How long to heal after spay surgery?

Hi everyone!

I just wanted to be prepared ahead of time. Twinky has her appointment to get spayed next week. I was wondering what should I expect when she returns? How much discomfort will she be in? How can I help to make her feel comfortable? How long before she is feeling better? Also, should I use a special litter after the surgery or is the clumping kind ok?

Oh, on another post, I aked if an overnight stay is necessary and got great responses. After discussing it with my vet, I reluctantly decided to leave her overnight......due to staying calm and still after surgery and also because I'm a little weary of Snuggles and if he'll try to play when she's not feeling well. I think I'll be more upset next week than anyone else.

Thanks for all your advice to come!
Liza

and she has never been away from you, once she starts feeling better, expect her to be kind of distant to you. This is routine and part of the shock factor of being alone in a cage overnight and being poked and prodded and operated on. When she does come home, put her in a room by herself, check on her alot so she doesn't feel abandoned, and if you can't do that, leave a night light burning and some soothing music playing low. Make sure she has good food to eat and plenty of water, and you will notice she will have lumps around her incision, perfectly normal, but what you don't want is drainage coming from it, she may be lethargic for a few hours, but she should rebound quickly. Thank you for being a responsible pet owner and getting your baby spayed.

Liza-
For the most part, she should act just like she normally does. When I took my kitties to get spayed and neutered, they were up and about playing as soon as we brought them home. She may just want to lay down though and rest. As long as she stays overnight at the vet, she should be pretty much rested up. She shouldn't be in that much discomfort unless she tries to pick at the stitches and hurts herself. Make sure that she doesn't rip them out because that could cause a lot of problems.

Sarah

I've just had my cat spayed. She came home yesterday... she's been very quiet ... should i be restricting her from any activities? the vet said that the pain-killers last for up to four days... does any one know if she's in pain? i really hope she isn't. How can i tell if she is?

Yes she is in pain. Try to limit her from jumping up or down. It's hard, I know because all they do is want to jump around. It's good that you got pain medicine our little girl didn't have that. Maybe she will have an easier time if she has some kind of pain relief. My thoughts are with you and your baby. Give her extra TLC over the next couple of days.

My Cooper was spayed in December...... I had to lock her in the bathroom in order to get her to calm down.......

She wanted to be active and play with us, even though she was in pain.
She popped a suture in the process!

After about a week of quite rest she was back to normal (minus her shaved belly and e-collar she had to wear!)

No worries, just keep your little girl quite, warm, and comfortable.... she'll be fine!

Cooper was spayed thread

Thread about Cooper poping suture

I got my cats spayed at the same time. I went to visit them later that night after they had the surgery. I am glad I let them stay at the vets that night. Those cats were in another world :laughing: The one that is always affectionate looked like she was having a bad trip and the one that is not affectionate couldn't get enough petting. I went and picked them up the next night after work and they were acting pretty normal. Once they got home, they pigged out and everything was back to normal. I had to go by some of those collar things to keep them from licking and had to seperate them because of rough play many times.

They hunch their back or they may lift their butt up in the air with their "elbows" on the bed/sofa when they're in pain, poor things. This pain seemed to be mostly on the second day, and not after. I just got the little girl kitty (2-3 yo) that I'm taking care of spayed. She belongs to a friend of a friend, but due to circumstances friend's friend had to ask me to foster her boy and girl cats. I didn't feel that I could afford the pain meds in addition to having Millie spayed. She actually hit under a couch for about a day and a half, which is because she's naturally a little skittish and also she had just gotten to trust me over the month I've been caring for her, and then I made her get an operation. It took a couple days for her to get used to the cone, and a couple days for me to figure out the best way to grab her and get the thing on her. You have to immobilize them by grabbing them by the scruff of the neck, like their mamas did when they were babies. It's been a week, and during that time I only took the cone/collar off first thing in the morning and when I got home at night from work, just so that she could groom. I watched her like a hawk and redirected her when she got near the site of her stitches. I kept the cone on her at night, knowing I couldn't watch her. There shouldn't be any swelling or pus, signs of infection, but on the second day I did see a bit of a bump at the spot, but it didn't look inflamed. There's a little bit of what looks like dried blood/a scab but it's a small and neat, and seems to be where the stitches are (they're dissolvable--thank God I don't have to catch her and get her back to the vet. She's a speedy kitty and realy flies around the room). I talked to a vet assistant who said you can use a warm moist (not hot) washcloth on their tummy to sooth them, and it helps them heal. She had her operation last Thursday, and now it's Friday a week later. She's had the cone off for a couple hours, and I'm thinking I can probably leave it off when I leave for work. To add to the drama, her brother has been spraying in the house due to all the stress. Argh! What a pair, or a trio, if I count myself amongst the troublemakers.

I have never tried to restrict the activity of a post-spay kitty. I figure she knows what hurts, I don't interfere. If they stay overnight, usually they're back to almost-normal by the time they come home. Sometimes I'll bring them home the same day, and they're still dopey from the anesthetic. In that case, I usually keep her in a carrier or small room until she recovers, so she doesn't fall down the stairs or anything. An older cat will visibly be in pain for a few days, but a kitty under a year old usually shows no signs of pain.

Younger cats appear to be fully healed after 10 days, healing time for older cats varies depending on how old she is and many other factors (like how many litters she's had, etc.).

I've never had a cat pop stitches from too much activity, but one kitty did bite about half of her stitches out before I caught her at it. I put a band-aid on the incision, put a tube sock around her belly so she couldn't chew any more out, and that took care of the problem. Other than her, I've never had a cat try to remove her stitches, or used anything to prevent it (like an e-collar or tube sock). I feel that e-collars cause too much stress, and stress prevents healing, so I won't use one unless absolutely necessary.

I love the tube sock idea!  Lily (7 months) was spayed on Friday....yesterday evening she ripped her stitches out....I took her to the vet this morning....they put glue on her and put her in an ecollar.  She hates it!  She continually cries and when I came home from my Dr appt...she had the darn collar off.  I put it back on...but was afraid to leave her again for fear of her getting the collar off.  I'm so happy to hear about the tube sock...I'm going to try it now!  Thank you!!