Why Not Spay?

hi, as some of you have already read, im getting an 8 month old cat tomorrow. she has been very well taken care of by her current owner who has to give her up because they are moving and cant take her. the current owner is a vet tech, who raised the cat from 3 days old, has spoiled her with stuff and affection. the only thing is this lady has not gotten her cat spayed and i cant think of a reason why not. especially working at a vet's office. i dont want to flat out ask her for fear of offending her. i know she had no plans of breeding or showing the cat and the cat has always been in very good health.

does anyone here have a cat that they havnt spayed or neutered and if so what is your reason? (besides wanting to breed or show it) thanks.

julie

Congratulations on your new little one, Julie, how exciting! I'm so glad you're making the wise choice in having your little girl spayed once she joins your family!

Since tcs is a cat welfare site, we strongly advocate spay/neuter. With the exception of our breeders, you'll find that the vast majority of us have our cats fixed and recommend that others do the same.

Well, as for a good reason, I don't know any. But there are a lot of reasons.

If she is a generally responsible pet owner, takes care of her pets, has them vetted regularly, etc, then it probably isn't the most often couldn't afford it or never got around to it excuse. She also probably knows all the arguments for it, so it isn't just honestly not knowing.
If the kitty has a serious allergy to anesthesia or something, she would have told you.

So, the only other reason I can think of is the moral one. Some people believe that we should not have "dominion over animals" that is, we have no authority to force pets to be spayed or neutered. My high school boyfriend's parents felt this way, they had a dog who was not spayed and so, had to wear these crazy diaper things when she was in heat. They were very "free-spirit" types I guess you could say.

I'm sure there are other reasons too.

You can find alot of things online that argue against spaying/neutering and such, and you can also find alot of things about how the argument against declawing will somehow devolve into believing that we shouldn't spay/neuter, or that if it's okay to spay/neuter then it should be okay to declaw...
Take it all with a grain of salt.

I've never seen an argument against spay/neuter that was based on anything but the person projecting their human experience of sex / child-rearing on their animals. None of them want what's best for both the pet and cats and dogs in general.

in my opinion its a cruel thing to not spay or neuter and force an animal to live that way. talk about sexual frustration and the health problems and stress it causes (assuming they arent having litters all the time) luckily my girl is still young and probably wont suffer any from living this long without it being done.

It can actually be very harmful to not get your pets spayed. I know I waited 6 years to get my cat shadow spayed (misguided sense of protectiveness I guess you could call it) and she got pyometra (sp?). She survived, but the vet had to remove her entire uterus.

There can be good reasons not to spay - I know that (at least some) vets advise against it if a cat has specific kinds of heart conditions, and I would imagine there are other possible health conditions that would make spaying very dangerous.

Please just ask the woman. Be as tactful as you can, but ask. You want to make sure that there isn't a medical reason that the cat can't be spayed.

Originally Posted by ShadowBaby

It can actually be very harmful to not get your pets spayed. I know I waited 6 years to get my cat shadow spayed (misguided sense of protectiveness I guess you could call it) and she got pyometra (sp?). She survived, but the vet had to remove her entire uterus.

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My understanding is that in a spay, the vet normally removes all the reproductive organs; did she get pyometra after the spay?

No no, she started having foul smelling stuff on the carpet, so I immediately went to get her spayed. Normally I'm guessing the vet I went to just removed ovaries for spays, but her uterus was so puss filled and deformed that he had to remove that as well (during the spay).

Spays are a complete removal of the ovaries and "uterus"-- cats don't have the same anatomy as us, it's more like a tube that can expand alot than it is a uterus the way humans have. They snip it close to the vagina and sew it off, and remove the entire reproductive system.

Yeah I meant to edit that after doing a quick search. I must have just misinterpreted the vet because of the emphasis he placed on removing her puss filled uterus

It is possible for a cat to get pyometra after having been spayed. It's called stump pyometra because the small "stump" of the uterus left after a spay can still become infected. Just a teeny bit of overlooked uterine tissue can do it.

Originally Posted by Satai

There can be good reasons not to spay - I know that (at least some) vets advise against it if a cat has specific kinds of heart conditions, and I would imagine there are other possible health conditions that would make spaying very dangerous.

Please just ask the woman. Be as tactful as you can, but ask. You want to make sure that there isn't a medical reason that the cat can't be spayed.

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i know there are no health reasons (in this case) not to spay because the woman was telling me about a low cost clinic she knows of should i choose to have the cat spayed after i get her. and since she told me that, she must not be ethically against spaying. so i really have no idea why she hasnt had it done. thats why im just so curious. maybe i will ask her tomorrow when i meet her and the kitty in person. at this point im guessing that maybe she just doesnt view it as a priority. im not trying to be judgemental about her i just really want to know hehe.

Well a vet tech should be mosr responsible. But it could be that she just hadn't gotten around to it yet. It's not like the cat is 8 years old and she never had it done or something. 8 months is older then the ideal age to spay but at least she is still a kitten.

you are probably right jen, now that i think of it, she has probably been very busy getting ready for the move! she is moving on saturday! im sure she meant to have it done which is probably why she mentioned that clinic to me

Maybe she is just the kind of person who spays later than 6 months - bizarre as a vet nurse, but at least 8 months is still young enough for you to do it with little health issues (althoguh I would check her nipples when seh gets to about 10, if she has already come into heat once)

You definitely need to ask her about it in case there are any health reasons why she's delayed it. It's not an offensive question at all - no reason why she should mind you asking. And dont forget to come back here and tell us all what her answer is!

I think it would be remiss of you not to ask.
You're taking on the responsibility for this cat and need to know everything you can about what has gone on in her life. Just bring it up when you are going over her medical history and getting copies of any available veterinary records.

so is 6 months the idea time to spay/neuter? i know it is for dogs, but when i adopted a kitten (this was over 10 years ago) they neutered him before i brought him home, he was somewhere around 6-8 WEEKS old. and talked like that was the standard age to have it done. i think thats why i was wondering so much about it.

Originally Posted by jaycee

so is 6 months the idea time to spay/neuter? i know it is for dogs, but when i adopted a kitten (this was over 10 years ago) they neutered him before i brought him home, he was somewhere around 6-8 WEEKS old. and talked like that was the standard age to have it done. i think thats why i was wondering so much about it.

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I would consider four months a more optimum time than six. By six months many cats will have come into heat for the first time.

is there health issues if the cat goes through a heat cycle before being spayed?