How can I know it a female cat is fixed or not?

I would think that if they shaved her tummy, some kind of scar would be seen. There's got to be either an x-ray or scan or something that can determine that.

I know that when we took my Callie in to be spayed as a stray living on my back porch, the vet called us to tell us they'd found a scar and determined she was already spayed.

same thing happened here to me with a stray cat that showed up...i had her for about 6 months and she was gone for a couple of days & she came back so i took her to the vet to be 'fixed' and the vet called & said he found a scar & she was already fixed...and i had previously looked for a scar and could not find one but i did not shave her belly to look either...
so hopefully your kitty is fixed already....

It is almost impossible to tell, but at 6 months she couldn't have been spayed too long and the scar should still be visible when shaved.

Given that she was stray at that age, I would guess that she isnt spayed

I agree with icklemiss...could be impossible to tell, but I would also guess no because of her young age. Anyone that would just toss a kitten away like that probably didn't have the foresight to give her proper medical care.

You're right, waiting until she goes into heat can be dangerous. Too many unused heat cycles can result in pyometra, a very dangerous uterine infection.

I have 2 Sphynx females, both spayed. I know Mandy is spayed only because it was done by the SPCA just 6 months ago - she has no scar (and obviously she has no fur to hide a scar either! )

My other girl also has no scar, but it's very easy to know she was spayed because the vet who did it used steel sutures and when you pick her up it feels like they will literally poke right through her skin. How barbaric! I didn't think any vets used steel anymore, but she was spayed less than 2 years ago.

Thanks for taking this kitty in...she's a lucky girl!

My Mattie showed up on the front steps. She was a stray and very skittish. It took us a while to be able to handle her without gloves. We could tell just by how she acted that she had been someones cat. When I took her to the vet for shots, I asked him to shave her belly while I was there. He did that and the scar was there. He was reasonably sure it was a scar from spay surgery. I kept her on the porch in a big wire cage until we could be sure we were not having male visitors. I think is your young cat has been spayed there will be a scar. Just let the vet know you think this and I am sure he will comply with your wishes.

I'm one of those people that have an adult female cat that came to me spay and the vet couldn't tell. No scar. She's at least 4 years old, though. My poor vet was a little confused when he opened her up and couldn't find anything.

Unfortunately she had to heal up from that, but healed perfectly and did get a complimentary tummy tuck out of it.

I wonder if your little girl was lost and not abandoned, though? Has she been scanned for microchips? have you asked around?

We had a male cat the vet opened up to check for a spay because he was 'very underdeveloped'

I can tell male from female at day old - they look and are spaced different down there. The vet must have really been second guessing themselves.

I hope she can be yours free and clear. It sounds like she has already won you over!

Not my vet, he is one of many the shelter uses

But, in their defence, he didn't seem like a male, he was a cryptorchid but there is still a spacing difference so he needed surgery anyway, but could have done without the added spay

Ultrasounds can be done but can not always give a definitive answer, so the vet may have to open up the cat anyway.

And I don't think anyone who paid for lapo surgery would then let it stray

3 days is a bit excessive ... Please call to a few vets , I imagine the answer will be like you have gotten in the past ... plus today most vets use dis solvable stitches so no follow up vet visit

Just today my four foster cats were fixed ... they went in at 8 am and came back at noon... they are fine except for the one who peed all over itself

Most vets here do not keep them that long after any surgery, unless there was a complication, I would want my cat at home where they could be more comfortable - does your vet have someone there 24hrs? She may be better off at home where someone can watch her if not

Which vet is this? You can PM if you want...

I use Highland Animal Hosp. and they send the cat home same day. Not saying your vet is bad.... just never had a vet say wait 3 days, lol.

Since you are in the area, I will warn you that the Emergency Urgent Care clinic SUCKS, I made the mistake of going there and I was horrfied. While I was waiting for 2 hrs (and the only other animal there was a dog that was going home) overheard the vet tech talking on the phone... someones dog ate rat poision, vet tech said "since it has been over 2 hrs he will be fine." I discussed this with my vet at Highland the next day, and he said a lot of people have had issues with the Urgent Care. Yeah I got off topic, sorry!

Now you need another vet! Ha! Just kidding... but not really...
No, Sorry, but never heard of this one before... The wound won't open...
My Bugsy is going to have a surgery tomorrow, not a Spay (male), but removing a tumor, and will require stitches the same way... Drop off in the morning, pickup in the afternoon...
I bought him some baby clothes so doesn't need to wear the e-collar, and doesn't get to the stitches, and the only thing the vet said is to keep from overexciting him... Keep the wound clean, and put ointment on it until the stitches come out.

You can't always tell if a cat is male or female, it can be difficult with some cats. My vet told me at Attitude's first appointment she was 'definitely male', yeah until 'he' went into heat. I couldn't tell with Attitude either as she wasn't too into having you look back there. I didn't check really in depth until I noticed 'he' had nipples. Her hair is just so long back there and she won't sit still. Did complicate things considering I had Nuts and he was not neutered, I thought I had 2 males not a male and a female but it all worked out.

I don't hold it against the vet, everyone makes mistakes.

Also, my vet takes them in the morning for surgery and releases them same day barring complications. 3 days seems way excessive to me. One of the cats we had outside was climbing tree the day after her spay and she was perfectly fine, and Attitude was bouncing around jumping and running, chasing Nuts, Nuts chasing her, having play fights the second I got her home the day of her spay and she never so much as disturbed a stitch much less having her wound re open.

Taryn

Since you think she was dumped for not being a "cute kitten" any more, the dumper probably wasn't responsible enough to "help control the pet population--have your pet spayed or neutered." Couldn't hurt to look for a scar just in case, but I think you'll find that she's still all there.

I only spay the ones that stick around(therefore are 'mine') or, in the case of Half-tail, I know where they came from and are essentially 'mine'(she was born to either Goldie or Biter.) Just reminded me, if some low cost spay/neuter won't take her I'm prolly going to end up with more unwanted kittens and a dead cat(she is way too small to have a safe pregnancy.) For some reason they are all doing only shelter cats and she went into heat and I know all 3 of my males(which includes 2 of her brothers) most likely nailed her. I know Goldie Jr did and her and Blue(the only one not related to everyone else) were a little too cozy when she was in heat. I don't want or need any more dang cats. My 2 inside and 6 outside are way more than enough and are really too many.

Attitude and Nuts don't leave the house unless I have them on a harness. No one else here cares about cats so it all comes down to me and my boyfriend to take care of them(even though our neighbor Mitzi will help pay to get the females spayed.) The witch(remove the w and replace with a b) up the street gets animals for some unknown reason and then won't feed or take care of them(Mitzi has already had to rescue 2 of her half dead starving dogs and it took a rescue over 6 months to get them into shape enough to even be offered for adoption.) I was half tempted to grab her starving Siamese and get her spayed, but I couldn't because she was an 'owned' animal(even if her owner was a total deadbeat and never took care of her.) She thankfully died after having her 3rd litter of the summer, none of the kittens from her first 2 litters survived. I would know they all come here to eat. Her death was a good thing since it was the end of her suffering. My cats hated her and chased her off any chance they got. The last time I saw her was after she gave birth and my 2 females, Mama and Biter were chasing her off because she was across the street so she never really got enough to eat even when I tried to feed her. She refused to get along with them so they wanted nothing to do with her. She almost got attacked after trying to go after Mama's kitten. All 3 females came running ready to rip her to shreds. Even the rest of the kittens despised her, every time she came around Nuts would arch his back puff up and hiss at her. Kind of funny to see a 4 week old kitten doing that. They all accepted Blue no problem, he just showed up one day and decided to stay and the others didn't care. Hell, if I wasn't certain she had leukemia(and was most likely the source of it being endemic here, everyone has it) I would have shuttled her off to the rescue Mitzi used for the dogs. Woman didn't even care when the dogs disappeared. I hate her(and yes I mean HATE, and I don't normally hate anyone) for her mistreatment of her animals. She has a little min-pin or something like that and a pit, and I think she has a black cat. I just don't know why she keeps getting animals when she doesn't take care of them and doesn't even FEED them. I mean it isn't that expensive to get animal food, I mean feeding them crap is better than totally not feeding them.

I just hope once I get Half tail done that no one else dumps any more females(or males for that matter, I'm sick of new cats), once she is done all the females will be fixed. Runt, Goldie Jr and Blue are the only males I know of and we can't afford to get them done. They aren't my cats voluntarily, they got dumped on us, well Mama got dumped and the population went from there and Blue was dumped as well. Both know what a litter box is and it's proper use, when I had Mama inside after her prolapse she used the litter box exclusively until she decided she had had enough of being inside and let herself out after a week. She likes it here just only outside, none except Blue(he let himself in one day when him and Nuts were getting acquainted and didn't freak when the door closed and doesn't mind being picked up) have ever been comfortable inside. Biter and Goldie were from the resident male at the time a fat grey tabby that got run over and killed, so the next resident tom we had was a black and white tom(who was dumped here one day) who got Mama, Goldie, Biter(plus Callie and the damn Siamese) pregnant and from Mama, Biter, Goldie and Callie we ended up with 15 living kittens(including Attitude, Nuts, Runt, Half tail, Goldie Jr.) He has now disappeared(he didn't show up to 'service' Half tail when she went into heat) so he didn't survive the winter. Now there are Runt, Blue and Goldie Jr and they are all males and Half tail is last intact female I know of. Attitude and Nuts have had full vet care(Attitude is spayed and Nuts will be neutered as soon as I can afford it Attitude always seems to eat that money by needing to go the vet for something, stupid cat), I wanted them and they are 'voluntarily' mine(well they showed up at 4 weeks old when their mother decided to move them all in under our shed) and I could afford them. They all stayed outside until 12+ weeks so I didn't take them too soon from their mothers.

If I get one more dumped cat I swear I am going to hunt down the owner and I don't know what I'll do but it will prolly be bloody. I don't want any more cats. Yes, kittens are cute but I don't need any more mouths too feed I already spend too much on cat food. I also don't need any more cats to fix.

Sorry got off topic with my rant it just makes me mad. I get all these cats dumped on me and I have to be the one to take care of them.

Seriously ask your vet why she needs to stay for 3 days. I think she'd recover a lot better at home than in a vet's office and besides I'd rather my cat get home quickly and greatly reduce the risk of them bringing back fleas(the gift that keeps on giving), not to mention to just be home to recover. I hated being hospitalized for 3 days after having my son and I was glad when my gallbladder was ripped out I could go home the same day, I feel much more comfortable at home and I'd imagine pets feel the same way. My vet only keeps them overnight if the owner can't drop them off the next morning due to work(or whatever) or can't pick them up that night, due to work(or whatever) or there are complications and that's just overnight. Out of all the fixed animals I have dealt with I have yet to have one 'split open', I know it happens but it's really rather rare if the vet knows what the heck they are doing.

Taryn