Spayed femal on heat? Help!

My husband and I have recently moved to Romania from Egypt. We are both English, but move around the globe a lot with my husband's work.

While in Egypt, we were adopted by a delighful female street cat. We took her in, fed her well. We lived in an appartment on the 3rd floor of a building where she had no access to the outside world.
At about 6 months of age we had her de-sexed and vaccinated. The vet actually came to our home and performed the surgery on our dining room table! So I actually witnessed it, and can declare the proceeings to be successful! This was 9 months ago, she is now about 15 months old.

When we moved to Romania 10 days ago, things could not have gone better. She was a dream on the plane, not a noise from her, she was just curious but slept a lot. In our new home (a house with a garden) she settled in immediately. I put her litter box on the balcony and she was happy to play with her favorite toys and to be cuddled and petted.

Now, the last 5 days have been hell. She behaves exactly like a female cat in season. Howling all night (whether she is inside or outside), rolling around on her back. She hates being cuddled (she used to love it), she growls when you stroke her. She is not like the same cat at all. My husband isn't getting any sleep. We are lost as to what we should do. Even the neighbors have complained about the noise. There do seem to be one or two Tom cats (probably not de-sexed) in the vicinity.

I would just like some advice as to how to stop this behavior and get our beloved pet back to normal. I know she was successfully de-sexed, so why is she behaving this way?

Thanks to anyone that can help.
Annie

Wow! That is so odd. You might want to call a vet and ask about this. It sounds as if there is something physical going on...perhaps she is having thyroid problems which are causing this out of control behavior.

Also...what a great story! Bravo to you and your husband for rescuing this stray kitty.

Hi Annie, and thanks for posting.

I would suggest that a vet visit might be in order. Any time you have a behavioral change, always rule out physical problems first. It almost sounds like your cat might be in pain.

Hope this helps,

Gaye

I would definitely visit a vet and make sure there isn't anything physical going on. Cats are very sensitive to changes in their environment so she may just be freaking out a little bit since you have a new place. You can get herbal rememdies to put in her food or even kitty downers for her to take about a month. After that, she will have forgotten her habit. Right now though, I would make sure it is just behavior and not anything more serious.

Thanks to all for your replies.

The cat is in perfectly good health. I eventually solved the problem by spraying a little water on her every time she started howling, if she persisted I gave her some "time out" on the balcony. Now everything seems back to normal, although she is still more vocal than before. Her behavious perplexed me because it started over a week after the move.

I think it was because it was her first time to socialise with other cats since we took her off the street as a kitten. She just went a bit overboard!

She is crazy enough as it is. She loves to play in water, opened doors by the door handle (pushes or pulls). Once I even caught her taking a pee in the toilet. She is a true delight.

Wow self-taught toilet training - what I would not give for that - no more litter box!! Glad all is well..

What a fascinating story.

Just in case anyone searches this subject in the future. It is possible for a cat to get into heat even if she's spayed. Sometimes (rarely), the vet accidentally leaves a tiny piece of an ovary behind. It could be too small to be seen, but when the time comes, it will secrete enough hormones to get the cat into heat. The way to fix that is to have another operation while she's in heat, so the vet can spot the enlarged piece of ovary that's causing the trouble and get it out.

I'm glad she's doing better. It didn't sound like one of those cases, as she has not presented this behavior before and is unlikely to have her first heat period at 15 months old.

Sounds like you and your husband are leading an interesting life. Perhaps you'd like to pop over into the lounge and properly introduce yourself? We seem to be getting lots of new members from the UK these days.