My vet won't early spay my Kittens!

I'm so fed up with the vets around here. There has only been one that has offered to do any free care for any pets in the area, and the rest of them seem farily unsympathetic to stray and feral care, much less rescue work. All they are interested in is the money!!!

I still have 4 rescue kittens that I am trying to rehome, (with almost no luck, thanks to the HUGE number of unwanted kittens in the area) and when I tried to make an apt to get the 16 week old kittens altered today, the vet said I had to wait unitl they were 6 months old.

6 MONTHS!!!

I argued that waiting that long could lead to the 3 females coming into their first heat, which could not only contribute to possible behavioral problems, but ran the risk of them escaping the apartment, and getting pregnant, further contributing to the population explosion. I asked if she could at least neuter the male, so that I wouldn't have to worry about spraying, but she refused. Even after I gave her the whole "spayed is healthier" speech and the facts about lower risks of cancers and other health problems, she still would not be swayed. She was adamant that they must be 6 months old.

They all by far surpass the 2 pound rule, being a little over 4 lbs on average, they are all exceedingly healthy now, and the mother cat is pregnant again! (The vet would not spay her until her milk dried, wouldn't give her anything to Make her milk dry, and even when it was gone, she wanted to wait for 2 weeks, during which time she got knocked up again, and the vet refused to fix her once she found out she was pregnant).

Someone just please tell me that my attempts at caring for strays are meaningful in some way, and that I'm not doing this all for nothing. I'm getting so frustrated. And looking for a new vet is a pretty moot point. All the good ones are no longer taking new patients, and the rest pretty much have the same stand. The earliest I can find to get them spayed is 5 1/2 months. One vet even refuses to do it until they are 8 months old!

Anyone have anything to say on the matter?

Wow! How incredibly frustrating! I'm very fortunate that we have a low-cost clinic nearby. They even lend out traps, and take ferals in without an appointment. I really wish these resources were available to everyone. They neutered our kittens at 4 months (when we trapped them), and they were just over two pounds.

Don't lose hope. You're making a big difference to these cats.

I don't know that knowing this will change a vets policy, but the American Veterinary Medical Association has supported pediatric/early spay and neuter since at least 1994. http://www.avma.org/issues/policy/an...pay_neuter.asp

Are there any other low cost spay neuter clinics in nearby counties or towns?

All the vets here will not do pediatric spay/neuters. We drive to a nearby town where there is a low cost clinic that will do if they are healthy and at least 2 lbs.

Hope you can find a vet for your spay/neuter needs.

Call the shelters in your area and ask for a referral to a vet that will spay early. If you can find one that is no kill, you'll have an even higher chance of getting help for an early speuter.

Go to www.petfinder.com and do a search for kittens around your zip code. It will list the available kittens, but more importantly, it will list the shelters in your area. Many that you find on petfinder are smaller ones that don't advertise, but can offer referrals.

Good luck!!

With all the strays I see around here, I practically LIVE on petfinder trying to find out if the kitties I'm about to TNR are really un-homed kittehs. I also list the loose dogs (on pet finder, in the paper and otherwise) and if I don't find an owner withing 2 weeks, or the animal looks sick, I call the animal rescue. I've looked up just about every shelter, etc in the area, and there are sadly very very few. The closest no kill shelter is an hour away in nashville. There are no foster homes here either. Just a group of people like me trying to go solo. The few that I'm networking with have had the same problems. There's NOTHING in this area, and the humane society will only help after they've created "case files" . assigned you a case worker "Advisor" and you've signed the pets over. I WILL NOT sign them over to the HS b/c there is no actual shelter and they put animals to sleep in 3 days. I REFUSE to do that. There are a few places, like Cats R Us and Precious Puppies Rescue, that pose as rescues/shelters/petstores, that are really little more than puppy mills. I'm just disheartened by the general lack of fuzzy campassion here.

And by the way, the only way to qualify for low-cost speuter here is to be on food stamps, WIC, or some other government assistance. (which I am not)

I can understand your plight When I was in TN camping, there was no shortage of cats dumped off with their kittens It was worse in KY - we rescued a puppy that had been thrown into the river and there were no shelters around; the locals told us we'd have to cross state line into TN which we did - we had to get a motel room, pay extra for a pet (which wasn't housetrained) and wait for the shelter to accept her, which they did for $20 surrender fee. In a nearby KY campground, there were two packs of stray dogs, including a beautiful, but heavily matted Pomeranian that had every size & kind of tick upon tick (as did the other dogs) who was too shy to get caught (I was going to buy a carrier & fly her home with me)....heartbreaking...
Sending mega prayers and vibes that you get some badly needed help and answers very soon
BTW, my sis is out visiting from Lebanon, which is a bit closer to you - if you'd like, I can ask her to see if her vet would offer a deal, and also neuter at an earlier age...my sis used to volunteer at their HS, so she may still have some connections. Just let me know & we can communicate thru PMs.

When I suggested to call the shelters in your area, it was to ask them if they could give you a referral to a vet that does early spay. You wouldn't have to give them your name, just tell them you found a young kitten as a stray and want to get it fixed now rather than later and are looking for a vet to do this. The rescue group doesn't need to be close by, just know of vets that do early spay/neuter.

Originally Posted by SamhainBorn

Someone just please tell me that my attempts at caring for strays are meaningful in some way, and that I'm not doing this all for nothing. I'm getting so frustrated.

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Someome on another forum used this for their signature line: you will surely not save the world by adopting one animal, but for that one animal the world will surely change. Yes, you are making a difference. Yes, it is one the most frustrating missions in the world. Hang in there, you're doing a great thing.

I'm not sure what part of TN Clarkesville is in, we have a wonderful vet here in NW Georgia who will spay anything over 2 pounds. If you are in the southeastern part of TN it might be worth coming across the line to him, PM me if that might be feasable and I'll give you the phone number.

The vets here are the exact same, they wont even do it for the shelter unless there is a medical reason for the spay rather than just so they dont reproduce

thank you very mich! if you have any info on resources, i'd be more than happy to hear about it! These kittens need to get spayed just as soon as they can