What will my kittens go through during spaying?

Originally Posted by Petnurse2265

We do not send home pain meds with spays (or antibiotics). We use a narcotic pain med in the (butorphanol) in the pre-op injection that lasts about 4 hours, we also use Metacam injectable in the pre-op which is a non-steroidal anti-inflamatory which is slower and, longer acting (about 24 hours). We have not had any complaints (from either our 2 legged or 4 legged clients. All of my cats were done this way and I did not see any pain issues after their surgery's.

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We certainly didn't see any sign of distress in Mika so you must be doing something right.

My Kittens go off tomorrow one to be spayed and the other neutered. I have no idea which view my vet takes, but I will definately be asking! Thanks for all the useful information. Do you think there is anything else I need to prepare for them to come home? They are both staying over night. I will be closing all the interior doors to limit their movement and moving the litter box up stairs to prevent them from going down stairs. I have a feeling my male will bounce back sooner, so I will have to watch out for him being ready to run all over and her not.

Originally Posted by HappyViking

When I asked my vet's tecnichian about pain meds, she said that they prefer not to, because it makes the cats run around more because they can't feel the pain. If they are not on pain meds they will take it more easy which will be better for healing.
What are your thoughts on this? I don't want my cats to be in pain, but I want them to heal up well though...

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I tend to agree to a point, yes the should be comfortable (not in excessive pain), but you can't explain to an animal that they just had major surgery and if the run around like normal the could slip a ligature inside and bleed out. So a bit of pain to let them know they are over doing it is a good thing. If a clinic uses a good pain mangement before and during the surgery then things should be good.

I have to amend what I said earlier,we do prescribe pain meds with major surgery's such a TPLO's which involve sawing through bone and resetting it at a correct angle.

Originally Posted by MrsFishy

My personal opinion is that letting them suffer in pain to keep them more subdued for healing purposes is cruel and unfair. If you have to, you could even confine them to just 1 room so they don't have free, open running/jumping spaces.

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You are SOOOOO RIGHT!!!!! I was "spayed" years ago and it hURT! My Kotton was given Torbulgesic (sp?) and confined to a room for a few days. She also got the lazer spay and has healed nicely!

Thank you all, you have been most helpful!! I think I'll definitely ask for a sedative to give at home before we leave, to ease the stress before they go under. I'll also ask to get something to have ready for pain, if it seems like they need it. Maybe I'll have them on a small amount of pain killer so that they will have some relief but not completely pain free, to keep them from overdoing it. I'll have to reread these things and think it over.

While I have not had a hysterectomey, I have had a tubal ligation, and knee surgery, and did not use pain meds for either because I did not like the way they made me feel.

I am not suggesting they be inb pain per say, I am saying that they should be able to feel pain if they overdo it. I could take some Tylenol or Ibuprofin to take away the active pain in my knee, but If I then went out and decided to jog a couple of miles that I normally wouldn't do, my knee would start to hurt again because I over did it. Laying around the house resting they should not be in pain, but jumping off of furniture (even beds and couches) is the things to avoid because it cause the abdomen to stretch out.

I have to agree with you Petnurse. I had a hysterectomy and was up and rolling up the head of my bed within 1/2 day while the lady beside me moaned, whined and complained bitterly. We all definitely have a different threshhold for pain and should be treated accordingly, but I prefer to be in a little pain than out of my mind and not able to let my body tell me if I'm overdoing something.

Pain meds have their place of course but I feel the same way that if you can't feel the pain because of the medication, there is a great chance of overdoing things and making yourself worse.

When my mom was dying of cancer I was glad she had pain meds to ease her pain, but my husband and I are very wary of taking medication unless it's absolutely necessary.

Each person must do what they feel is best, but if you medicate a kitty I would monitor it very carefully through the night.

Spaying a cat is not exactly the same as a hysterectomy on a person. It is the same procedure, of course, but cats have a much more resilient physiology and their smaller body size makes the procedure much faster and easier. A very skilled vet can spay a female cat in 7 minutes. I don't think any MD surgeons would ever do a hysterectomy in that kind of time!

I have seen lots of cats go through spaying without any pain meds at all and they typically act like they do not feel well for about 24 hours but are back to running around and playing just like normal after that point. In contrast, a woman who has a hysterectomy will typically not be able to return to normal activity for several weeks after the procedure.

Kittens by nature want to run and play and will often do so even when they are pretty seriously sick or injured. It is very important that your cat is comfortable enough that she wants to eat and can sleep comfortably, but she also needs to know that she just had surgery. If it does not hurt when she runs and jumps, she is at risk for hurting herself. Pain isn't fun, but it is a valuable tool and teacher.

When Amber was spayed I asked our vet about pain meds to take home for her but our vet said as some of the others here have explained, kittens will try to play vigorously even after surgery unless there is something to discourage that behavior--and sometimes pain is the way to discourage it. I know that sounds really really harsh and unfeeling, but how would you feel if you'd just had your kitten spayed and given enough meds that she wasn't feeling any pain, and then she ran and jumped and played so hard that she tore out her stitches or worse?? She could suffer a VERY serious injury that way, and certainly nobody wants that! As it turned out, Amber was pretty quiet the first night home, but not crying in distress or anything. Next night, whole nother story. She started playing on the chair-rails on the chairs around our dining-room table and we caught her LYING FACE-DOWN and ROLLING OVER THE RAILS ON HER BELLY!!!!! EXACTLY where her surgery had just been done!! I was petrified that she was going to rip out the stitches or have a horrible gaping wound or get a humongous infection or SOMETHING absolutely awful, but guess what? She was fine--she was having herself a great time and didn't hurt herself one bit!! Her recovery was over UNBELIEVABLY fast!! And there was not even the slightest bit of a complication from any of it. Remember--sure we feel like depraved and evil monsters for putting our babies thru all this but we AREN'T. It's just because we hate to think of them suffering. I would NEVER have put my own baby thru this if I hadn't felt deep in my heart that it was the RIGHT thing to do--and besides if I didn't do it within a couple more months the animal shelter where I got her was going to TAKE HER AWAY FROM ME--seriously!!--and back to that awful shelter which is NOT, I regret to say, a no-kill shelter. I absolutely was not going to let that happen--she was mine, I was already in love with her, and I was keeping her!!! Well, sorry, I think I've kind of rambled off course as usual. Basically, I meant to say, please don't worry about your babies, they'll be fine and they won't suffer any long-term trauma--and actually you know it cuts their risks for certain kinds of cancer later in life. Truly!! Cats are very resilient little critters and you'll be amazed how fast they bounce back. (Like my Amber bouncing on her belly just two days after surgery--unbelievable!!). She looked kind of like this, BTW: She's even about that color!! So please--your furbabies are in good hands and they'll be fine--and you'll feel good about 1) no caterwauling and 2) no pet overpopulation from your kitties! Good luck and God bless!!

Sorry, just one important note I forgot to add then I promise to shut up! Yes, thanks for your vigorous enthusiasm. I forgot to say what else my vet told me when I asked for pain meds for Amber after her spay. The vet said there was another problem with sending home pain meds, even mild ones--that you can never predict exactly how a particular animal will respond to any given drug. Pain meds that have worked great on hundreds of cats could unexpectedly (and tragically) have an unexpected SERIOUS reaction in a cat. In the hospital that's not such a big worry cause the cats are supervised and vets can make emergency interventions. But if something like that happened at home.....would you really want to risk it??

Cats also have very delicate systems when it comes to meds, their liver and kidney's don't tolerate a good many of the ones we could easily send home with a dog. Alot of the pain meds that do get sent home with cats are narcotics, which means a controlled substance, which also means that if the owner gave a dose but then decided a little later the cat was still in pain gave more you end up with a chance of over dose. Not every owner is as informed as the people on this site try to be, and some would re-dose the cat in a heartbeat because they think the cat is still in pain. My cousins cat was sent home with pain meds after her spay, and the cats reacted badly to the meds. The next cat that she needed neutered she drove up to me in Denver (she lives in Albuquerque) for my clinic to do ( I also got her a discounted rate and she was coming to visit anyway).

Just wanted to let you know that the vet sent home something called Metacam (or something like that) that is an anti-inflamitory that she said also helps with pain. When they gave it to me I remembered that they gave me the same thing when Isaac got neutered.

That is what we are using in our Pre-op protocol, with wonderful results.