Encouraging weaning

[lauraloulouie]

We are fostering a nursing mom with four kittens—our first foster litter. The kittens will be nine weeks old this weekend and mom is still nursing them a fair amount. We would like to get her spayed soon and the vet has advised us to begin separating her from the kittens to encourage them to finish weaning so that she can be spayed. While they are fairly independent, she still sometimes gets agitated if she doesn't know where they all are so I'm worried putting them in separate rooms is going to upset her.

I had assumed mom would lead this process but so far she hasn't really been kicking them off the milk bar and the vet seems to think they will keep nursing forever if allowed to. They're eating well, so it seems to be mostly for comfort at this point. We're not in a super hurry, as we're adopting mom and two kittens and my in-laws are adopting the other two, but we would like to get mama spayed while the foster org will still cover it.

I guess my question is, to anyone with experience fostering litters, do you usually have to encourage the weaning process along like this or is it best to wait until the mom decides she's done?

Cute kitten photo just because.

 

[Willowy]

Many cats keep nursing after being spayed. . .is the vet not willing to do it?

 

[Sarthur2]

I had my cat spayed when her kittens were 8 weeks old and she continued nursing for months - I think mostly for comfort as her milk slowly dried up. Does the vet want her fully dried up before spaying?

 

[lauraloulouie]

Yes they want her fully dried up before spaying — I am unclear whether that's a "must have" or "ideal but ok to do it either way."

 

[Sarthur2]

You would need to ask your vet. I can assure you that vets frequently spay lactating cats. Some charge an extra fee though.