Rough month--that's pretty much the gist of it. I saw some things that most of us don't, and I'll probably see them again. We're pretty much all in agreement that TNRM is the way to go with managing and caring for stray and feral cats, but like everything else the practice is messier than the theory. And the actual mechanics of TNRM can be pretty disturbing.
Those of you who know me know I work as a post-surgical recovery volunteer at The Cube, the Philadelphia SPCA's facility for spay/neuter surgery for stray and feral cats--I've been doing this for one group or another for almost five years now, but I still see and learn new things. Not all of them are pleasant.
The Cube's OR is set up to do two spay surgeries at a time--neuter surgeries are done in the pre-op area. Our primary vet is Dr. R. Muraka, known to those who watch "Animal Cops: Philadelphia".
A few weeks ago two surgeries were going on; a newly-minted vet was doing a spay/abortion surgery on a cat in a very advanced state of pregnancy while Dr. Muraka was preparing to do a routine spay surgery.
Now here's the deal--when pregnant female cats are spayed the kittens do not survive. I know a vet who attempted to save some kittens on the verge of being naturally born who swore she would never do that again after only two survived--I was there when those kittens were initially revived.
When a pregnant female cat is anesthetized for surgery, the anesthesia usually kills the fetal kittens. We see the fetal sacs being removed, but the kittens inside them are already dead. Ugly, but nothing to be done about it.
When Dr. Muraka opened his cat he discovered that she wasn't breathing and began a frantic effort to rescussitate her--it didn't work and she died on the table. The vet doing the spay/abortion surgery stopped to help him, leaving her cat with the fetal sacs removed but the surgery incomplete. The cat was in a very advanced state of pregnancy and the anesthesia did not kill the kittens--they died, but only after being removed from the cat. I saw the sacs move.
Just prior to giving birth, those fetal sacs join into what looks like a sausage and then the kittens enter the birth canal one after the other. Two weeks ago we removed "the sausage" from a pregnant cat. The individual kittens in that "sausage" had to be euthanized by individual injections. I watched that being done.
During the Civil War, most Americans had heard of but never seen elephants. Combat veterans from that war describe going into battle as "Going to See the Elephant". Me, I saw "The Sausage". And I'll probably see it again....
Those of you who know me know I work as a post-surgical recovery volunteer at The Cube, the Philadelphia SPCA's facility for spay/neuter surgery for stray and feral cats--I've been doing this for one group or another for almost five years now, but I still see and learn new things. Not all of them are pleasant.
The Cube's OR is set up to do two spay surgeries at a time--neuter surgeries are done in the pre-op area. Our primary vet is Dr. R. Muraka, known to those who watch "Animal Cops: Philadelphia".
A few weeks ago two surgeries were going on; a newly-minted vet was doing a spay/abortion surgery on a cat in a very advanced state of pregnancy while Dr. Muraka was preparing to do a routine spay surgery.
Now here's the deal--when pregnant female cats are spayed the kittens do not survive. I know a vet who attempted to save some kittens on the verge of being naturally born who swore she would never do that again after only two survived--I was there when those kittens were initially revived.
When a pregnant female cat is anesthetized for surgery, the anesthesia usually kills the fetal kittens. We see the fetal sacs being removed, but the kittens inside them are already dead. Ugly, but nothing to be done about it.
When Dr. Muraka opened his cat he discovered that she wasn't breathing and began a frantic effort to rescussitate her--it didn't work and she died on the table. The vet doing the spay/abortion surgery stopped to help him, leaving her cat with the fetal sacs removed but the surgery incomplete. The cat was in a very advanced state of pregnancy and the anesthesia did not kill the kittens--they died, but only after being removed from the cat. I saw the sacs move.
Just prior to giving birth, those fetal sacs join into what looks like a sausage and then the kittens enter the birth canal one after the other. Two weeks ago we removed "the sausage" from a pregnant cat. The individual kittens in that "sausage" had to be euthanized by individual injections. I watched that being done.
During the Civil War, most Americans had heard of but never seen elephants. Combat veterans from that war describe going into battle as "Going to See the Elephant". Me, I saw "The Sausage". And I'll probably see it again....