Simon Got Fixed (and more)

Simon and his sisters turned 5 months old on December 30th and Simon got neutered this past Sunday the 3rd. He is active, and eating and drinking normally. Since he got home he has become extremely affectionate. Can't tell if he's in pain or just happy to be home or what. He went from being a playful kitten to being a lap-hogging cuddle monster. Not that I mind .

This means that all the boys in my house are now neutered. My parents had had Kipper fixed years ago so I didn't have anything to worry about when they gave him to me, and Armani got fixed within a week of us rescuing him from the side of the road. After Mira got pregnant with Simon and his sisters I wasn't taking any more chances, so I got Armani and Simon both done as quickly as possible.

Side note: I no longer have the kittens' father, dubbed "Boyfriend". He escaped shortly after I realized Mira was preggers. He was an outdoor feral and just wanted so badly to be outside. I had planned to release him after I realized the living arrangement wasn't going to work (he was terrified of humans) but I fully intended to have him neutered first. I felt horrible that he managed to get out while still intact, so I did look for him for several weeks though I knew it would be a long shot. No way shelter volunteers or animal control people were getting anywhere near that cat. He would have been impossible to catch even if I had known where to find him. I was right though, I never saw him again.

I have been going through a local low-cost clinic for my cats' spay/neuters and shots. As of now, my 5 females are all whole but the people I've been working with have been kind enough to reserve an entire clinic just for my girlies . That date is at the end of April, so I will be able to use my tax return to pay for it. I had meant to get it done sooner but never seemed to have the money. So, better late than never. At least with all the boys taken care of I'm almost safe from another accidental pregnancy. Only chance is if one of them gets out, which is a near impossiblilty with all the extra precautions I've taken since Boyfriend's Houdini-like escape. Of course if anything like that did happen, I'd be keeping the kittens. I feel that if I'm irresponsible enough to let one of my cats get pregnant the least I can do is give her babies a loving forever home so they don't end up homeless or worse. It's just the right thing to do, taking responsibilty for my actions so to speak.

I'm hoping to get a second opinion on spaying Missy too. I'd like to have her done, with her spraying issues and everything. But she is at least 11 years old (I've only had her for about 6 months) and EXTREMELY overweight. I mean she is like a blob, you can hardly even see her legs and her tummy drags on the floor when she walks. I've been told by one vet already that no one in their right mind would even consider operating on her. I hope he's wrong. I've set up an appointment to have the clinic vet that would be spaying her in April examine her and determine if he'd be willing to do it. Fingers crossed.

Well, thanks for reading everyone. Kind of boring, I know, but I just wanted to keep you in the loop.

I spayed a 11 year old cat who wasn't in perfect health. Yes, it was harder on her - but the idea of her going through heat for the rest of her life was not appealing. She's now still alive & kicking 5 years later - she had a dental done with all her teeth extracted less than a year ago.

Originally Posted by white cat lover

I spayed a 11 year old cat who wasn't in perfect health. Yes, it was harder on her - but the idea of her going through heat for the rest of her life was not appealing. She's now still alive & kicking 5 years later - she had a dental done with all her teeth extracted less than a year ago.

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Thanks. That gives me a little bit of hope. And yup, Missy is in constant heat. Has been for about 4 of the 6 months I've had her. I think that has alot to do with the spraying, but I could be wrong. If it's not related to that I understand that spaying her may not resolve the issue. But besides her not being able to get pregnant (which in her condition I'm sure would be life-threatening), are there any other health benefits that would result from spaying a cat her age? If the vet tells me he'll do it even though it's risky, I'm going to want to weigh my options.

Glad to hear you got the boys taken care of. Good luck with doing all the girls and I hope you can find a vet that'll spay Missy for you.

With her health issues, spaying might be a LOT better than pregnancy, especially with her spraying issues. Have you tried feeding her a lower calorie food AWAY from the other kitties? Even at her age, getting her to lose some of that weight would greatly reduce the risks of the surgery. And you know all that extra baggage is making her joints hurt. Does she like to play? My elderly cat LOVES this toy I got for the kittens. It's donut shaped, and has a ball that runs in a track around the outside edge. She doesn't have to move much to play, but it helps to keep her trim. Since you're having to wait until April, you have plenty of time to get your girl in better shape. I think that if you got her trimmed up a bit, you'd be a lot more likely to find a vet that'll do the surgery. for all, and good luck. I'm so happy you got all the boys knocked out.

Originally Posted by SamhainBorn

With her health issues, spaying might be a LOT better than pregnancy, especially with her spraying issues. Have you tried feeding her a lower calorie food AWAY from the other kitties? Even at her age, getting her to lose some of that weight would greatly reduce the risks of the surgery. And you know all that extra baggage is making her joints hurt. Does she like to play? My elderly cat LOVES this toy I got for the kittens. It's donut shaped, and has a ball that runs in a track around the outside edge. She doesn't have to move much to play, but it helps to keep her trim. Since you're having to wait until April, you have plenty of time to get your girl in better shape. I think that if you got her trimmed up a bit, you'd be a lot more likely to find a vet that'll do the surgery. for all, and good luck. I'm so happy you got all the boys knocked out.

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Me, too. Simon and company couldn't have come at more inconvenient time. No more kitties for me, I'm at the max as far as what I can handle with time, money, and space constraints.

Missy's eating issue isn't neccessarily that she needs a lower calorie diet, she just eats entirely too much. She wasn't fed regularly before I took her in, so apparently had learned to stuff herself on the rare occasion food was available. She still does that even though I've never let their food bowls get empty. I've tried feeding her set amounts on a schedule, but have had several issues with that. My other cats are used to free-feeding and gave me a hard time for taking away the food. I've also tried seperating Missy and only schedule feeding her but that turned out to be a pain in the butt too because the other cats seemed to think she was getting fed something better than what's in their bowls (you can't win in this house!). She isn't very active at all, but like you mentioned her joints are probably in terrible shape so it's likely painful for her. She used to play with Milo a little bit but as she added bulk that slowly ceased. The farthest I've seen her walk in weeks is to the food bowl. I had to put a litter box right next to it too because she would rather go on the floor than walk the additional 2-3 feet to get to the box. I will see if I can find some sort of toy to stimulate her but she's never shown any interest in the other things I've purchased. Before it occured to me that she might be in pain I used to pick her up and take her way to the other end of the house so she would have to walk to get to the food bowls, in an attempt for her to get some excercise. I stopped that though because I just felt so horrible watching her waddle back to the food.

Attitude got chopped open several weeks ago(at 5 months) after she decided to go into heat and Nuts jumped her. Nuts will get done when I can afford to get him done. Mama's prolapsed rectum and the money to fix it has delayed my ability to get Nuts done.

I know a low cost place that will do Nuts for $5 or I can go through the place that did our 3 ferals girls , one litter from them and the 13 kittens they produced were enough did it for $35 but I do not want Nuts' ear tipped. I about had a cow when I saw Mama's ear, that wasn't tipped they had chopped off half her ear. I wanted the 'tude done by my vet since it was an open procedure but I'm not as worried about Nuts since the snip-snip is an easy procedure and less risky.

Taryn

Well, since she's a chow-hound (er, chow kitty?) a lower calorie food might be a fix. With fewer calories, she can still fill up her tummy, but won't get as many calories, so she should slim down at least a little. And as weight comes off of her, she should get some energy back. I know you've got Simon and the younger kitties who will need higher caloric intake, but you could easily up theirs by giving them a calorie-rich treat once a day. It will seem a little mean if you let her watch the others eat their treat, but if you put her in another room and love on her and play with her while the others are eating their Calories, then it's not unfair at all! She gets extra attention! Canned kitten food seems to work the best around here, but it all depends on your budget, of course. My Smudge is only a little older than your Simon, and Smudge still drinks some kitten formula, to help keep his weight up since I am feeding lower calorie food now. (gotta get Cuddle's weight under control! Chunky butt isn't even a year old yet and he's almost 15 lbs!)

Anyway, I hope this helps, and best of luck!

Originally Posted by SamhainBorn

Well, since she's a chow-hound (er, chow kitty?) a lower calorie food might be a fix. With fewer calories, she can still fill up her tummy, but won't get as many calories, so she should slim down at least a little. And as weight comes off of her, she should get some energy back. I know you've got Simon and the younger kitties who will need higher caloric intake, but you could easily up theirs by giving them a calorie-rich treat once a day. It will seem a little mean if you let her watch the others eat their treat, but if you put her in another room and love on her and play with her while the others are eating their Calories, then it's not unfair at all! She gets extra attention! Canned kitten food seems to work the best around here, but it all depends on your budget, of course. My Smudge is only a little older than your Simon, and Smudge still drinks some kitten formula, to help keep his weight up since I am feeding lower calorie food now. (gotta get Cuddle's weight under control! Chunky butt isn't even a year old yet and he's almost 15 lbs!)

Anyway, I hope this helps, and best of luck!

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Thanks, I think I will try this. Missy's never shown much interest in wet food anyhow...but maybe she just doesn't want to walk to the kitchen where it's served? As a matter of fact, a lower-calorie diet might do everyone some good. The only ones I would really worry about getting extra calories are the kittens and Mira (I just got her weight back up after the kittens, but Simon already weighs as much as she does if that gives you any idea what a dainty little cat she is). Of course I can't open a can in this house without at least 7 cats and a dog immediately running to the kitchen, so maybe not . I think maybe I'll just put low-calorie food in the bedroom where Missy stays and keep the normal stuff in the rest of the house. That should work because Missy only goes to the other bowls if that one is empty, plus I won't have to spend a fortune that way. And there's a reason I don't feed wet food often: I have to chaperone the entire meal because they'll all try to scarf down their own portions as quickly as possible so they can scavenge everyone else's and sometimes it gets ugly. Hence why schedule feeding doesn't work for me. Cats. They're a full-time job .

Edit: Oh, by the way, is regular canned food higher in calories than regular kibble, or will I need something that specifies having a higher calorie value, like the kitten food you mentioned? Just in case I do end up having to go that route...

Sounds like she will be easier to put on a low cal diet. I feed Attitude, Nuts and Maude in the kitchen and they just decide which bowl they are going to eat out of at that moment and chow down, they don't have their own bowl, there are 3 of them but they never eat out of a specific bowl they just decide which on tickles their fancy at that moment.

Maude is fat, thus her nickname 'fat cat.' She is a sturdy built cat(I think she has some Maine Coon in her), she's 12 lbs and she is mostly muscle but her tummy does hang down and she definitely could afford to lose a few lbs. She has no issues with it though, she can jump up on the kitchen counter without issue and will chase the kittens at times, so she can run. I did separate, with Attitude and Nuts' food in the bathroom and hers on the kitchen counter, but she'd just go in the bathroom and raid their bowls.

I know what you are talking about with one cat hating canned food and getting mobbed if you so much as think about opening a can of food. Maude won't touch canned food and I can't open a can without 'Tude and Nuts running in trying to tackle me to get the can. The outside ones are the same way.

I can't do low cal food since Attitude and Nuts are still growing, and growing fast and they are going to be huge. Nuts is already 9.2 lbs and Attitude is 7 lbs and they are only 7 months old(I know they have Maine Coon in them since Mama is a Maine Coon and she's their grandma, you can see it in 'Tude easily but not Nuts), and they are not fat, in fact they are both skinny, they are just tall and long. Nuts is over 30 inches long nose to tail, he can stand up and put his front feet and the kitchen vanity and look around. Not to mention Maude would just raid their bowls anyways. It's just easier to feed them all the same food. Natural Balance is fit for all ages so I just use that.

I do give Nuts and Attitude canned food(Friskies, it's total 'crap' but I bought it to feed Mama after she got out of the hospital to slowly wean her back to all dry food to make sure she didn't prolapse again) sometimes as a treat but with only 2 of them eating I just empty the can onto a paper plate spread it out and they eat off the plate together. I do the same for the outside cats but since they are used to all eating out of the same bowl at the same time they are used to sharing so there aren't any disagreements.

Hopefully she'll soon realize that she doesn't have to gorge herself and learn that she will always have food to eat. It took a long time for Mama, Biter and Goldie not to do that, especially Mama, she would eat so much I would worry about her eating herself sick. She has finally realized that the food is out from the time I go outside in the morning until dark(we have a fat raccoon and a possum that love cat food and they can find their own food and not eat the cat food I buy for the cats.) I rarely find their trough(I feed all 6 out of one big bowl that they can all fit around to eat at the same time) empty any more. I now an actually trying to get Mama fattened up, she came back from the week at the vet's weighing 5 lbs, you can feel every bone in her body, you just can't tell because she has a full fledged winter Maine Coon coat so she actually looks fat. It will take her time to do that, but hopefully she does eventually. Until then however it sounds like low-cal food would be a good option for her and then feed the rest canned food when you feel like trying to prevent the others from 'killing' each other over it.

I think canned is higher in calories in general, but I'm not sure and I can't check since I have a food container filled with the inside cats food and just tossed the bag for the outside cats since I used the rest in the bag and the rest is in their food container, so I can't reference calories, but I do think that any canned is more calorie dense than dry.

Good luck on Missy's diet.

Taryn

Any Kitten food is higher in calories than it's adult counterpart. Kittens need more calories to grow up, so accordingly, kitten formulations should always have a higher calorie count than "normal" food. This goes for canned and dry food. Senior cat formulations and inside cats formulations both tend to have Fewer calories than regular foods as a rule as well, since both senior cats and indoor cat are less active and tend to gain weight more easily.

Canned cat food mixed with kitten formula is the BEST way to put some weight on kitties, as far as I've found. You'll need to ask Sharky for brand specifics, since that's our resident foodie.

Hope this helps, and good luck.

Originally Posted by mira's_mommy

Thanks. That gives me a little bit of hope. And yup, Missy is in constant heat. Has been for about 4 of the 6 months I've had her. I think that has alot to do with the spraying, but I could be wrong. If it's not related to that I understand that spaying her may not resolve the issue. But besides her not being able to get pregnant (which in her condition I'm sure would be life-threatening), are there any other health benefits that would result from spaying a cat her age? If the vet tells me he'll do it even though it's risky, I'm going to want to weigh my options.

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yes indeed. The longer she goes unspayed, the higher her risk of pyometra (infection of the uterus, often fatal, always terribly painful) and uterine cancer.

Better late than never. And perhaps she might even lose a little weight, once the hormones have left her. It'll give her a new lease on life.

(as long as she is healthy enough to withstand the anesthesia)

My vets says that fat females are almost certain to get pyo.....although he said that about dogs, I'm sure it goes for cats, too. Definitely ask the vet about it; she may need bloodwork first. But it is very hard for them to operate with all that fat, and it makes anesthesia more risky, too.

Yeah, her weight is definitely an issue. She's a monster. I think perfectly fit she would probably be a 7 or 8 pound cat (her daughter Callie weighs 9, and she's got a bit of a gut too) but when I last weighed her she was close to 13 pounds. I had a bout with tapeworms recently and the vet wanted to see her specifically because she's obviously not in great health to begin with. That's when he basically told me good luck finding a vet that will operate on her. I've never had blood work done on her but the vet at the low-cost clinic says she'll do it for free when she goes for her pre-spay examination. Apparently it's standard procedure for all cats her age, and all of it is included in the price of the spay ($50). Yet another reason I wouldn't go anywhere else even if it was cheaper.

it sounds like you've found a great place! Many vets don't even do a pre-spay exam, much less bloodwork. Hopefully, you can get her weight down, making ALL of her health risks lower, and be able to get her spayed. Just take it in steps, girl. You and Missy CAN do this!