When can a cat roam safely after abdominal surgery?

Hi guys,

Sorry if I sound rambling but I'm still in a bit of shock... we have this young female stray who visits us regularly, she's had two litters of kittens at our place already. After the first time we were considering neutering her but it never came to that. This time she had two healthy kittens but developed complications; I rushed her to the vet and they operated on her straight away, removing her womb and everything. She now has a large row of stitches down her belly.

it's been 10 days since her surgery and she's convalescing just fine, touch wood, but as she's stray she constantly attempts to sneak out and take her kittens to her hiding place which is under the roof! For this reason I keep her and her kittens in a huge, spacious, well-aired clean cage. My question is: when can I finally let her out? I let her out a little already every day just to let her stretch her legs but the moment I look the other way, she tries to climb the roof. When I'd had the same surgery I didn't do any exercise for a month but I'm not a cat, see Can someone please tell me how I can look after her and when is it safe for her to finally roamon her own?

Thank you very much!

Fresie

You should check with your vet about this, but what my neuter/spay vet clinic says is that females need TWO WEEKS before being allowed to climb and run and jump after a normal adult spay surgery.  These vets do not use external stitches so there is no stitch removal required, but if yours has external stitches they need to be removed before she goes anywhere.

Also, in this case you have KITTENS to consider also, so again my opinion is that she should not be allowed to take the kittens anywhere.  You need to raise them as domestic, not feral kittens, so with human care and handling, they will be adoptable when the time is right.  Wild-raised kittens do not make good pets, they make good feral cats.  Do you have a room you could dedicate to her and her kittens for the next six weeks or so?  The kittens are probably at the age where their eyes are just opening and they should have no bright light at that time (cover the cage with a sheet if it is open to the light).  In a week or so they can have normal light but not when their eyes are first opening.  Most mama cats have them in some sort of cave-like environment if they are living in the wild.  Somehow they know.

If you could set up a guest room or study with her food & litter in separate corners and then set up a bed quilt or sheets on the floor of the closet (not towels, the kittens' claws get caught in them), that would be ideal.  Let us know how this is going, and by all means don't let her take the kittens anywhere.  Be sure to handle the babies at least once a day so they will get used to the smell of humans and will learn to be domestic.  Almost all feral-born kittens will make good pets if raised by loving humans.

Thank you very much!! I really appreciate your detailed and helpful reply. Yes, both the cat and the kittens are in a nice quiet room in an enormous cage with plenty of room for everything and I did think that too much light might be harmful so I made sure it's not too bright. I already raised her kittens the same way last year and afterwards, I gave them all away to some very nice people from our neighborhood. They were socialized and potty-trained. I'm going to do the same this time. She doesn't have much milk so I feed the kittens as well with special baby kitten milk.

I've relieved to hear that she should have more rest. She hates it :-)

Thank you very much!!

If you can play it safe, do so, take every precation.  But as a rule of thumb, succesfull homeless has an immune system better than average, and also, healing meat better than average.  Tey must have, otherwise they would perish and not be any longer with us...

And thus, their convalescent time is usually shorter than wit your average home girl.

So if in dire necessity, you can usually let them out earlier.  But if you CAN manage things, take all the precatutions you can...   Including keeping charge of the kittens, as you apparently can.

StefanZ said:

 
If you can play it safe, do so, take every precation.  But as a rule of thumb, succesfull homeless has an immune system better than average, and also, healing meat better than average.  Tey must have, otherwise they would perish and not be any longer with us...

And thus, their convalescent time is usually shorter than wit your average home girl.

So if in dire necessity, you can usually let them out earlier.  But if you CAN manage things, take all the precatutions you can...   Including keeping charge of the kittens, as you apparently can.

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Thank you very much, Stefan! That's a relief to know. I'll probably keep her in for a bit longer, then. She doesn't seem to mind that mich, she purrs almost all the time and seems very relaxed and content.

Thank you very much, guys!

Fresie said:

 
Thank you very much, Stefan! That's a relief to know. I'll probably keep her in for a bit longer, then. She doesn't seem to mind that mich, she purrs almost all the time and seems very relaxed and content.

Thank you very much, guys!

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Who knows, you perhaps find in the process she is a good candidate for fostering into a home cat.

When they are sick, and get help by humans, the Window of easy fostering, which they normally have as small kittens, this windows open up again.   And as she was with you quite a long time now, it had the time to work....

Usually its no big problem to foster their kittens, mom allows it.  But its not always the mom wants to be fostered.  Here perhaps she too will accept this process.  

Thank you very much, Stefan! This is very good to know. She's feral but she's also very submissive. I think she's probably been abused at some point. But hopefully she'll realize she's safe at our place.

Thank you very much!