What age to spay/nueter?

I wasn't sure what topic to post this under so please move if it is the wrong one.

         I was wondering what is the earliest age that kittens can be spayed/nuetered. (sp?) I have two kittens that are 4 months old today, and 4 that are 3 months old.

This is highly dependent on your vet's preferences. They CAN be done at 8 weeks/2 pounds but some vets don't like to do it that young. Personally, my "favorite" ages are 14 weeks for females and 20 weeks for males.

Females can go into heat as early as 4 months so you'll want to get it done soon.

I trap feral/abandoned cats and he rule of thumb is two pounds or two months, so that is the earliest kittens can be spayed/neutered.  Some (old fashion) vets prefer waiting until later, but as soon as a cat goes into heat, he/she can inpregnant a female and/or get pregnant.  So watch for any symptoms of the female going into heat (calling, sticking butt in air, suddenly very affectionate).  If that happens, immediately separate the males from the females, or a brother may get his sister pregnant.

Best to ask your vet as they vary, and if the vet says 'not until 6 months' I'd look for another vet.  The 4-month olds can probably be done whenever you want.

The best age in my opinion is as early as possible, I get my litters done at 10 weeks.

Early neutering has been done for decades, there's no reason for vets not to be up on current procedures.

My vet said do it before they can have any memories.
 

Thank you for all the replies. My vet said 4 months so we scheduled them to get "fixed' on Tuesday.

Great, hope all goes well and they recover quickly. 

Is it all of them or just the 4-month-olds? Having 6 post-op kitties all at once would be fun! :tongue2:

Just the 2 four months olds for now. It would NOT be fun!!
 

They need to stay quiet for a couple of days right?

They generally bounce back quickly when young and are pretty hard to keep quiet. I place mine in a room with little entertainment and no things to climb on, doesn't stop them racing around and wrestling each other but they're not climbing and jumping at least. 

Getting them all done at once is no big deal, I've had litters of 6 and 7's done without issue, they come home like nothing has happened and life just goes on as normal. 

They got done today and I got to do a job shadow so I was able to watch. They are staying overnight at the vet's and we'll pick them up tomorrow. 

We are still very behind on early spay/neutering, the vets here for some reason haven't quite caught up on that yet. I had to wait 'til the kittens were almost 5 months old (boys) before I got them neutered, so I had to postpone their moving to their new homes a bit. It took 30min to neuter 2 kittens,and then I got to take them home. The other one was already like nothing happened, the other was a bit sleepy for the rest of the evening. If I take an adult to be neutered, it 30min for one kitty so kittens seem to be faster and easier to fix? Clearly they get over it much faster than adults.

NorthernGlow said:

so kittens seem to be faster and easier to fix?

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It's actually a finer surgery, especially when we're talking about 8-12 weeks - by 5 months things are bigger - but the surgery is fast, at least by my vets who are well skilled in paediatric neuters. That is why some vets won't do it, they don't want to do micro surgery on little ones. 

Mine stay at the vets from 8-12 though to properly wake up before I take them home full of beans. Little ones require less aesthetic I guess than full grown adults. That said my retired queen had a fast recovery as well, came home and nursed her bubs like normal.  

AFAIK what makes neutering young kittens tricky is getting the anasthetic and other care right - keeping them warm for example.  Neutering a boy is normally very, very quick. 

OrientalSlave said:

AFAIK what makes neutering young kittens tricky is getting the anasthetic and other care right - keeping them warm for example.  Neutering a boy is normally very, very quick. 

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  And yes, I got to watch and the male took about 3 minutes.

The male acts like nothing happened at all. The female is a little stiff and sore though so I am keeping her locked up for a couple of days. We have 7 other cats and I don't want to take the risk of her getting attacked or just played with too hard.