Is it normal for a cat to be in "heat" after being spayed?

[kutubira]

So I finally spayed Sakız. 

Her last heat period was fierce for me. She woke me up at night, she had this hideous meowing instead of her normal soothing meow. 

I got her spayed 1 month ago, I think. Maybe 3 weeks.

She started to show the same behavior as she did before being spayed. She does that hideous meowing again. She elevates her bum when being pet, which is all the time because she puts her head into my hand whenever she sees my hand open. She won't leave my side. If there is a door between me and her, she starts the hideous meowing again. When I left the house, I was still hearing her voice. Considering there is some construction going on in the street, that should give you an idea.

She normally warns you by taking your hand and putting it down when she has enough of petting, but this is not the case for the last 2 days. When I pet her a little rough (normally I don't, because she would react appropriately), and then put my hand away, she's like "Get that hand on me right now". Unbelievable. 

Although this might be me, but I think she started to eat more. Like doubled the amount. 

 

[denice]

It isn't 'normal' but it does happen.  If some tissue from the ovaries was left behind then she will continue with the hormones that leads to 'heat' cycles.  I think even the very best vets have had this happen.  They can draw blood to check for hormones.  She may need to be re-spayed.  When this happens many vets don't charge for the re-spay.

 

[kutubira]

While waiting for an answer in the forum, I told about this to a friend, who luckily happened to about to go to the same vet. 

He first finds out that the vet who operated on Sakız no longer works there. Then he finds out that there were complications during Sakız's operation, which were not mentioned to me at all. Then the owner of the vet tries to reach to the vet who operated on Sakız. She is nowhere to be found. Then the owner asks to meet me so that he can amend this. 

The "complication" is that, the operation was only partially done. Sakız still has her ovaries. Mind you, not residues of ovaries. Two, perfectly healthy, happy ovaries. With no uterus. And I remember that she told me that she resected a part of the uterus and two ovaries, which was the normal procedure. So Sakız could have conceived and then died. 

Yep, you got this right. The complication was that, there was no proper operation. The effect of the anesthesia on her, how she was not herself for 2 days and how she was cross with me for a week and just sitting at the corner of the room and looking at me like "You cheating filthy human, where is my parts and what this scar is about". All these was for nothing. And she failed to mention this to me.

I guess Sakız's behavior is very normal. 

Is there a medicine or other solutions to make this go away? I haven't talked to the owner yet, but he told my friend that we should wait for 2 months for another procedure. 

And although Sakız is at the top of her cuteness, that is just too much to handle lol. I don't think I have sufficient level of English to describe what she's doing. She is full of love right now. She's showing affection to anything. I mean anything. "Hi dear piece of paper, sorry for tearing you apart a while ago. You look nice btw". "Hi book. Don't you look sexy with all the knowledge you contain?". "Mister Pillow! You look cuddly". "Kutubira, how about you pet this piece of beauty some more?". 

She sleeps in my bed and I am not allowed to move. If I move, she wakes up, meows hideously, makes me pet her, then goes back to sleep, until I move again.

 

[catpack]

I'm so sorry to hear Sakiz's surgery was botched! I am not sure you have a national veterinary board in your country, but the vet that peformed the surgery and the vet clinic shoukd be reported and the vet fined. If you lived here in the States you could sue the clinic for malpractice and get a full refund on her first surgery and also get a second surgery free.

Unfortunately, there isn't any medication that will make her ovaries just disappear (how wonderful if this existed!)

I suggest locating another clinic with a good reputation. Get a second opinion on when surgery can be done.

 

[catwoman707]

Cats in heat are enough to drive you crazy, that's for sure!

But the way her surgery was done, most definitely should have been explained to you right then. Not find out the hard way by your cat being in heat again!

She will need a re-spay which will take care of this.

 

[kutubira]

@CatPack, I did not mean a medication to make her ovaries disappear  

Is there not any medication that could comfort her through these days? A temporary solution I can use until I get her spayed for real this time?

The last time her "heat" took 6 days and I don't think I can handle another 6 days. I can tolerate everything and pet her every 2 minutes (That's not a burden at all lol), but her new meowing... The moment she does not see me, she starts that. I wonder what she does when I leave the house. 

EDIT: Another question. How long is the time between two heat periods generally? 

 

[denice]

Unfortunately I don't know of any medications that can stop heat cycles.  Some breeders in Europe use a type of birth control pill for their kitties but I don't know anything about it.

I know you aren't going to like hearing this but cats can cycle in and out of heat pretty quickly.  There can be as little as 2 weeks between heats.

 

[catwoman707]

 
Unfortunately I don't know of any medications that can stop heat cycles.  Some breeders in Europe use a type of birth control pill for their kitties but I don't know anything about it.

I know you aren't going to like hearing this but cats can cycle in and out of heat pretty quickly.  There can be as little as 2 weeks between heats.

Exactly.

The cat who I had to have re-spayed was in heat for 5-7 days, then off for maybe 10-14 days, it was ridiculous.

It happens, no fault of the poor kitties either

 

[Willowy]

Yeah, cats cycle in and out of heat frequently, until bred or spayed :/. You can get her a progesterone shot or pills, but those have risks too. Did the owner of the vet clinic offer to do the operation for free? I really think he should.

Hysterectomy (removal of uterus only, as opposed to the usual ovariohysterectomy), also known as a partial spay, is not very uncommon among large dog owners. Because it's not good for a large dog to lose her hormones at too young of an age, but they still want to prevent pregnancy. This is OK with dogs, because they have distinct heat periods only twice a year. It's not so OK with cats . Perhaps the vet was more accustomed to working on dogs and had been trained in the partial spay method. At any rate, it's not dangerous for her, just annoying for you! I hope you can get something done about it soon.

 

[kutubira]

@Denice, I saw your post. But I was expecting another post from you saying "Joking, she'll do it twice a year and you're going through the second one." It did not happen. So...

Let's see... The vet told my friend to wait for 2 months. Let's assume the worst and say he meant two months from now on. 8 weeks. 1 week is the heat period. 2 weeks (if not shorter) are the non-heat periods. I'll have to go through 3 more heat periods. Damn. I imagined myself and Sakız holding a gun, playing Russian roulette. Of course Sakız was being flirty with the gun. 

Nothing helps. It's 2 a.m. here and see what I am doing. Little bugger will sleep in the morning, I'll go to work. Then I'll be back with depleted energy while Sakız will eagerly be waiting, energetic, ready to meow. 

I tried to close my door. Did not help, because even Sakız didn't know how loud she can be. She discovered that behind my door. Also she learnt how to knock door. She knocked the door. 

I put her into a room away from me. I thought maybe she'd think I left. But no. She got a whole new level of loud. There are neighbours so that did not work. 

At 1 a.m., I played with her. Threw a piece of paper around, ran with her. We both got tired. At least that was what I thought. 

I played guitar to her. That calmed her down. But as soon as I put the guitar away, she started again. 

Now I'm hoping I just pass out. 

The vet (the owner of the shop, not the one who got kicked) told my friend that he'd repeat the procedure at no charge, so that's a plus. 

EDIT: @Willowy

She had kittens. Does that change anything?

 

[Anne]

The good news is it should be easy to fix since her ovaries are whole. It's actually worse when they accidentally leave a piece of tissue that can be extremely hard to locate and still causes a heat cycle.

I would pressure the vet into doing the surgery sooner. It's possible to do repeat surgeries for all sorts of things so I don't see the point of waiting for so long. Not when it's making you so miserable. I think you should call him yourself and explain the situation. Have him explain exactly why he wants to wait for so long.

Until then, ear plugs! 

 

[kutubira]

I just returned from the vet. 

Because both of us processed the news, it was a nice conversation. The owner told me that he learnt about this incident yesterday when my friend asked about Sakız to him (My friend told me that he genuinely learnt that while they were there). He offered to pay for the operation since he is not specialized in pets. He'll call someone from the municipality who does this kind of operations.

I did not have any sleep last night. So I asked if the operation can be done earlier than 2 months. Again, he told me he's not specialized in pets so he called a friend of him, who is specialized birth and a published author. I do not remember his friend's name. He told us that the operation can be done 20 days from today. He said the parts that the 'vet' removed held ovaries in place, so it would be hard to find them, so the operation might involve more anesthesia than usual and her kidneys would not compensate for that these days. That sounded logical to me. So we'll wait for 20 days.

I asked him about how I could make Sakız shut up. He told me about cervix stimulation. Basically you make her think that she actually mated. How do I do that? By a cotton swab. I'll stimulate her for one minute and she'll calm down for at least 15 days. Normally that would be longer but we're in March, so... 

Do you think I should stimulate her using a cotton swab? 

 

[donutte]

I'm actually questioning whether or not they removed everything with Pea-Pea after reading this. I'll have to go back over the paperwork and see what it says. I can't imagine it would have been done on purpose. But I swear she acts like she's in heat almost perpetually. Not quite as raucous as she was when she did have her heat, but all of her body language and what-not, still the same. Even others have commented how she acts like she's in heat. But because she's like this EVERY SINGLE DAY I'm thinking it could just be that she has a slinky personality.

I swear she also tries to come on to my kittens sometimes though. Thank god they are neutered and look at her like she's crazy when she does that. I'd be freaking out otherwise.

 

[kutubira]

This is the third time I am experiencing her heat. The first one was very silent and cute. 

All three had one thing in common though. She gets flirty with me. She wakes me up by gently stroking my hair or my facial hair. She cannot keep away from me more than 2 minutes. She has to touch. She has her big black eyes whenever she looks at me. She jumps on me if I am sitting or lying. 

So when she woke me up gently, I suspected something was going on. But she is a cat, so why would you expect her to act in any way? She does what she feels like. Then the bum started to elevate as I pet her. I was petting her neck, and bum was going up. But when the cute meowing was replaced by something I don't want to call meowing, I was sure. 

In our case, it was definitely intentional. I mean of course the vet opened her up with the intention of removing it all, but here we are. 

I swear I could live with this if her meowing was slightly resembling her usual meowing. But no... She has to do that new sound. I've never been more miserable and trust me there are so many miserable moments in my life. And I can't channel my anger somewhere. The old vet is missing, the vet I talked took full responsibility and then some, so I had to leave that place thanking to the guy keeping my anger inside, Sakız is just doing what her nature commands her to do. Yesterday night, I grabbed Sakız to put her away in another room and she stroke my beard. I accepted the fact that I won't be sleeping and put her down. She started to "meow" again. I... Guys I am miserable.

Question stands: Do you think I should stimulate her using a cotton swab? 

 

[catpack]

I do NOT recommend you stimulating her. If you want to opt that route, you would need to seek out a *neutered* tom with experience in mating (typically an ex-stud is your best option.)

 

[denice]

I too don't think this would be a good idea.  I have heard of some experienced breeders doing this but I think they are in the minority.  A breeder knows a lot more about how to do this safely.  I think your best bet is to try to get her spayed sooner.  

 

[talkingpeanut]

So sorry you're miserable but definitely don't recommend stimulating her. There is a large risk for infection and injury.

 

[catwoman707]

I agree and would NOT recommend stimulating her.

 

[kutubira]

So what should I do? Putting her on another room doesn't work, petting her doesn't work (well she starts meowing as soon as I stop petting), closing myself to my room does not work. Nothing works.

I haven't slept yet. 

 

[Willowy]

Maybe a heat pad for her tummy? Sometimes they feel a bit crampish and like a heat pack. My first cat would quiet down a bit if we put her in a dark room. Is there a room you can put her where you can't hear her, so you can at least get some rest? Don't worry about her feelings too much----you need some sleep! Or you could get earplugs or something like that. Hopefully she'll come out of the calling stage soon!