Spaying question

So I'm taking my new 5 month old kitten to the vet on Saturday to get spayed. They asked me if I wanted her to have an IV during the procedure, because I guess it helps them recover faster. Any ways I'm wondering of those of you who have spayed your kittens have any of you had an IV administered and do you feel it helped.

I have had many cats throughout my life and all have been spayed or neutered. Norvy was just nuetered yesterday (he is 4 1/2 months old). Never once have I had a vet ask me if I wanted my cat to have an IV. Norvy definitely hasn't been slowed down. He was neutered and declawed (due to medical reasons) and has been up and going all day (surgery was 1pm yesterday). Even climbing his cat tower to the top to sleep (5 1/2 feet)! I have been feeding him his wet food only today with lots of water in it to make sure he does stay well hydrated though.

Neutering is much less invasive as Im sure you are aware. Don't by any means let your girl bounce around after her spay.

Nel was spayed 2 months ago and it took her a good week and a half to fully recover. They gave her IV but didnt ask if I wanted it or not.

I am aware, I was just speaking of Norville as his nueter was yesterday. My Mia and Autumn never had problems either. They moved more slowly but were up and around the next day and my vet  never said otherwise. Within 3-4 days I would say they were their old selves. I never kept cones on my cats either and my vets never suggested them which I know some do.

In my experience, it is customary for the cats to have an IV catheter inserted in order to administer fluids during surgery or to have access to the vein, shoud it be needed.

I suppose I would ask the vet if your girl would get different pre-op/post-op meds with/without the IV. I ALWAYS make sure fluids are given (as well as pain medication.)

@miaNnorvy I am sure it is not in Norvy's best interest to be allowed to climb the day after being declawed. He is likely to rip open the wounds on his paws and could cause injury to his paws as well.

Yes, I didn't plan on letting hi. I went out to get the mail and when I came back in couldn't find him. I had a pallet made for him that he had been comfortably resting on. I have a very small 1 bedroom apt. but I have a 5 1/2 foot cat tree near the front window and he was at the top curled up in the sun enjoying looking out the window. Has been a little sore but acted no different really than usual. He and Mia are curled up giving one another their morning groomings right now.     We get up between 4 and 5 am daily here.  lol

So there are risks involved either way on the fluids. It all depends on your vet Most important thing to ask is if they monitor blood pressure

What can happen during a surgery is that one of the drugs used will lower the blood pressure and when that happens the cat will get not get enough blood flow to their kidneys and do some damage that may or may not show up right away or even years down the line. Many things can lower the blood pressure, cold, the surgery itself, some of the medications used as a pre anesthetic, the gas anesthetic itself is the most hypotensive agent used in anesthesia. So, it is very good if not mandatory that animals get these fluids during their surgery and until they are awake. In reality they should be given the fluids before during and after. With the blood pressure being monitored the flow of the fluids can be adjusted to compensate so if the blood pressure drops or starts to drop you not only lower the gas anesthesia but you increase the drip of the fluids among other things.

If they don't monitor blood pressure and they are not competent there are down sides to IV fluids and they are always technical errors. The most common fluid fluff ups I saw working in a specialty hospital was cats being overloaded on fluids. So lets say the cat is on IV fluids at a certain rate of oh. lets say 12 millaliters per hour=12ml/hr. So the surgery rate is much higher than that but you have to also remember that every animal is an individual and there is never a one size fits all. The other area I have seen people mess up is when prepping the animal for surgery they often do not have the iv line going through a pump and just try to gestimate it by the drips and all of a sudden they have bloused 100 mls while they weren't looking. Fluid volume overload causes congestive heart failure and I have seen many cats succumb to it.

Kidney disease is also very real and I have seen cats die from their blood pressure being to low during surgery. It just is usually a couple of months down the road they go into renal failure.

Remember that the most common time for anesthetic deaths is in the recovery stage so make sure you know that they will be watched afterwards.

If it was my cat I would do the fluids.

I was looking at the vet paperwork and it said she was born May 24 and she was 4 months old not 5 as of 9/27 when the old owner brought her in for vaccinations (she was originally going to keep her, but her other two cats didn't take to her well). Any ways, since she is so tiny I'm going to wait a month like the original vet had suggested to give her time to put some meat on her bones. I'm just afraid with her small size she will have issues with the procedure. Thanks again for all your responses.

Sounds like a plan. Plus, she can use that time to get acclimated to you and her new home before surgery. =)

CatPack said:

Sounds like a plan. Plus, she can use that time to get acclimated to you and her new home before surgery. =)

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Very true, but from the look of it this morning before heading to my office she seems to already be acclimating her self very well. Since I brought her home last night, she ate, played, cuddled, slepted in her kitty bed, climbed her kitty tree and used the litter box twice oh and gave me kitten kisses this morning on my nose