you should be worrying about first. With all those unneutered males, you are looking at a heck of a lot MORE kittens to be dealing with.

Can you separate her and keep her from the males now before she's pregnant and then set up a spay ASAP?

Click to expand...

I second that.



Who do the other cats belong to? Have you contacted your local shelters to ask about low cost spay and neuter programs for the other cats?

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

IMO its the unspayed female you should be worrying about first. With all those unneutered males, you are looking at a heck of a lot MORE kittens to be dealing with.

Can you separate her and keep her from the males now before she's pregnant and then set up a spay ASAP?

Click to expand...

I agree completely with that! However, chances are if she has been mixing with the male cats, she's probably already pregnant

Well thank you guys for your help to put my mind at ease, Mango was dropped off this morning and we picked him up this afternoon, the lady said all his blood work they did before hand was just fine and they even called after he was done to let us know everything went well and he was up and moving around. I am so glad everything went fine and he seems to be healing as normal.. he had a slight "limp" when he walked.. but not anymore since later tonight.

One thing I notice is he really wanted to lick the area, the lady told us not to let him bite it so it doesn't reopen or whatever.. she said if it starts to bleed or ooze to call them. One question is.. is it ok for him to lick it a small amount, just not bite it and make it bleed, or should try to keep him from licking it completely?

He seemed to be more calm about it after an hour or so, he went and lay down and he is not doing it so much anymore, just now and then.

Edit: I forgot to mention also that so far there has not been much of a problem with the other cats, all of them gathered around to sniff him after bringing him home, but no fights or problems, his brother was starting to try and lick his area but I pulled him away, I don't think he wanted to cause any harm anyways.. just clean his friend.. they are very good with each other, makes sense to me since they are from the same litter.

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

IMO its the unspayed female you should be worrying about first. With all those unneutered males, you are looking at a heck of a lot MORE kittens to be dealing with.

Can you separate her and keep her from the males now before she's pregnant and then set up a spay ASAP?

Click to expand...

Originally Posted by whiteforest

I second that.

Who do the other cats belong to? Have you contacted your local shelters to ask about low cost spay and neuter programs for the other cats?

Click to expand...

Originally Posted by Natalie_ca

I agree completely with that! However, chances are if she has been mixing with the male cats, she's probably already pregnant

Click to expand...

Like I said, there are definitely plans to get them all fixed, Mango was of my top concern at the moment because I want to have him ready to take him with me when I eventually move, I just don't want him to start spraying and getting used to making females pregnant.. even though they would probably all come out beautiful like him , you guys are right.. we don't need to be making another million kittens. We have been lucky so far, she only has 4 kittens at the most each litter and she has only had about 6 i think. Many times we have given them to people we knew and we always tell people to bring them back if there are any problems.

The 2 oldest males have already had their shots, one still needs a booster, but after that they will both be ready to go. Then my sister needs to take her cat, the last male and then they should all be taken care of and we can work on the female.. unfortunately we don't have much extra room to be separating them right now. But we are really hoping this will be her last or second to last litter as she is more than likely pregnant already.

I will see if we can look into some lower cost option, but we really like this vet office that we have been going to, they are really caring and we have developed a trust with them, even more now since having Mango done, before that though I would never have though twice of taking an animal there for a shot.