spaying, not sure when to do it..

So about a week ago we found a stray, and have decided to keep her. We took her to the vet this past friday, she was given her shots and some flea treatment. vet dosent think she is pregnant but its possible that she is under some early pregnancy that not event the vet could detect. bottom line is we cannot afford to take care of kittens, and need to get her spayed as soon as possible. 

we are going on a week long trip, june 14-21 this trip cannot be cancelled. is it realistic to try to get her spayed next week? will that be enough recovery time with us? she will be staying with my sister while we are away, they have to cats but will keep our in a separate room just because we have no idea how they will react to each other.  how long do they need to recover?

If you take her next week, she should have enough time to recover before June 14. Most cats recover in about a week. Did the vet say how old she might be?

the vet said she is just under a year, not sure exactly though.

Absolutely get her spayed asap. The less she is pregnant the faster she will bounce back and recover.

Besides all that, you surely don't want her staying anyplace where there are 2 cats without her spaying done.

You just never know...!

Very high chance she is in fact prego at this point in the season, and you don't want them growing like that, it's just best all around.

Good luck!

Congratulations on the rescue! I agree, get her spayed now. She'll be well recovered by the time you leave.

When mine have been fixed, I've always been told to check the incision site for 10 days after . However, if there were a problem you'd most likely see within a week and your sister can just quickly check in once or twice.  It's unlikely that there will be any problem.  

update

so i called my vet to get a qoute, and was told about $260 before any blood work or tests, and they couldnt work out a payment plan with us. There is a spay/netutre clinic in the next city about 25 mins from us, unfortunetly they have a wait time of about 3 months for female cats!!!! so fingers crossed that she is not pregnant, because unfortunetly we will not be able to keep the kittens

so is it cheaper to (if she is pregnant) to let her go through the pregnancy or spend $260 and get her spayed??? ive never had a pregnant cat and no nothing about it. 

Do you have a Humane Society or SPCA around. They might be able to help you find another low cost clinic in your area. Three months is an incredibly long wait. Wow. 

If she is pregnant then of course you can expect to have some extra cost vs. just one cat. If you do end up with kittens, you will have to feed and house them until they are at least 12 weeks old.

You will also have a better chance of them finding good homes, if you take them in for vaccines before rehoming them. If you do end up with kittens that you need to home, I can not stress how important it is to charge a rehoming fee.

I charged $60 per kitten when my Cali had her litter over 12 years ago. She was pregnant when I took her in. She only had 2 kittens so I refused to separate them. A co-worker took them both and I completely refunded her rehoming fee a few months later when she showed me proof that the kittens had been spayed and neutered. You do not have to do that, but please charge a rehoming fee if you find yourself in that situation. You may also have difficulty finding them homes at all if she does have kittens, especially as this time of year there are so many. 

I really hope that you can get her into be spayed before your vacation or as soon as you come back. It is extremely important to keep her inside no matter how quick she tries to escape or how much she cries. Try finding out about other clinics in your area. I live in a small city and there are 6 low cost clinics here and plenty of regular vets. Call around and see if you can find a better price and a shorter wait.

Thanks for all the info and support luvmy4, much appreciated 

the low-cost clinic i was talking about is the SPCA, i will call around tomorrow and see if i can find something sooner. hopefully i can find something soon, any idea how far into pregancy you can still spay? of course i wouldnt do it if she was very far along though. how much did it cost you to take care of your cats litter?

alayna said:

Thanks for all the info and support luvmy4, much appreciated 

the low-cost clinic i was talking about is the SPCA, i will call around tomorrow and see if i can find something sooner. hopefully i can find something soon, any idea how far into pregancy you can still spay? of course i wouldnt do it if she was very far along though. how much did it cost you to take care of your cats litter?

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I am not sure what the time frame is as to how far along a vet will proceed with spaying if she is pregnant. Someone else will probably have more information about that for you.

Cali was obviously pregnant when I found her, and she was not afraid of people or coming inside. I believe that she was probably abandoned because of her pregnancy. 

The extra food to feed her and the kittens wasn't too much more. I did take them to receive early shots and probably a deworming. I don't really remember what I paid for all of that, as it was a long time ago. I do remember that Cali went into heat before the kittens were 12 weeks. Geesh. I had to have her spayed as soon as they went to their new home.

My recent vaccinations were $51 per cat, but that was at a my regular vet office. A low cost clinic near me does them for around $16. The biggest issues was finding a home for the little ones. lol. They were so cute but at the time I knew I wasn't ready to care for 3 cats, but I did keep Cali. 

If in a couple weeks you find out that she is indeed pregnant then I would look around that section of the forums on here. Luckily that is the only time I have ever had baby kittens around. 

It is expensive to raise kittens. I think that many people don't realize the extra costs for food and litter because they're gradual expenses (one extra bag of litter and food a week doesn't seem like that much. . .), but it really adds up! Depending how many kittens she has, yes, $260 is probably less than what you would spend on raising kittens. And there's always the risk of a birthing complication, with the resulting emergency vet bill. . .$$$$. . .

But the biggest issue is that you can't keep them. There are too many kittens born and not enough homes for all of them. This means that it can be extremely hard to find good homes for kittens, and you might end up getting stuck with one or more. What would you do with them? If keeping kittens is absolutely not an option, really paying any amount for the spay would be better than getting into that situation.

Unfortunately, a big issue with re-homing kittens and attaching a price is it will drive many people away. Why spend money to buy a kitten that isn't (I'm guessing isn't) a purebred when you can just look in the newspaper and see half a dozen ads reading "Free Kittens?" Maybe I'm a cheapskate, but I'd probably sooner pick up the free kitten than the one with a price tag. Though when you find people willing to pay, it generally does rule out the lazy pricks who only want to buy a cute kitten for their kids to abuse, then dump it at a shelter when it's a fully grown sexually mature kitty. I've known more than one "cat lover" that would bring home a kitten and then dump it at about one year old when it would start howling in heat all night long or spraying every single surface in the house.

But when you can't take the kittens yourself, I know there's really no other option. I don't suppose you have a no-kill shelter or an animal sanctuary within reasonable driving distance to your home, do you? Or maybe know someone with a farm who wouldn't mind a few barn cats? Is there a crazy cat lady in the neighborhood who wants some more fuzzies? Alas, even putting an ad in the paper to advertise kittens is going to cost a good chunk of money too. BUT I think we're all kind of getting ahead of ourselves here, assuming Miss Kitty is incubating a few little bundles of joy. But in regard to spaying, the sooner the better.

I could be mistaken, but I believe that some vets will spay a pregnant cat as long as she isn't actively in labor, and under such circumstances, Kitty can be spayed for the same cost as if she were not pregnant. This would be the cat equivalent of an abortion, and while I understand humans may be disturbed by the thought, do remember that cats do not attach the same emotions to their pregnancies as humans do, so it would not affect her any differently than a normal spay. It might not be the prettiest option or the easiest, but it is still an option. Believe me, I love kitties as much as the folks here do and would never tell someone to end a cat's life for no reason, but what would you do if you couldn't find homes for the kittens? I'm not trying to stir up a debate or anything, but just asking. Animals are very hard to even give away because everyone already has a pet and they don't want more, even if they are adorable. It sucks.

RuneKeeper i am not offended at all, and compeletly agree. As much as i love kitties, we are just not able to handle more than just the one cat. unfortuntly i was informed there is only the one spay/neuter clinic in the area, i did leave an updated message explaining the situation, and will try tomorrow to reach an actually person (although thats not easy). We might have to resort to saving some money and getting her spayed after our trip, if she is pregnant at that point she might be pretty far in, but i dont see a choice. 

i must say i have never felt so frustrated, we are trying to do the right thing, taking a stray in taking care of her, (although she is now defintly one of the family), even trying to do the right thing by getting her spayed, and not wanting more unwanted kittens in the world, but it seems there is no help. i am not surprised there are so many cats wantering around my neighborhood now. 

oh well, thanks everyone for your replys, much appreciated