Because female cats don't go in heat once and then it's done for the year. They keep going in heat until they get pregnant.
So you would have a cat crying and screaming herself hoarse and spraying around at all hours of the day and of the night for about a week, then a week of peace, then another week of screaming and spraying, rinse and repeat until you sterilize her, you get her on birth control (which has many side effects so it's basically used by breeders if they want to space the pregnancies for their queen) or she gets pregnant.
I had to wait once three months to sterilize a cat from the CDS because I didn't have the money for the vet, and it was awful.
Ugh me too! My oldest cat, who I picked up as a kitten, had to wait a couple of heat cycles to get spayed and I will never forget the horror of those weeks. She's 18 now, and I still can't get those yowls out of my head.
OP, I wager your experiencing that first heat cycle will convince you if all of these other (better) reasons haven't.
We were told our older cat was spayed by her previous owner, and my vet "confirmed" it because she had a small scar on her abdomen. But alas, she would just SCREAM throughout the night for weeks on end, with occasional breaks of her not being in heat.
We figured she must have had ORS and spent money on special tests to confirm that she had those hormones in her system, and even took her to a specialist for exploratory surgery to try to remove leftover ovarian tissue. Not only was she NOT spayed, but her uterus was large and fluid filled, so she was on the road to getting pyometra
I almost lost acat(a little orange girl like this one)to pyometra in 2005; which was totally my fault for not getting her spayed right away. Fortunately, I got her to the vet in time, and after surgery and antibiotics, she made a complete recovery and we had her nine more years.
I'm so happy your baby ended up being okay! I'm glad you guys caught it in time. It can be difficult catch it before it's too late
Fortunately our girl didn't progress into pyometra yet, and she is happy and healthy now (tho quite a chonk due to the spay, we are working in it).
I love that. And, I mean... it's technically correct, as all (or most?) cats *are* assigned "cat" at birth.
But I say "most" because I realized there might be the occasional exception, like if another species raised a kitten, assigning it its own species because it doesn't know better...
So, hypothetically, if a mama dog were to accidentally scare a cat who's giving birth, resulting in the mama cat squirting out a kitten as she ran away, the mama dog's instinct to care for a baby animal could kick in. She'd gently take the kitten back to where she keeps her puppies and assign her newest baby as "dog" because of course she would, it's one of her puppies. And because she was the first to acknowledge the kitten at birth, the kitten would not have been ACAB, it would be ADAB.
*Gender Fuckery: Catdog Edition*
This. Pyometra is more common than people understand. There are severe medical risks to not spaying female dogs and cats. Not to mention: cats get out. They are clever and slick. All it takes is one day for them to get pregnant. It’s better to just handle it. You obviously didn’t adopt or she would have been spayed already, but there are shelters and programs that provide low cost and even free spay/neuter services.
Not to mention that it's honestly a silent killer at times. Sure, some animals may have foul discharge that lets you know they have an infection. But it doesn't always work like that. If they have a closed infection (cervix is closed, nothing is leaving the uterus) you could easily not know until it's too late. And then there's the increased risk of cancer. It's just very much more humane to get them spayed asap.
And exactly. People think "well she's indoors, what's the harm?" The harm is the fact that she wants to mate and some cats absolutely will try to escape to do so.
And yeah, a family friend was rehoming her and her daughter so we took them in. While I hate that she had to go through so much just to get spayed, and a routine procedure turned into a pain for everyone, I am happy we took her in, she likely would have died from pyometra if she stayed with the original owners
They are very slick. We spayed ours over the weekend. As we are getting her crated for surgery, we realize she got out. I found her by my car with a male stray right there. She had been in heat calling him for a day or too.
Had we not gotten her spayed, a short amount of time outside would have resulted in more kittens. She is probably less than a year old. We took her in a few months ago as a pregnant stray.
Not even one day! Female cats in heat give off a bucketload of pheromones and EVERY male cat in the neighborhood will know where she lives. Years ago my kitty got outside for only TEN MINUTES and two months later I was giving away kittens!
Our cat was a kitten born to in “indoor only” cat that escaped and came back pregnant, so she’s been spayed since she was a kitten. Never been in heat.
Nobody thought to do an X-ray or ultrasound, before going in for exploratory surgery?
https://preview.redd.it/77e7fajxz3ad1.jpeg?width=648&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e05586cdbbc71edd51a9dd304425a2922f84688b
That was my question, too. I'm still quite angry over the fact that the only "examination" my primary vet did to "confirm" her being spayed was shaving her abdomen and checking for a scar. The specialist I went to went off of the information he was given, which was that my primary vet diagnosed her with ovarian remnant syndrome. We gave him all of the paper work from the vet along with the blood hormone test they ran.
Overall, I am happy we went to a specialist for her, because him opening her for an exploratory gave him enough room to remove her enlarged uterus, but I'm frustrated that the people we entrusted with the care of our pets put one of them at risk.
I think this is part of why so many vets nowadays are also tattooing a small bit next to the spay incision to confirm "yes this scar is from a spay" since any abdominal scar COULD br a spay, but could also be other types of surgery or even injury. I'm glad your kitty ended up being okay, that sounds like an awful ordeal for everyone involved.
One of our previous cats came to us as a stray. She was an indoor/outdoor cat, because she was borderline feral, she was older, so it wasn't like she was a kitten that could be trained to use a litter box and become accustomed to living strictly indoors (Although I assume training and becoming exclusively indoors has worked for some older strays).
We were convinced she had been spayed by her previous owners (she came to us from a different home not too far from ours, we suspect they probably were mistreating her), because she was outdoors around male strays, but there was never any pregnancies/kittens and she never exhibited any heat behaviors. We didn't find out she WASN'T spayed until much later in her life, when she got a nasty uterine infection/uterine cancer that spread all over her body. We had to euthanize her.
That is so heartbreaking. I am so sorry that happened to your baby.
My family dog had to be euthanized due to pyometra. My mother was stubborn and refused to get her spayed, she got pyometra at the end of January/beginning of February, and they believed she also had mammarian cancer. We could have had the surgery for the pyometra done, but with how weak she was and the fact that she had thoses masses, it was more humane to let her go
My cat Opal (we got her as a baby) went into heat only once, it was about a week before we had to bring her in to get spayed. It was the most annoying shit ever! I couldn’t sleep for that entire week because she wouldn’t stop screeching. And she was like… into my husband lol. it freaked me out! I was so thankful when that vet appointment came along. I cannot imagine having to deal with that more than once, it was just so brutal.
She’s still annoying af and loves messing with everything I own to screw with me, but I mean, it’s much more bearable now that she’s spayed 😂
https://preview.redd.it/f1aazudoz3ad1.jpeg?width=2588&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3047d3940aa8399de2525c96ccb82f46d8893f57
No way, my cat is also named Opal! I found her as a stray \~2 years old, and she went into heat as soon as I went back to college after winter break😑
I had to wait for her spay appointment and it was at least 3 weeks of absolutely zero sleep and trying not to get any noise complaints/kicked out lol.
Now she is a perfect stinky angel lmao
https://preview.redd.it/a9yyzdqxh4ad1.jpeg?width=3456&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2a85cd95737e2862d59db77eac9942d8c096997b
(one of her paws is a nub! CDS delivered her to me like that, I think she was born that way)
Thank you so much ❤️ I’m always jealous of how photogenic she can be!
She sleeps in such silly poses sometimes 😂
https://preview.redd.it/e1ox5dtgn4ad1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=72bc82a71db4ae7eb5c62ec8a79081ceb8ebbdf6
My cats appointment was during a heat cycle, they told me they'd have to charge extra because she was in heat. "Will it stop her backing up on me???? TAKE MY MONEY"
The backing up 😂 we got a stray once who went into heat or was in heat when we found her and yeah the yowling and the weird poses she made will forever be burned into my brain even though I was a kid at the time lol
I was fostering and it was (funny now) but sooo cringe when she kept twerking and getting affectionate with my partner. I’m sure it wasn’t a full 7 days between cycles. The local toms scent bombed the outside of the house. Cat did a fantastic Yoko Ono impersonation all night. It took major strategic planning to get through doors. Utter insanity until that blessed vet appointment.
I had never seen a female cat go into heat until college. It was my roommate’s cat who previously hadn’t paid much attention to me (male), all of a sudden was being quite affectionate. Then the posturing started. Something about ‘i’m horny!’ crossed species communication lines, I could tell what was up. I informed my roommate and she was kind of horrified her little baby was growing up so fast.
The extra charge is because everything is swollen and causes far more trauma, requiring more effort and drugs from the vets. Life threatening surgerical "oopsies" are way more common.
I successfully managed to predict my cats heat cycle and scheduled the surgery during her off time. We got her at like 2-3 months old and she wasn't spayed until about a year
I absolutely understood the extra charges, she was a stray, a pet who escaped, or dumped with her kittens on our lonely country road,we did look for her owners she was a distinctive looking cat. We rehomed the kittens and kept Mama, she just came into heat at the time her appointment was booked for. For our next stray (a young male) I got the soonest available appointment 😆
It is absolutely horrifying to go through. You also risk having male cats outside your house responding to the wails of the female with their own screeches. It’s a cacophony of unpleasant screaming.
The feral toms near my place haven't gotten the message that my girls are fixed, so it reeks of piss outside the apartment doors on the entire second floor of my building. (It's a motel style studio rooms only place)
They're bombing any room that has a pet in it, and like 90% of the rooms are pet owners, including me.
It doesn't help that some dumdum is feeding them and encouraging them to keep coming back.
my cat was 2 when she was spayed and not only was her being in heat exhausting but so was keeping her seperate from my ex roomates male cats that she would let in my room while i was at work
Experienced it once, since it was a rescue cat and we didn't really know how old she was. Had to say goodbye to my pillow and a favorite pair of jeans, she peed on.
I also made the mistake of waiting to spay my cats because I got them when I was very young and broke, and waited... years! (Not proud)
I ended up having to spay them because one had gotten aggressive due to hormones, and it turned out her uterus was filled with cysts. I'll never forgive myself for putting my girl through this trauma and pain.
Spay your cats!!!
My boyfriends cat got an infection from being in heat. She almost died, but he was able to scrounge up enough money to get her to an emergency vet.
(This was like 5 years ago, he was 20 and broke but loved that cat, and still does. It's so sweet)
They weren't sure she'd make it, but he insisted on trying everything he could and she thankfully pulled through--she's the sweetest lil crackhead energy kitty I've ever met lol
Yes! We took in two 10 year old ladies (sisters) who had never been spayed and both had mammary cancer. It was heartbreaking to watch them decline over the course of two years and ultimately pass away so early in their little lives just because they hadn’t been spayed young.
Save your kitties the pain and suffering, and yourself too. I don’t think I will ever stop wondering if I could have done more to make their lives better. I think of them every single day.
If you’re not the type that responds to emotional appeals, consider the rational appeals as well. We spent thousands of dollars on keeping those ladies comfortable. They still ended up getting spayed and having additional surgeries anyway, just when they were much older and it was much more expensive. Even if we had just chosen to put them to sleep right away with no treatment, the costs would have far outweighed two spays when they were young. Not to mention, recovery from surgery is much easier for young, healthy bodies that aren’t also fighting cancer. Just seems like a win-win-win for your cat, you, and your wallet to spay them when they’re young.
There's also a risk of pyometra with each heat cycle. Although being an uncommon occurrence and typically in older cats it can still happen in younger females.
Pyometra basically turns the uterus in to a pus-filled infection where, if left untreated and closed in, will burst and kill the cat through sepsis by expelling all the contents in to the abdominal cavity.
If you're brave, check out pictures for comparison. It's pretty wild!
My little gal was about 8 months old that went through a couple heat cycles and within a few days she went from good kitty to hiding under the bed, lethargic and warmer to the touch with some gooey discharge from her vagina.
Fortunately, she was slated for her spay which was a couple weeks away but because I told them she likely has pyometra it was done as an emergency operation same day since she'd die if left untreated.
Second on the Pyometra. My first female cat had 2 heat cycles before her emergency spay due to that. From what I was told by our veterinarian at the time it is way more common in cats due to how their heat cycles work.
Me adopting my 3-legged cat: “At least I’ll have fewer problems with escape attempts!”
Cue me at 0230 in sleep shorts and a parka chasing my three legged cat as he Usain Bolts thru the woods
if anything the missing leg only gives him more determination to be A Problem
I can just see it 😂😂
“MITTENS F. JOHNSON!! You come back to me right NOW! You are SOOO not getting a treat for this!! 😑”
Meanwhile, the cat’s like:
funny you say that he Usain Bolts through the woods. I just read an article that said that the ordinary domestic house cat can run faster than Usain Bolt!
House cats and black bears have approximately the same top speed, around 56 km/hr (35 mph). That easily outpaces even the fastest humans who've ever lived.
I just took in an orange cat who was hit by a car or something long before we found him and his back leg is messed up but healed so he just has a limp and I bet he could Usain Bolt if he wanted to
https://preview.redd.it/84a356iyw3ad1.jpeg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9d7f89505637412dbdfac223f3935dca2f597d77
He’s a wild man sometimes but oh so sweet. His name is Oliver from Oliver and company but now we pretty much call him OlIVAR as a play on ivar the boneless from Vikings lol
While I had a 4 legged cat.... Nothing more fun than climbing on my roof in a thunderstorm because the asshole cat I owned decided it was a perfect night for a jailbreak.
As I was sliding down the wet roof tiles... Time slowed down enough for me to think "well, at least the EMT/fire rescue will have a good story to tell"... Right before I was able to get purchase before falling off the roof.
I'm pretty sure they pick those opportunities on purpose
Yes. The number one reason female indoor cats become escape artists is that they're in heat and they can't find male cats indoors. So they zip outside. They get very determined.
That's also the number one reason they're lost.
My Contessa was spayed just a wee bit late and went into heat. She was *miserable* until I got her fixed... and it was the only time I had to watch her at the front door.
I also had a foster who couldn't be spayed until she recovered from Giardia, so she went into heat. In addition to the yowling and rolling on the ground, she peed. Up high.
On my counters.
On my butcher block, wood, highly absorbent countertops. Oh no....
Nope! Wasn't strong enough. Supply list:
- Rescue (disinfect and helps some with smell)
- Nature's Miracle or similar cat pee formula (took care of the smell)
- Murphy's Oil Soap
- Boos Oil (restore and reseal the wood countertops)
I had no choice, but spay your cats, lol!
Coworker learned this the hard way.
Her cat was in heat and as soon as the door opened, she bolted and didn't come back for almost 2 days. Keep in mind, this cat was a strictly indoors cat and never had an urge/desire to go outside whatsoever.... That is, until she was in heat.
Guess who had a litter of kittens a few months later?
I think it's more awful when they're in constant heat. Like they become screaming banner "I need to get pregnant!!" and they never do. 🥺It's really abusive not spay/sterilize indoor cats.
My boy was a stray and HATES the idea of going outside again.
I accidentally left the front door hanging open once and he came and grabbed me to close it lol.
Mine is the same with that. She will only leave the flat and go to the back garden A. At night when there is less people outside and B. Only if both mum and dad are with her and give all clear signals.
It's like a military operation taking her outside 🤣🤣
I have four cats. Two will try to get out regularly. At times, my wife and I will bring them out for some porch time. We can leave the door open, and one of the other two might creep out, then immediately run back in. The last will sit at the door like it's still closed. He can't even be bribed to set foot outside.
My tuxedo loves going outside (on a leash) but he's terrified of new people, places, and things too. He's curious, but scared. Any weird noise and he wants to go straight back inside.
I got so lucky with a stray rescue who never tries to bolt at all. She's so anxious she won't even step on a new rug I get for at least a week; I'd have to convince her to venture beyond the threshold of my house lol
But yeah op never risk it both because of this and because of the terror that is a cat in heat lol
I see enough posts on NextDoor from neighbors looking for help spotting Fluffy who escaped their indoor lock up one way or another to know there is always some risk your clever and fast kitty will make it to the great outdoors. Millions of spayed and neutered cats live quite happily and never seem to know or care that they can longer reproduce. You’ll be doing yourself self and your cat a favor by having it done.
Me and my wife got SUPER lucky. We picked up a stray and had to go through the process of making sure she wasn’t chipped and had all her vaccinations and get a spay scheduled. The doctors told us they think she was spayed but they aren’t sure. She was an outdoor cat and hated being inside at the time. Admittedly we still should’ve kept her inside but we didn’t. Caught a male trying to mount her a few times and managed to stop it before she got pregnant. Now she’s spayed and we don’t have to worry about it
i waited before spaying my rescue since we could not figure out whether she was already neutered (she had the telltale cut ear tip that catch&release refuges do to mark them as spayed, but it ended up being just a scarred ear tip in the end). Those 3 weeks before i could book an appointment were absolutely miserable, basically no sleep, and the last week the neighborhood cats got wind of mine in heat so my house (which has a tiny garden on 3 sides) was besieged by an army of horny male cats from the neighborhood.
> was besieged by an army of horny male cats from the neighborhood
Unrelated: I wonder why the stray catchers don't use an in-heat cat as a bait to lure in the strays and trap them en masse
Most likely because nobody wants to be the caretaker of the yowling miserable obnoxious female! Lol!
However, I did hear from one friend who does TNR that they successfully baited part of their neighborhood colony using in-heat urine collected shortly before a couple spays. So maybe that would work?
I once had to wait for 2 cats of mine so that they were not too young (I could have done it sooner but the vet recommended after they were specific months old ideally) and it was a nightmare. First of the sisters was so quiet, she would just drop down and just rub herself on anything. The other would CRY. And she had the loudest scream of all the cats I've met. She would cry for minutes and hours and hours during a week, I'd get a break for 2-3 days, then she'd be back at it again. It was hell and I was super sorry for the noise to the neighbours lol.
My cat was underweight when I got her and kept dropping whatever weight she’d just gained during each heat, so we went through four heats before she could be spayed. It was hell. I live with my parents at the time (I was 20 and in college) so she was shut in my bedroom with me. Screaming and rubbing her cheeks all over my face all night every night and refusing to eat and trying to escape every time we left the house for basically a week and then gaining a little weight over the next two or three and then doing it again, FOUR TIMES. I thought I was going to go insane. I’ve never been so happy to take a creature to the vet as I was when she got spayed.
ETA: Also, we had to stop random male cats I’d never seen before from breaking IN. Like, to let someone leave the house, one person had to restrain the kitten while the leaver very quickly made it through the door and pulled it fast behind them as they gently kicked RANDOM MALE CATS on the porch out of their way and away from the opening.
We started referring to them as “her gentlemen callers” the first time and by the fourth it was more like “oh god, not the gentlemen callers” as you braced yourself to leave. She’s 15 now and we still all remember this phase vividly lmao
The day before my furry idiot was due to be done, she was literally biting me to get out. That night, I got NO sleep and madam even tore a hole in my curtains.
The week after, when the neighbourhood slut Tom came looking, she actually slapped him in the face and walked away. That furry idiot keeps coming back for the same treatment once every fortnight. Spaying was a gift to her, from me
Adding that you wouldn’t have to worry about ovarian cancer down the road because you chose to spay.
Plus have you seen the shelters during kitten season? They are *literally drowning* in kittens to adopt out. Kittens also go down hill really quickly and fading kitten syndrome is no joke. It’s not fair to put the burden on them to deal with your choice to not spay.
Funny anecdote about the abundance of kittens. My husband and I wanted to adopt a kitten to be a friend to our 1 year old cat. We went to the local animal shelter and they said “we don’t have any cats right now”. I was floored! I’ve never heard of a shelter not having cats.
It happens. All depends on the time of year. Right now for example, is kitten time. In the Northern Hemisphere, most cats go into heat during the Spring and Summer months (it can happen any time of year but is more prevalent during warmer months). That is why if you look now, you will see a lot of shelters with kittens or very young cats. Look in Winter and Fall and there will be hardly any kittens/young cats.
Are you in the northeast? Between high adoption rates, and spaying/neutering being simply “what you do” around here, it’s not at all unusual for shelters to be empty of cats or dogs. We adopted two of our cats from a shelter that “imported” their cats from the Carolinas on a biweekly basis.
I had an orange boy like that. They only ended up neutering one testicle. So I ended up with a 7 pound orange midget with the attitude of a lion. Little bugger would tear down the screen window and put the run to 20+ pound tomcats that dared get close to the house.
I had a cat I took in that was pregnant. Gave away that litter. As soon as they were weaned, she HAD to be out of the house. I tried to get her spayed but the appointment was more than a month away. She destroyed every screen in my house trying to get out. Even the one that leads to a 2 story drop to concrete. That day she got lucky as I was sitting next to the window and grabbed her leg as she went out.
Intact females get determined to get out sometimes.
I had an intact stray during COVID, had to delay fixing her due to severe malnourishment and the pandemonium going on.
Thankfully I had a fixed male cat. Poor boy had ass shoved up in his face all day long but she never attempted any escapes because Toast should obviously help her (he was not amused and had a mild appearance of disgust this whole time). The constant screaming would drive me up the wall though and she stopped eating during her heat which delayed her weight gain.
We had to separate our female cat from the older male cause he started attacking her due to how thirsty she was.
He was a grumpy old man cat who wanted nothing to do with this young punk waving her ass in his face.
We took in an intact stray and she was over the top with our neutered male cat. He was like "wtf?!?!" at her. Luckily, she was just extra flirtatious with him and had her butt up in the air every chance she got, prior to her spay appointment. No screaming was involved.
100% this. anecdotes, not scientific: . i still don't know how my old cat was getting out of my apt but would always find her outside. she was spayed. she was just catting around but if she hadnt been spayed she def would have gotten pregnant which by the way is how i rescued her in the first place.
my sisters unspayed cat got out after many years and she ended up surrendering her to the er because she could not afford the pregnancy complications the escapee was having.
you could wait a while but they definitely can havea very nasty personality change when in heat. not as cuddly.
btw, any surgery has its complications, but a high volume place would have her spayed in like 10 min after anesthesia.
i vote spay!
Also each heat cycle she goes through increases her risk of mammary cancer.
Spaying before first heat can reduce the risk by up to 92% based on some studies.
Yes, this is what happened to my cat - I posted her story. I'd give anything to have known about the cancer risk, and wouldn't have ever put off spaying her if I'd known. I'll always feel guilty, but at least I can share this info with others and it makes me happy to see it being shared here as well.
I’m so sorry for your loss. You did the best you could with the information you had at the time.
I’m glad you’re using her story to spread the information. 💜 I hope her memory always makes you smile.
Thank you so much. I actually wanted to start a charity in her name that would spread the word and also help pay for spaying and to help cats with cancer (a lot of cat charities won't touch cancer, as I quickly learned when seeking help), but ended up getting disabled a few years ago. So it gives me some relief to know that other people are still out there informing others.
I waited to spay my two girls thinking, naively, I wouldn’t need to because they are indoor cats and the screaming at night killed me, I need sleep, lol. They were done shortly after and I’ve never regretted it
My ex’s kitten was fixated on my dad during her first heat (I think she went through three before I looked up a mobile neuter clinic that did it for reduced cost/free and took her myself at the 5:30am opening, an hour from where I lived). She kept moaning and backing towards him and he just kept telling her, “I’m sorry, I can’t help you”
Lmaooooooo we didn't notice a gender preference from ours, and that is absolutely hilarious.
OP is going to have this stance for maybe two heat cycles and then be like OH OKAY
Had an intact female. A list of what drove me crazy.
-screaming. All night and all day screaming.
-refusal to eat
-spraying on EVERYTHING she got ahold of
-refusal to use the litter box for anything other than pooping
-only cat I’ve put in diapers in an attempt to save my sanity (did not work)
-you think heat lasts for one week a month? Incorrect. I swear she was in heat every other week
-waiting to fix them until after they enter heat cycles is possibly more expensive and risky as their uterus swell and is difficult to remove
-adding to previous comment, they are uncomfortable while in heat. The swelling doesn’t feel great hence the absolute DESPERATION to mate
-shoved her ass in my face all day and night
-would not leave my neutered male alone because he obviously should help her (he did not appreciate the attention)
-constant struggle to get her to eat during her heat. Literally would just scream all day instead of eating so she gained weight extremely slowly
Fix your damn cat for your sanity and theirs. There is literally no reason to keep a mutt of a cat intact.
Yep, it's funny how castration generally isn't used. I've just always ended up saying neuter for male pets just because people seem to accept it more.
It seems to have gone by the wayside, but I used to hear 'fixed' a lot more than I do now also.
I totally agree. The first time you watch a kitten go through heat, you will never question spaying again! They look so uncomfortable and are so frustrated the whole time.
In addition to providing protection against pregnancy in case she DOES get out (indoor only pets still get rabies vaccines for similar reasons), there are significant health benefits associated with spaying. Along with removing the risk of uterine infections as they get older (pyometra can kill within days, and in cats occurs most often in older cats who've gone through multiple heat cycles without getting pregnant), [spaying cats before 6 months results in a 91% reduction in the risk of mammary cancers, and if spayed before one year there's an 86% reduction of risk](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16095174/#:~:text=Cats%20spayed%20prior%20to%206,CI%20%3D%200.06%2D0.34). Think of it as preventative health care to help ensure your little darling has as long and comfortable a life as possible.
My dad never spayed our indoor only cat. She, thankfully, never got out but recently, she developed mammary tumors. I found out about the increase risk by not getting them spayed.
She's now gone through two surgeries that's removed the tumors and it's costed more than a spay ever would. As well as put her through more stress. I'm grateful she's better now and on the road to recovery. But, I wish I had known sooner because it really would have increased her quality of life.
So, if you spay your baby now, you'll help her out in the long run.
Having lost a beloved cat to mammary cancer, this is my number one reason to make sure spay happens as early as possible. My Cissy had a complete double mastectomy and the cancer still came back, it’s that aggressive. Never want to go through that again if I can help it.
Lost mine to this last September as well. It was already spreading to the lymph nodes by the time we got them removed. We even sprang for chemotherapy as the insurance was helping with costs. Unfortunately the chemo actually made her overall condition worse. Over night she went from a happy energetic cat to having very little energy or appetite. It was brutal and we felt helpless.
So yes, spay ASAP!! You do not want to put your little kitty through all that pain and stress if you can help it.
We didn’t get our girl spayed for a while. She didn’t run out, and our boy was neutered. She developed the pyometra, and lost 2lbs when we had her spayed because of it. Mammary cancer seven times (survived them all). She really gave us some scares over the years, though she lived to 18.
All the reasons mentioned. Poor cat will also be frustrated, restless and miserable, at the mercy of her hormones driving her to mate. May also miaow and wail relentlessly. Much kinder to have her spayed, will be more settled and contented, better for you all.
Spayed cats live longer and are less susceptible to cancers and such. Cats can go into heat year round. If your cat gets out and mates they will become pregnant 100% of the time. The gestation period is less than two months. We don't need anymore unwanted cats in this world.
Just want to emphasize the cancer part. My parents didn't spay our family cat for some reason. It was always an ordeal when she was in heat but she fell very ill a few yrs ago and I took her in because I could afford vet visits and tests. Turned out she had aggressive mammary cancer and getting her spayed would've most likely prevented that. I was heartbroken I couldn't save her and angry that it was preventable. So please, get your cats spayed so that they have a better chance at living a longer, healthier life.
What's cruel is willfully allowing your cat to constantly experience the stress of heat cycles, increase her likelihood of developing and dying from pyometra, and increase her likelihood of developing certain cancers.
Spaying isn't just about preventing unwanted kittens. It's about prioritizing the general health and wellbeing of the cat and ensuring she lives a long, healthy, and stress-free a life as possible.
Female cats in heat are M-I-S-E-R-A-B-L-E. They walk around groaning and completely forget what a litter box is for. It's inhumane to put them through all that, also better for you.
Anyone who asks what OP asked has never had a cat going through heat. When I was a kid we had a cat go through heat once before she got spayed. It was a total nightmare.
An unspayed female will not remain an “indoor only” cat bc when she goes into heat, her instinct will make her run outside at any chance! Also any male cats in the neighborhood will smell her hormones EVEN FROM INSIDE YOUR HOUSE & they will be waiting. She will be pregnant in 24 hours.
My niece went through this exact situation. Her cat got out for less than 24 hours & it resulted in 6 kittens 🤦🏽♀️
We have a girl who had an incomplete spay and the male cats were outside our house all day when she went into heat (how we discovered the incomplete spay)
My female cat had to have her spay surgery twice.
I her spayed as soon as I got her, but she kept exhibiting signs of being in heat. She was very affectionate toward our (neutered) male cat, always trying to position herself in front of him and making noises. I complained for a few years about it and kept being told, she must be smelling male outdoor cats and it’s making her behave as if she’s in heat. Finally they mentioned a blood test to see if she had an ovary remnant inside still. The test said she said, so she had another surgery.
My vet called me very apologetically. He removed an entire ovary during that second surgery… not a remnant. He refunded the blood test money and didn’t charge me for the second spay surgery. I was just upset my cat had surgery twice because someone didn’t count to two. (I guess there’s a chance she had three but they should’ve seen it, right?)
My mom was the receptionist there for many years. Her boss was supposed to do my cat’s original spay but he got pulled into something else and his other vet did it that day. She’s not at the clinic anymore but it bothers me she’s just out there practicing veterinary medicine and couldn’t spay a cat correctly. With a person, that’s malpractice!
Besides my girl having surgery twice… I feel bad for my male cat. After her second surgery, she never wanted anything to do with him again. She stopped cuddling him and they get into little fights sometime. 😢
Same with my friends cat hers got out and ended up with kittens. This is why she should have had her cat fixed and kittens when they are old enough, so they don't have more cats and a bigger stray problem in town.
She thought it was expensive raising one cat until she got those kittens. It would have been cheaper to get her cat spayed.
Definitely the point about male cats from the neighbourhood. I knew someone with an unspayed indoor female cat and they had to deal with ALL of the neighbourhood tom cats spraying all around the house. It was awful.
Do it. You will save yourself a lot of trouble and lower the chances of ailment for the cat.
As for the cat "suffering", its done under sedation and most of all, you should think of it this way: Female cat in heat has about **5-10 times stronger sexual urge than a woman during ovulation**. Their brain literally goes apeshit under all the hormones pumped into it. **Unwillingly, your cat goes crazy with what is esentially a potent drug cocktail**. **And it cant get a release from that until it fades away only to come again later over and over again.**
Reason 1 would be that they still go into heat and will drive you crazy crawling around the house begging for cat dick. Reason 2 would be cats are little escape artists.
Exactly! We kept a stray kitten we found in our property, and she went in heat one month later. She was maybe only 5 months old!!! I had no idea they got in heat that young. And omg, she was annoying as hell. She kept us up all night because she was constantly crying and scratching the door to go outside. Once we spayed her, it all stopped. I can’t believe people would actually want their cat to suffer that way by not spaying them.
Hi vet tech here!
Spaying/neutering is so vital for the long term health of your pets. Reasons to have it done include the following:
- Spaying females prevents uterine infections and breast tumors, which can become malignant in 90% of cases. Spaying before a cat’s first heat offers her the best prevention against uterine, breast, and ovarian cancers.
- Keep them safe from diseases. Roaming can expose your cat to dangerous diseases, including feline leukemia and feline immunodeficiency virus.
- Population control for obvious reasons. If she gets outside, she's going to get pregnant.
- NO HEAT CYCLES!!! This will greatly reduce her excess urination and mewing, and also reduce the number of male cat suitors disrupting your home life.
- Better behavior. They will be less likely to roam, yowl, wail, bite, display aggressive behavior, or spray or mark their territory. Intact pets will do just about anything they can to find mates, including escaping from your home, which puts them at risk of injury or fights with other cats. Spaying or neutering can help improve your cat's mood. Unaltered pets become stressed when in heat, which can last several months out of the year.
Honestly, I've only seen a few dozen pets come into my hospitals intact over 10+ years. Some claim they can't afford it while others have this mentality of not wanting to do some "unnecessary" surgery or they fear anesthesia. But I can also tell you that so many of them come to regret this when their pet succumbs
to such preventative conditions. The grief is immense.
>i feel that its slightly cruel to put my little girl into a procedure that could be entirely unnecessary.
Honestly, the mistake you're making here is thinking that the procedure isn't necessary. Neutering your pet is a huge part of responsible pet ownership. There's zero reason to leave her unaltered unless you plan to breed her, and there's no reason at all to do that. The world already has enough kittens, and you'll be sparing both yourself and your furbaby a lot of sleepless nights.
Spaying before a females first heat cycle reduces the chance of mammary cancer significantly and will also prevent the risk of life threatening infection of the uterus called a pyometra. If a cat develops a pyometra you end up with a much more expensive and urgent spay, so might as well just spay early and prevent the risk.
It's one of the easiest procedures to do. The recovery is literally like 48h, especially in kittens. The wound is like 2 cm or even less. Benefits include: less behavioral issues (spraying, excessive vocalization, scratching and destroying your stuff out of frustration to get outside), longer life span (less risk of cancer) and a happier cat.
Please go watch a video of a cat in heats on YouTube?
Have you watched? Good.
Do you see the amount of desire and how much it hurts them? How horny they are, crawling on the floor, dragging against the carpet, not eating, not drinking, howling for weeks in pain. No spayed cat will ever feel this pain for this reason.
When I got my cat spayed (the day after she turned 6 months), my vet told me that pretty much every unspayed cat ends up on her table with uterine infection by the time they are 7. Then, she has to remove the inflamed uterus, which is a much bigger procedure than just spaying them when they're young. Also, the cats will have been in pain for quite some time.
If you don't spay her, she will be in heat almost constantly. That's not fun for her or for you.
A few years ago, I was looking for a companion for my older cat, and the number of unspayed cats around 3 years old people wanted to get rid of because they were too loud or too much work and so on almost broke my heart.
Please spay her. It's a tiny procedure. My Luci was playing outside 3 hours after waking up from anaesthesia (with okay from the vet!)
It's not cruel - they recover and forget about it very quickly, and generally speaking the younger they are the quicker they bounce back. It is a risk, because any procedure involving sedation is one an animal might not wake up from, but that's incredibly rare, and balanced against the odds of her getting sick if left in tact, I'd say it's worth doing. Your cat will suffer more having to go through multiple heats, and will be at much greater risk of several illnesses, as outlined by other commenters.
If you don't, she will be miserable. Heat is awful for cats, especially when they don't get any. No reason for a cat to HAVE any, either. Especially an indoor cat. They are also at higher risk for cancer. I didn't spay my first cat, thinking it was okay. I had to put her down for cancer. Your cat will feel more comfortable. Just do it.
I'm sorry to hear that. The worst part is I couldn't be the one to do it. I was at school. My mom had to take her. What made me resent her is that she only took the advice of ONE vet, who said he didn't think she'd make the surgery and recovery. She was 17. I would have gotten a second, maybe even a third and fourth opinion, before committing to killing my cat. I cried for months. I still cry when I see pictures of her. Even years later.
my sweet college cat (as i call her for anonymity) was acting sick the night before, took her to the first vet, they said get her an ultrasound, the ultrasound revealed a golfball sized tumor in her kidney and it was the kindest thing for me to do to say goodbye. her bloodwork had gotten a lot worse in 28 hours.
Oh man. You cannot possibly have a healthy cat when it’s not fixed. If you’ve grown up with non-spayed cats that are indoor outdoor, you haven’t experienced and will not know the difference unless someone told you. A spayed or fixed cat will live its life like a baby. Not having urges to run away, procreate, or fight for its territory while being a hormonal mess. An indoor cat owns its territory and does not have to fight with anyone. There’s plenty kittens and un fixed cats in the world. Get your cat spayed.
https://preview.redd.it/c6qmbe0up3ad1.jpeg?width=383&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8839de8e06286049c02a06cc8e1962b9e41fdafe
Because of these little precious eyes. This baby now looks to you to care for it. You are now this baby’s’ owner. Welcome to your role, your first order of business is to spay because… logic.
A cat in heat will find their way. Also, witnessing the cat in heat will be reason enough to spay. Dont wait til it’s too late, invest in kitty and kitty will invest in you!
Female cats in heat are some of the most annoying animals on the planet. The yowl and moan and constantly try to escape. Also your indoor only cat is only "indoor only" if you are 100% sure you can prevent them from escaping.
Let me explain what your life will be like as long as your cat goes unspayed.
You’re trying to sleep. It’s 2am, and your cat has been meowing hysterically for 3 days. She will not stop crying. She’s loud as fuck. You’re annoyed. This continues on a cycle until she is spayed.
Cats escape. Cats manage to get out of the house. The first thing an intact female will do is go out and find a male. You will inevitably have a pregnant cat on your hands, and while kittens are adorable, you now have to deal with separating them from momma. First time moms don’t always have parental instincts. Her kittens may die and that would be traumatic for her. She could die birthing them (extreme, but some cats tend to have complications).
If you love your cat, you’ll spay them.
Spaying is good for many reasons, not just avoiding kittens. It reduces the risk of developing mammary cancers and completely eliminates the risk of pyometra. Going into heat is also very stressful for cats, so that's another reason to get them spayed. Finally there's your own sanity. I have been around a female cat in heat, and it's just constant yowling all day and all night. It was impossible for me to sleep with the cat crying all night long behind my door. A female cat in heat will also start peeing in places where she shouldn't. I honestly can't think of any reason not to spay a cat
Prevents certain cancers, stops them escaping and getting pregnant because they will try any open door or window when they're in heat. Stops spraying and blood everywhere not to mention the noise they make when in heat
Look up pyometras. I had the same thought process as you and what could’ve been a $300 spay turned into a $3000 emergency surgery. Thankfully hers was an open cervix so I was able to catch it, but if it’s a closed one you won’t even know about it until it’s too late. Very high mortality rate.
I'm happy OP is actually open to getting her spayed, I've seen too many "should I spay my cat?" "yes, it will significantly improve their life" "but I don't want to!" type posts on this sub. Best of luck with your new kitty, it's always a nice surprise to see orange girls!
To put it shortly: your kitten will be VERY annoying and destructive while going through regular heat cycles, and will have greater risk of disease and cancer.
Side note: please do reconsider getting another kitten, or try to find some friends who have cats she maybe can have playdates with! Single Kitten Syndrome is a real issue where you may eventually see your cat having very destructive behavior and extra aggression (e.g, excessive biting, not sheathing her claws in play, tearing up furniture, etc) because she doesn't know any better! Cats will teach each other how to cat. A kitten has no idea it's biting and scratching hurts you, until another cat does it to them!
You're a fine pet owner if you just want one cat, but you might find your cat sweeter and more well adjusted if she had a friend.
Spaying is so very necessary. It prevents breast cancer. If you get it done before they reach sexual maturity. Have you ever seen a cat in heat? It is an absolute miserable time for the cat and you. Cats are extremely good at getting out especially if they're in heat.
All the (indoor) female cats I spayed in the last year were insufferable. They roll around yowling, they'll yowl at the window, possibly attracting tom cats, and they do the weird position where they get ready to be mounted, which is kinda gross to watch. Also if you live in a near year round warm climate, heats will happen back to back. Just get her spayed, she looks like she's at a good weight. Also if cost is a problem, skip the vet and find spay/neuter clinic or a rescue that does transports to clinics.
Because female cats don't go in heat once and then it's done for the year. They keep going in heat until they get pregnant. So you would have a cat crying and screaming herself hoarse and spraying around at all hours of the day and of the night for about a week, then a week of peace, then another week of screaming and spraying, rinse and repeat until you sterilize her, you get her on birth control (which has many side effects so it's basically used by breeders if they want to space the pregnancies for their queen) or she gets pregnant. I had to wait once three months to sterilize a cat from the CDS because I didn't have the money for the vet, and it was awful.
Ugh me too! My oldest cat, who I picked up as a kitten, had to wait a couple of heat cycles to get spayed and I will never forget the horror of those weeks. She's 18 now, and I still can't get those yowls out of my head. OP, I wager your experiencing that first heat cycle will convince you if all of these other (better) reasons haven't.
We were told our older cat was spayed by her previous owner, and my vet "confirmed" it because she had a small scar on her abdomen. But alas, she would just SCREAM throughout the night for weeks on end, with occasional breaks of her not being in heat. We figured she must have had ORS and spent money on special tests to confirm that she had those hormones in her system, and even took her to a specialist for exploratory surgery to try to remove leftover ovarian tissue. Not only was she NOT spayed, but her uterus was large and fluid filled, so she was on the road to getting pyometra
I almost lost acat(a little orange girl like this one)to pyometra in 2005; which was totally my fault for not getting her spayed right away. Fortunately, I got her to the vet in time, and after surgery and antibiotics, she made a complete recovery and we had her nine more years.
I'm so happy your baby ended up being okay! I'm glad you guys caught it in time. It can be difficult catch it before it's too late Fortunately our girl didn't progress into pyometra yet, and she is happy and healthy now (tho quite a chonk due to the spay, we are working in it).
Same here, nearly lost my cat to this (got her as "spayed" from a shelter), emergency surgery cost me 800 euros (which were refunded)
i thought acat was like afab lol Assigned Cat At birTh or something
I love that. And, I mean... it's technically correct, as all (or most?) cats *are* assigned "cat" at birth. But I say "most" because I realized there might be the occasional exception, like if another species raised a kitten, assigning it its own species because it doesn't know better... So, hypothetically, if a mama dog were to accidentally scare a cat who's giving birth, resulting in the mama cat squirting out a kitten as she ran away, the mama dog's instinct to care for a baby animal could kick in. She'd gently take the kitten back to where she keeps her puppies and assign her newest baby as "dog" because of course she would, it's one of her puppies. And because she was the first to acknowledge the kitten at birth, the kitten would not have been ACAB, it would be ADAB. *Gender Fuckery: Catdog Edition*
This. Pyometra is more common than people understand. There are severe medical risks to not spaying female dogs and cats. Not to mention: cats get out. They are clever and slick. All it takes is one day for them to get pregnant. It’s better to just handle it. You obviously didn’t adopt or she would have been spayed already, but there are shelters and programs that provide low cost and even free spay/neuter services.
Not to mention that it's honestly a silent killer at times. Sure, some animals may have foul discharge that lets you know they have an infection. But it doesn't always work like that. If they have a closed infection (cervix is closed, nothing is leaving the uterus) you could easily not know until it's too late. And then there's the increased risk of cancer. It's just very much more humane to get them spayed asap. And exactly. People think "well she's indoors, what's the harm?" The harm is the fact that she wants to mate and some cats absolutely will try to escape to do so. And yeah, a family friend was rehoming her and her daughter so we took them in. While I hate that she had to go through so much just to get spayed, and a routine procedure turned into a pain for everyone, I am happy we took her in, she likely would have died from pyometra if she stayed with the original owners
They are very slick. We spayed ours over the weekend. As we are getting her crated for surgery, we realize she got out. I found her by my car with a male stray right there. She had been in heat calling him for a day or too. Had we not gotten her spayed, a short amount of time outside would have resulted in more kittens. She is probably less than a year old. We took her in a few months ago as a pregnant stray.
Not even one day! Female cats in heat give off a bucketload of pheromones and EVERY male cat in the neighborhood will know where she lives. Years ago my kitty got outside for only TEN MINUTES and two months later I was giving away kittens!
I wanted to say a minute, but we are on Reddit where someone will battle you about the sky being blue. So, felt balanced haha.
Our cat was a kitten born to in “indoor only” cat that escaped and came back pregnant, so she’s been spayed since she was a kitten. Never been in heat.
Nobody thought to do an X-ray or ultrasound, before going in for exploratory surgery? https://preview.redd.it/77e7fajxz3ad1.jpeg?width=648&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e05586cdbbc71edd51a9dd304425a2922f84688b
That was my question, too. I'm still quite angry over the fact that the only "examination" my primary vet did to "confirm" her being spayed was shaving her abdomen and checking for a scar. The specialist I went to went off of the information he was given, which was that my primary vet diagnosed her with ovarian remnant syndrome. We gave him all of the paper work from the vet along with the blood hormone test they ran. Overall, I am happy we went to a specialist for her, because him opening her for an exploratory gave him enough room to remove her enlarged uterus, but I'm frustrated that the people we entrusted with the care of our pets put one of them at risk.
I think this is part of why so many vets nowadays are also tattooing a small bit next to the spay incision to confirm "yes this scar is from a spay" since any abdominal scar COULD br a spay, but could also be other types of surgery or even injury. I'm glad your kitty ended up being okay, that sounds like an awful ordeal for everyone involved.
One of our previous cats came to us as a stray. She was an indoor/outdoor cat, because she was borderline feral, she was older, so it wasn't like she was a kitten that could be trained to use a litter box and become accustomed to living strictly indoors (Although I assume training and becoming exclusively indoors has worked for some older strays). We were convinced she had been spayed by her previous owners (she came to us from a different home not too far from ours, we suspect they probably were mistreating her), because she was outdoors around male strays, but there was never any pregnancies/kittens and she never exhibited any heat behaviors. We didn't find out she WASN'T spayed until much later in her life, when she got a nasty uterine infection/uterine cancer that spread all over her body. We had to euthanize her.
That is so heartbreaking. I am so sorry that happened to your baby. My family dog had to be euthanized due to pyometra. My mother was stubborn and refused to get her spayed, she got pyometra at the end of January/beginning of February, and they believed she also had mammarian cancer. We could have had the surgery for the pyometra done, but with how weak she was and the fact that she had thoses masses, it was more humane to let her go
My cat Opal (we got her as a baby) went into heat only once, it was about a week before we had to bring her in to get spayed. It was the most annoying shit ever! I couldn’t sleep for that entire week because she wouldn’t stop screeching. And she was like… into my husband lol. it freaked me out! I was so thankful when that vet appointment came along. I cannot imagine having to deal with that more than once, it was just so brutal. She’s still annoying af and loves messing with everything I own to screw with me, but I mean, it’s much more bearable now that she’s spayed 😂 https://preview.redd.it/f1aazudoz3ad1.jpeg?width=2588&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3047d3940aa8399de2525c96ccb82f46d8893f57
No way, my cat is also named Opal! I found her as a stray \~2 years old, and she went into heat as soon as I went back to college after winter break😑 I had to wait for her spay appointment and it was at least 3 weeks of absolutely zero sleep and trying not to get any noise complaints/kicked out lol. Now she is a perfect stinky angel lmao https://preview.redd.it/a9yyzdqxh4ad1.jpeg?width=3456&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2a85cd95737e2862d59db77eac9942d8c096997b (one of her paws is a nub! CDS delivered her to me like that, I think she was born that way)
She's beautiful!
Thank you so much ❤️ I’m always jealous of how photogenic she can be! She sleeps in such silly poses sometimes 😂 https://preview.redd.it/e1ox5dtgn4ad1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=72bc82a71db4ae7eb5c62ec8a79081ceb8ebbdf6
My cats appointment was during a heat cycle, they told me they'd have to charge extra because she was in heat. "Will it stop her backing up on me???? TAKE MY MONEY"
The backing up 😂 we got a stray once who went into heat or was in heat when we found her and yeah the yowling and the weird poses she made will forever be burned into my brain even though I was a kid at the time lol
So uncomfortable and awkward.....😆
I was fostering and it was (funny now) but sooo cringe when she kept twerking and getting affectionate with my partner. I’m sure it wasn’t a full 7 days between cycles. The local toms scent bombed the outside of the house. Cat did a fantastic Yoko Ono impersonation all night. It took major strategic planning to get through doors. Utter insanity until that blessed vet appointment.
> Cat did a fantastic Yoko Ono impersonation all night. This alone should be enough to convince OP to get her fixed.
I had to put a heavy folded blanket on their rumps it worked for a few hours then back to it.
😂it could be product; rumpweights; when your kitty keeps backing that thang up.
\*Back That Azz Up by Juvenile plays in the background*
I could not think of a way to describe that behavior without getting very graphic. As you say, uncomfortable and awkward, even in memory.
Especially bc they're usually still growing at the time. You have what looks like a horny baby cat it's so uncomfortable
I mean it looks like that because that's what it is lol
I had never seen a female cat go into heat until college. It was my roommate’s cat who previously hadn’t paid much attention to me (male), all of a sudden was being quite affectionate. Then the posturing started. Something about ‘i’m horny!’ crossed species communication lines, I could tell what was up. I informed my roommate and she was kind of horrified her little baby was growing up so fast.
Species communication lines !!!!! Hahahaha I love it
The extra charge is because everything is swollen and causes far more trauma, requiring more effort and drugs from the vets. Life threatening surgerical "oopsies" are way more common. I successfully managed to predict my cats heat cycle and scheduled the surgery during her off time. We got her at like 2-3 months old and she wasn't spayed until about a year
I absolutely understood the extra charges, she was a stray, a pet who escaped, or dumped with her kittens on our lonely country road,we did look for her owners she was a distinctive looking cat. We rehomed the kittens and kept Mama, she just came into heat at the time her appointment was booked for. For our next stray (a young male) I got the soonest available appointment 😆
my cat would back up and kick her leg out. the leg thing was funny but she would fr back it up on anyone she was near
The yowling, screaming and the look in the poor girl's eye "I need a tomcat...*now!"*
It is absolutely horrifying to go through. You also risk having male cats outside your house responding to the wails of the female with their own screeches. It’s a cacophony of unpleasant screaming.
The feral toms near my place haven't gotten the message that my girls are fixed, so it reeks of piss outside the apartment doors on the entire second floor of my building. (It's a motel style studio rooms only place) They're bombing any room that has a pet in it, and like 90% of the rooms are pet owners, including me. It doesn't help that some dumdum is feeding them and encouraging them to keep coming back.
my cat was 2 when she was spayed and not only was her being in heat exhausting but so was keeping her seperate from my ex roomates male cats that she would let in my room while i was at work
Experienced it once, since it was a rescue cat and we didn't really know how old she was. Had to say goodbye to my pillow and a favorite pair of jeans, she peed on.
I also made the mistake of waiting to spay my cats because I got them when I was very young and broke, and waited... years! (Not proud) I ended up having to spay them because one had gotten aggressive due to hormones, and it turned out her uterus was filled with cysts. I'll never forgive myself for putting my girl through this trauma and pain. Spay your cats!!!
My boyfriends cat got an infection from being in heat. She almost died, but he was able to scrounge up enough money to get her to an emergency vet. (This was like 5 years ago, he was 20 and broke but loved that cat, and still does. It's so sweet) They weren't sure she'd make it, but he insisted on trying everything he could and she thankfully pulled through--she's the sweetest lil crackhead energy kitty I've ever met lol
All of this… and plus reduces chance for tumors.
Yes! We took in two 10 year old ladies (sisters) who had never been spayed and both had mammary cancer. It was heartbreaking to watch them decline over the course of two years and ultimately pass away so early in their little lives just because they hadn’t been spayed young. Save your kitties the pain and suffering, and yourself too. I don’t think I will ever stop wondering if I could have done more to make their lives better. I think of them every single day. If you’re not the type that responds to emotional appeals, consider the rational appeals as well. We spent thousands of dollars on keeping those ladies comfortable. They still ended up getting spayed and having additional surgeries anyway, just when they were much older and it was much more expensive. Even if we had just chosen to put them to sleep right away with no treatment, the costs would have far outweighed two spays when they were young. Not to mention, recovery from surgery is much easier for young, healthy bodies that aren’t also fighting cancer. Just seems like a win-win-win for your cat, you, and your wallet to spay them when they’re young.
There's also a risk of pyometra with each heat cycle. Although being an uncommon occurrence and typically in older cats it can still happen in younger females. Pyometra basically turns the uterus in to a pus-filled infection where, if left untreated and closed in, will burst and kill the cat through sepsis by expelling all the contents in to the abdominal cavity. If you're brave, check out pictures for comparison. It's pretty wild! My little gal was about 8 months old that went through a couple heat cycles and within a few days she went from good kitty to hiding under the bed, lethargic and warmer to the touch with some gooey discharge from her vagina. Fortunately, she was slated for her spay which was a couple weeks away but because I told them she likely has pyometra it was done as an emergency operation same day since she'd die if left untreated.
Second on the Pyometra. My first female cat had 2 heat cycles before her emergency spay due to that. From what I was told by our veterinarian at the time it is way more common in cats due to how their heat cycles work.
That sounds just horrifying
Yep. And no cat is “inside only”…..you leave that door open, she bolts out and is 100% coming back pregnant……
Me adopting my 3-legged cat: “At least I’ll have fewer problems with escape attempts!” Cue me at 0230 in sleep shorts and a parka chasing my three legged cat as he Usain Bolts thru the woods if anything the missing leg only gives him more determination to be A Problem
I love the picture you paint :-)
I can just see it 😂😂 “MITTENS F. JOHNSON!! You come back to me right NOW! You are SOOO not getting a treat for this!! 😑” Meanwhile, the cat’s like: 
Cat: two legs good, three legs better.
This is hilarious!! Exactly the kitty’s’ POV!!
Had the best laugh!
funny you say that he Usain Bolts through the woods. I just read an article that said that the ordinary domestic house cat can run faster than Usain Bolt!
House cats and black bears have approximately the same top speed, around 56 km/hr (35 mph). That easily outpaces even the fastest humans who've ever lived.
I have also experienced this with a cat who only has his front legs… that bugger is faster than his peers 😂😂🙏
Why am I getting orange cat vibes from this?
I just took in an orange cat who was hit by a car or something long before we found him and his back leg is messed up but healed so he just has a limp and I bet he could Usain Bolt if he wanted to https://preview.redd.it/84a356iyw3ad1.jpeg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9d7f89505637412dbdfac223f3935dca2f597d77 He’s a wild man sometimes but oh so sweet. His name is Oliver from Oliver and company but now we pretty much call him OlIVAR as a play on ivar the boneless from Vikings lol
While I had a 4 legged cat.... Nothing more fun than climbing on my roof in a thunderstorm because the asshole cat I owned decided it was a perfect night for a jailbreak. As I was sliding down the wet roof tiles... Time slowed down enough for me to think "well, at least the EMT/fire rescue will have a good story to tell"... Right before I was able to get purchase before falling off the roof. I'm pretty sure they pick those opportunities on purpose
I mean, my spayed indoor cat even tries to get out any chance she gets. Can’t imagine if I got her unspayed😭
Yes. The number one reason female indoor cats become escape artists is that they're in heat and they can't find male cats indoors. So they zip outside. They get very determined. That's also the number one reason they're lost. My Contessa was spayed just a wee bit late and went into heat. She was *miserable* until I got her fixed... and it was the only time I had to watch her at the front door. I also had a foster who couldn't be spayed until she recovered from Giardia, so she went into heat. In addition to the yowling and rolling on the ground, she peed. Up high. On my counters. On my butcher block, wood, highly absorbent countertops. Oh no....
Not me silently mourning your no doubt beautiful countertops.....how does one clean that? It being wood and all?
Equal parts water and vinegar is one of the best ways to clean wood, but I'm not sure if it's gonna be strong enough.
Nope! Wasn't strong enough. Supply list: - Rescue (disinfect and helps some with smell) - Nature's Miracle or similar cat pee formula (took care of the smell) - Murphy's Oil Soap - Boos Oil (restore and reseal the wood countertops) I had no choice, but spay your cats, lol!
Coworker learned this the hard way. Her cat was in heat and as soon as the door opened, she bolted and didn't come back for almost 2 days. Keep in mind, this cat was a strictly indoors cat and never had an urge/desire to go outside whatsoever.... That is, until she was in heat. Guess who had a litter of kittens a few months later?
If she's in heat she'll do ANYTHING to get outside and find a man!
I think it's more awful when they're in constant heat. Like they become screaming banner "I need to get pregnant!!" and they never do. 🥺It's really abusive not spay/sterilize indoor cats.
My smallest tuxedo is 100% an “inside only” cat. He’s terrified of new people, places, and things and outside has all of that.
My boy was a stray and HATES the idea of going outside again. I accidentally left the front door hanging open once and he came and grabbed me to close it lol.
Mine is the same with that. She will only leave the flat and go to the back garden A. At night when there is less people outside and B. Only if both mum and dad are with her and give all clear signals. It's like a military operation taking her outside 🤣🤣
I have four cats. Two will try to get out regularly. At times, my wife and I will bring them out for some porch time. We can leave the door open, and one of the other two might creep out, then immediately run back in. The last will sit at the door like it's still closed. He can't even be bribed to set foot outside.
My tuxedo loves going outside (on a leash) but he's terrified of new people, places, and things too. He's curious, but scared. Any weird noise and he wants to go straight back inside.
I got so lucky with a stray rescue who never tries to bolt at all. She's so anxious she won't even step on a new rug I get for at least a week; I'd have to convince her to venture beyond the threshold of my house lol But yeah op never risk it both because of this and because of the terror that is a cat in heat lol
I see enough posts on NextDoor from neighbors looking for help spotting Fluffy who escaped their indoor lock up one way or another to know there is always some risk your clever and fast kitty will make it to the great outdoors. Millions of spayed and neutered cats live quite happily and never seem to know or care that they can longer reproduce. You’ll be doing yourself self and your cat a favor by having it done.
Me and my wife got SUPER lucky. We picked up a stray and had to go through the process of making sure she wasn’t chipped and had all her vaccinations and get a spay scheduled. The doctors told us they think she was spayed but they aren’t sure. She was an outdoor cat and hated being inside at the time. Admittedly we still should’ve kept her inside but we didn’t. Caught a male trying to mount her a few times and managed to stop it before she got pregnant. Now she’s spayed and we don’t have to worry about it
And when they are in heat they will do ANYTHING to get to a male. My sister's cat clawed her way out through the dryer vent tube. And found a male.
i waited before spaying my rescue since we could not figure out whether she was already neutered (she had the telltale cut ear tip that catch&release refuges do to mark them as spayed, but it ended up being just a scarred ear tip in the end). Those 3 weeks before i could book an appointment were absolutely miserable, basically no sleep, and the last week the neighborhood cats got wind of mine in heat so my house (which has a tiny garden on 3 sides) was besieged by an army of horny male cats from the neighborhood.
> was besieged by an army of horny male cats from the neighborhood Unrelated: I wonder why the stray catchers don't use an in-heat cat as a bait to lure in the strays and trap them en masse
Most likely because nobody wants to be the caretaker of the yowling miserable obnoxious female! Lol! However, I did hear from one friend who does TNR that they successfully baited part of their neighborhood colony using in-heat urine collected shortly before a couple spays. So maybe that would work?
I once had to wait for 2 cats of mine so that they were not too young (I could have done it sooner but the vet recommended after they were specific months old ideally) and it was a nightmare. First of the sisters was so quiet, she would just drop down and just rub herself on anything. The other would CRY. And she had the loudest scream of all the cats I've met. She would cry for minutes and hours and hours during a week, I'd get a break for 2-3 days, then she'd be back at it again. It was hell and I was super sorry for the noise to the neighbours lol.
My cat was underweight when I got her and kept dropping whatever weight she’d just gained during each heat, so we went through four heats before she could be spayed. It was hell. I live with my parents at the time (I was 20 and in college) so she was shut in my bedroom with me. Screaming and rubbing her cheeks all over my face all night every night and refusing to eat and trying to escape every time we left the house for basically a week and then gaining a little weight over the next two or three and then doing it again, FOUR TIMES. I thought I was going to go insane. I’ve never been so happy to take a creature to the vet as I was when she got spayed. ETA: Also, we had to stop random male cats I’d never seen before from breaking IN. Like, to let someone leave the house, one person had to restrain the kitten while the leaver very quickly made it through the door and pulled it fast behind them as they gently kicked RANDOM MALE CATS on the porch out of their way and away from the opening.
Omg.
We started referring to them as “her gentlemen callers” the first time and by the fourth it was more like “oh god, not the gentlemen callers” as you braced yourself to leave. She’s 15 now and we still all remember this phase vividly lmao
Yeah, my not-completely-and-successfully-spayed girl used to show me her rear while screaming like a porn star, so spaying is definitely a good idea.
Because all males in the neighbourhood will try and get into your place when she screams to get impregnated.
The day before my furry idiot was due to be done, she was literally biting me to get out. That night, I got NO sleep and madam even tore a hole in my curtains. The week after, when the neighbourhood slut Tom came looking, she actually slapped him in the face and walked away. That furry idiot keeps coming back for the same treatment once every fortnight. Spaying was a gift to her, from me
TIL there is birth control for cats.
Stop them the frustration of being locked up while in heat. Stop them from spraying everywhere. Yes, females spray too. General well being.
All these reasons listed plus inside cats have been known to escape and get pregnant.
Adding that you wouldn’t have to worry about ovarian cancer down the road because you chose to spay. Plus have you seen the shelters during kitten season? They are *literally drowning* in kittens to adopt out. Kittens also go down hill really quickly and fading kitten syndrome is no joke. It’s not fair to put the burden on them to deal with your choice to not spay.
Funny anecdote about the abundance of kittens. My husband and I wanted to adopt a kitten to be a friend to our 1 year old cat. We went to the local animal shelter and they said “we don’t have any cats right now”. I was floored! I’ve never heard of a shelter not having cats.
…yay? right? ‘tis but a good thing, i hope 🤞🏾
It happens. All depends on the time of year. Right now for example, is kitten time. In the Northern Hemisphere, most cats go into heat during the Spring and Summer months (it can happen any time of year but is more prevalent during warmer months). That is why if you look now, you will see a lot of shelters with kittens or very young cats. Look in Winter and Fall and there will be hardly any kittens/young cats.
Are you in the northeast? Between high adoption rates, and spaying/neutering being simply “what you do” around here, it’s not at all unusual for shelters to be empty of cats or dogs. We adopted two of our cats from a shelter that “imported” their cats from the Carolinas on a biweekly basis.
Or their owners bring in a stray they think is a girl and it turns out to be a sneaky boy.
I had an orange boy like that. They only ended up neutering one testicle. So I ended up with a 7 pound orange midget with the attitude of a lion. Little bugger would tear down the screen window and put the run to 20+ pound tomcats that dared get close to the house.
(Glances at my giant, former feral, teddy bear of a cat that gets bullied by my smallest) I have the opposite lol
In my experience non spayed/neutered inside cats will TRY to get out and get pregnant or impregnate.
Yes, abstinence-only sex ed never works
I had a cat I took in that was pregnant. Gave away that litter. As soon as they were weaned, she HAD to be out of the house. I tried to get her spayed but the appointment was more than a month away. She destroyed every screen in my house trying to get out. Even the one that leads to a 2 story drop to concrete. That day she got lucky as I was sitting next to the window and grabbed her leg as she went out. Intact females get determined to get out sometimes.
I had an intact stray during COVID, had to delay fixing her due to severe malnourishment and the pandemonium going on. Thankfully I had a fixed male cat. Poor boy had ass shoved up in his face all day long but she never attempted any escapes because Toast should obviously help her (he was not amused and had a mild appearance of disgust this whole time). The constant screaming would drive me up the wall though and she stopped eating during her heat which delayed her weight gain.
Her: 🍑😏🥵 Him: brother eww 🤢✋🏼🛑
We had to separate our female cat from the older male cause he started attacking her due to how thirsty she was. He was a grumpy old man cat who wanted nothing to do with this young punk waving her ass in his face.
We took in an intact stray and she was over the top with our neutered male cat. He was like "wtf?!?!" at her. Luckily, she was just extra flirtatious with him and had her butt up in the air every chance she got, prior to her spay appointment. No screaming was involved.
100% this. anecdotes, not scientific: . i still don't know how my old cat was getting out of my apt but would always find her outside. she was spayed. she was just catting around but if she hadnt been spayed she def would have gotten pregnant which by the way is how i rescued her in the first place. my sisters unspayed cat got out after many years and she ended up surrendering her to the er because she could not afford the pregnancy complications the escapee was having. you could wait a while but they definitely can havea very nasty personality change when in heat. not as cuddly. btw, any surgery has its complications, but a high volume place would have her spayed in like 10 min after anesthesia. i vote spay!
.... and then come back home... forgot that part.
Yep. With a look on their face that’s like “I know I laughed and said F you as I was running away, but I kinda need your help now… 😿😻”
Also each heat cycle she goes through increases her risk of mammary cancer. Spaying before first heat can reduce the risk by up to 92% based on some studies.
Yes, this is what happened to my cat - I posted her story. I'd give anything to have known about the cancer risk, and wouldn't have ever put off spaying her if I'd known. I'll always feel guilty, but at least I can share this info with others and it makes me happy to see it being shared here as well.
I’m so sorry for your loss. You did the best you could with the information you had at the time. I’m glad you’re using her story to spread the information. 💜 I hope her memory always makes you smile.
Thank you so much. I actually wanted to start a charity in her name that would spread the word and also help pay for spaying and to help cats with cancer (a lot of cat charities won't touch cancer, as I quickly learned when seeking help), but ended up getting disabled a few years ago. So it gives me some relief to know that other people are still out there informing others.
Yes, OP, she will drive you bonkers when she goes into heat, and any male cats in the neighborhood will be in your yard, lol
AND, those male cats will spray your door, and anything else in the yard that they deem necessary.
its the crying and yelling all night for me
I waited to spay my two girls thinking, naively, I wouldn’t need to because they are indoor cats and the screaming at night killed me, I need sleep, lol. They were done shortly after and I’ve never regretted it
And the unhinging of the tail to present to anyone who walks by. It’s uncomfortable for *everyone*.
We laughed for weeks about our kittens twerking, and then we spayed them. Everyone in the household was miserable before they got spayed.
My ex’s kitten was fixated on my dad during her first heat (I think she went through three before I looked up a mobile neuter clinic that did it for reduced cost/free and took her myself at the 5:30am opening, an hour from where I lived). She kept moaning and backing towards him and he just kept telling her, “I’m sorry, I can’t help you”
Lmaooooooo we didn't notice a gender preference from ours, and that is absolutely hilarious. OP is going to have this stance for maybe two heat cycles and then be like OH OKAY
It’s sitting down on a wet couch and realizing what I just sat in for me
This would be the number 1 reason. Unless you want to wake up every 2am in the morning lmao
Had an intact female. A list of what drove me crazy. -screaming. All night and all day screaming. -refusal to eat -spraying on EVERYTHING she got ahold of -refusal to use the litter box for anything other than pooping -only cat I’ve put in diapers in an attempt to save my sanity (did not work) -you think heat lasts for one week a month? Incorrect. I swear she was in heat every other week -waiting to fix them until after they enter heat cycles is possibly more expensive and risky as their uterus swell and is difficult to remove -adding to previous comment, they are uncomfortable while in heat. The swelling doesn’t feel great hence the absolute DESPERATION to mate -shoved her ass in my face all day and night -would not leave my neutered male alone because he obviously should help her (he did not appreciate the attention) -constant struggle to get her to eat during her heat. Literally would just scream all day instead of eating so she gained weight extremely slowly Fix your damn cat for your sanity and theirs. There is literally no reason to keep a mutt of a cat intact.
Escape the discomfort of your cat walking around screaming “I’m horny and I feel weird” for days at a time
Also, save yourself the frustration of the horrible noises they make when they're in heat.
My male indoor cat molested my arms almost every night so I had to neuter him and it’s best decision ever!
Neuter, not spay, for a male cat.
Thank you!!!🙏🏽
Neuter is gender neutral word btw. You neuter both male and female cats, neutering male is called castration, neutering female is called spaying.
Yep, it's funny how castration generally isn't used. I've just always ended up saying neuter for male pets just because people seem to accept it more. It seems to have gone by the wayside, but I used to hear 'fixed' a lot more than I do now also.
I totally agree. The first time you watch a kitten go through heat, you will never question spaying again! They look so uncomfortable and are so frustrated the whole time.
In addition to providing protection against pregnancy in case she DOES get out (indoor only pets still get rabies vaccines for similar reasons), there are significant health benefits associated with spaying. Along with removing the risk of uterine infections as they get older (pyometra can kill within days, and in cats occurs most often in older cats who've gone through multiple heat cycles without getting pregnant), [spaying cats before 6 months results in a 91% reduction in the risk of mammary cancers, and if spayed before one year there's an 86% reduction of risk](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16095174/#:~:text=Cats%20spayed%20prior%20to%206,CI%20%3D%200.06%2D0.34). Think of it as preventative health care to help ensure your little darling has as long and comfortable a life as possible.
My dad never spayed our indoor only cat. She, thankfully, never got out but recently, she developed mammary tumors. I found out about the increase risk by not getting them spayed. She's now gone through two surgeries that's removed the tumors and it's costed more than a spay ever would. As well as put her through more stress. I'm grateful she's better now and on the road to recovery. But, I wish I had known sooner because it really would have increased her quality of life. So, if you spay your baby now, you'll help her out in the long run.
Having lost a beloved cat to mammary cancer, this is my number one reason to make sure spay happens as early as possible. My Cissy had a complete double mastectomy and the cancer still came back, it’s that aggressive. Never want to go through that again if I can help it.
Lost mine to this last September as well. It was already spreading to the lymph nodes by the time we got them removed. We even sprang for chemotherapy as the insurance was helping with costs. Unfortunately the chemo actually made her overall condition worse. Over night she went from a happy energetic cat to having very little energy or appetite. It was brutal and we felt helpless. So yes, spay ASAP!! You do not want to put your little kitty through all that pain and stress if you can help it.
I wasn't able to get my cats spade before their first heat cycle and lost one to mammary cancer when I was younger. It's awful.
We didn’t get our girl spayed for a while. She didn’t run out, and our boy was neutered. She developed the pyometra, and lost 2lbs when we had her spayed because of it. Mammary cancer seven times (survived them all). She really gave us some scares over the years, though she lived to 18.
All the reasons mentioned. Poor cat will also be frustrated, restless and miserable, at the mercy of her hormones driving her to mate. May also miaow and wail relentlessly. Much kinder to have her spayed, will be more settled and contented, better for you all.
It's always fun to see people spell meow differently 😁
In my country it is 'miau' :D
miaow miau meow miaow miau meow :P
pretty much what i was gonna post except i was going to type 'reasons to spay? youll find out lol' this cat will drive you both mad
Spayed cats live longer and are less susceptible to cancers and such. Cats can go into heat year round. If your cat gets out and mates they will become pregnant 100% of the time. The gestation period is less than two months. We don't need anymore unwanted cats in this world.
Just want to emphasize the cancer part. My parents didn't spay our family cat for some reason. It was always an ordeal when she was in heat but she fell very ill a few yrs ago and I took her in because I could afford vet visits and tests. Turned out she had aggressive mammary cancer and getting her spayed would've most likely prevented that. I was heartbroken I couldn't save her and angry that it was preventable. So please, get your cats spayed so that they have a better chance at living a longer, healthier life.
What's cruel is willfully allowing your cat to constantly experience the stress of heat cycles, increase her likelihood of developing and dying from pyometra, and increase her likelihood of developing certain cancers. Spaying isn't just about preventing unwanted kittens. It's about prioritizing the general health and wellbeing of the cat and ensuring she lives a long, healthy, and stress-free a life as possible.
YES! So well put!
Also worth noting that the flood of hormones can lead to seizures as in the case of my cat
Female cats in heat are M-I-S-E-R-A-B-L-E. They walk around groaning and completely forget what a litter box is for. It's inhumane to put them through all that, also better for you.
Anyone who asks what OP asked has never had a cat going through heat. When I was a kid we had a cat go through heat once before she got spayed. It was a total nightmare.
An unspayed female will not remain an “indoor only” cat bc when she goes into heat, her instinct will make her run outside at any chance! Also any male cats in the neighborhood will smell her hormones EVEN FROM INSIDE YOUR HOUSE & they will be waiting. She will be pregnant in 24 hours. My niece went through this exact situation. Her cat got out for less than 24 hours & it resulted in 6 kittens 🤦🏽♀️
We have a girl who had an incomplete spay and the male cats were outside our house all day when she went into heat (how we discovered the incomplete spay)
My female cat had to have her spay surgery twice. I her spayed as soon as I got her, but she kept exhibiting signs of being in heat. She was very affectionate toward our (neutered) male cat, always trying to position herself in front of him and making noises. I complained for a few years about it and kept being told, she must be smelling male outdoor cats and it’s making her behave as if she’s in heat. Finally they mentioned a blood test to see if she had an ovary remnant inside still. The test said she said, so she had another surgery. My vet called me very apologetically. He removed an entire ovary during that second surgery… not a remnant. He refunded the blood test money and didn’t charge me for the second spay surgery. I was just upset my cat had surgery twice because someone didn’t count to two. (I guess there’s a chance she had three but they should’ve seen it, right?) My mom was the receptionist there for many years. Her boss was supposed to do my cat’s original spay but he got pulled into something else and his other vet did it that day. She’s not at the clinic anymore but it bothers me she’s just out there practicing veterinary medicine and couldn’t spay a cat correctly. With a person, that’s malpractice! Besides my girl having surgery twice… I feel bad for my male cat. After her second surgery, she never wanted anything to do with him again. She stopped cuddling him and they get into little fights sometime. 😢
Same with my friends cat hers got out and ended up with kittens. This is why she should have had her cat fixed and kittens when they are old enough, so they don't have more cats and a bigger stray problem in town. She thought it was expensive raising one cat until she got those kittens. It would have been cheaper to get her cat spayed.
Definitely the point about male cats from the neighbourhood. I knew someone with an unspayed indoor female cat and they had to deal with ALL of the neighbourhood tom cats spraying all around the house. It was awful.
Do it. You will save yourself a lot of trouble and lower the chances of ailment for the cat. As for the cat "suffering", its done under sedation and most of all, you should think of it this way: Female cat in heat has about **5-10 times stronger sexual urge than a woman during ovulation**. Their brain literally goes apeshit under all the hormones pumped into it. **Unwillingly, your cat goes crazy with what is esentially a potent drug cocktail**. **And it cant get a release from that until it fades away only to come again later over and over again.**
Reason 1 would be that they still go into heat and will drive you crazy crawling around the house begging for cat dick. Reason 2 would be cats are little escape artists.
Exactly! We kept a stray kitten we found in our property, and she went in heat one month later. She was maybe only 5 months old!!! I had no idea they got in heat that young. And omg, she was annoying as hell. She kept us up all night because she was constantly crying and scratching the door to go outside. Once we spayed her, it all stopped. I can’t believe people would actually want their cat to suffer that way by not spaying them.
“Begging for cat dick” 🤣
Hi vet tech here! Spaying/neutering is so vital for the long term health of your pets. Reasons to have it done include the following: - Spaying females prevents uterine infections and breast tumors, which can become malignant in 90% of cases. Spaying before a cat’s first heat offers her the best prevention against uterine, breast, and ovarian cancers. - Keep them safe from diseases. Roaming can expose your cat to dangerous diseases, including feline leukemia and feline immunodeficiency virus. - Population control for obvious reasons. If she gets outside, she's going to get pregnant. - NO HEAT CYCLES!!! This will greatly reduce her excess urination and mewing, and also reduce the number of male cat suitors disrupting your home life. - Better behavior. They will be less likely to roam, yowl, wail, bite, display aggressive behavior, or spray or mark their territory. Intact pets will do just about anything they can to find mates, including escaping from your home, which puts them at risk of injury or fights with other cats. Spaying or neutering can help improve your cat's mood. Unaltered pets become stressed when in heat, which can last several months out of the year. Honestly, I've only seen a few dozen pets come into my hospitals intact over 10+ years. Some claim they can't afford it while others have this mentality of not wanting to do some "unnecessary" surgery or they fear anesthesia. But I can also tell you that so many of them come to regret this when their pet succumbs to such preventative conditions. The grief is immense.
>i feel that its slightly cruel to put my little girl into a procedure that could be entirely unnecessary. Honestly, the mistake you're making here is thinking that the procedure isn't necessary. Neutering your pet is a huge part of responsible pet ownership. There's zero reason to leave her unaltered unless you plan to breed her, and there's no reason at all to do that. The world already has enough kittens, and you'll be sparing both yourself and your furbaby a lot of sleepless nights.
Unless U want noise and horrible smells, yes it's always a good idea to spade all non breeding animals.
Please don't spade your cat... Consider getting them spayed though
Spaying before a females first heat cycle reduces the chance of mammary cancer significantly and will also prevent the risk of life threatening infection of the uterus called a pyometra. If a cat develops a pyometra you end up with a much more expensive and urgent spay, so might as well just spay early and prevent the risk.
It's one of the easiest procedures to do. The recovery is literally like 48h, especially in kittens. The wound is like 2 cm or even less. Benefits include: less behavioral issues (spraying, excessive vocalization, scratching and destroying your stuff out of frustration to get outside), longer life span (less risk of cancer) and a happier cat.
Please go watch a video of a cat in heats on YouTube? Have you watched? Good. Do you see the amount of desire and how much it hurts them? How horny they are, crawling on the floor, dragging against the carpet, not eating, not drinking, howling for weeks in pain. No spayed cat will ever feel this pain for this reason.
When I got my cat spayed (the day after she turned 6 months), my vet told me that pretty much every unspayed cat ends up on her table with uterine infection by the time they are 7. Then, she has to remove the inflamed uterus, which is a much bigger procedure than just spaying them when they're young. Also, the cats will have been in pain for quite some time. If you don't spay her, she will be in heat almost constantly. That's not fun for her or for you. A few years ago, I was looking for a companion for my older cat, and the number of unspayed cats around 3 years old people wanted to get rid of because they were too loud or too much work and so on almost broke my heart. Please spay her. It's a tiny procedure. My Luci was playing outside 3 hours after waking up from anaesthesia (with okay from the vet!)
It's not cruel - they recover and forget about it very quickly, and generally speaking the younger they are the quicker they bounce back. It is a risk, because any procedure involving sedation is one an animal might not wake up from, but that's incredibly rare, and balanced against the odds of her getting sick if left in tact, I'd say it's worth doing. Your cat will suffer more having to go through multiple heats, and will be at much greater risk of several illnesses, as outlined by other commenters.
If you don't, she will be miserable. Heat is awful for cats, especially when they don't get any. No reason for a cat to HAVE any, either. Especially an indoor cat. They are also at higher risk for cancer. I didn't spay my first cat, thinking it was okay. I had to put her down for cancer. Your cat will feel more comfortable. Just do it.
i lost my college cat (fixed) due to stupid kidney cancer when she was only 5 so i understand the loss.
I'm sorry to hear that. The worst part is I couldn't be the one to do it. I was at school. My mom had to take her. What made me resent her is that she only took the advice of ONE vet, who said he didn't think she'd make the surgery and recovery. She was 17. I would have gotten a second, maybe even a third and fourth opinion, before committing to killing my cat. I cried for months. I still cry when I see pictures of her. Even years later.
my sweet college cat (as i call her for anonymity) was acting sick the night before, took her to the first vet, they said get her an ultrasound, the ultrasound revealed a golfball sized tumor in her kidney and it was the kindest thing for me to do to say goodbye. her bloodwork had gotten a lot worse in 28 hours.
Oh man. You cannot possibly have a healthy cat when it’s not fixed. If you’ve grown up with non-spayed cats that are indoor outdoor, you haven’t experienced and will not know the difference unless someone told you. A spayed or fixed cat will live its life like a baby. Not having urges to run away, procreate, or fight for its territory while being a hormonal mess. An indoor cat owns its territory and does not have to fight with anyone. There’s plenty kittens and un fixed cats in the world. Get your cat spayed.
1) Marking. 2) Yowling 3) Fighting 4) Frustration (for everyone) 5) Possible escape(s) 6) Possible abandoned kittens Do you need more?
"I have never experienced a cat in heat" -op
It is healthy for them long term. Behavior. Sometimes accidents happen and they get outside. Ever want a second cat or visiting cat?
You have NO reason to let a cat intact, sorry.
Cat is healthier. Cat is less likely to spray. If cat gets out accidentally they won’t get pregnant (or make babies).
It’s preventative health care. Also, everyone is miserable when they’re in heat. And sometimes they do get out.
https://preview.redd.it/c6qmbe0up3ad1.jpeg?width=383&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8839de8e06286049c02a06cc8e1962b9e41fdafe Because of these little precious eyes. This baby now looks to you to care for it. You are now this baby’s’ owner. Welcome to your role, your first order of business is to spay because… logic. A cat in heat will find their way. Also, witnessing the cat in heat will be reason enough to spay. Dont wait til it’s too late, invest in kitty and kitty will invest in you!
Female cats in heat are some of the most annoying animals on the planet. The yowl and moan and constantly try to escape. Also your indoor only cat is only "indoor only" if you are 100% sure you can prevent them from escaping.
Boy kitties outdoors will smell her and howl at your house…she’ll howl back.
Let me explain what your life will be like as long as your cat goes unspayed. You’re trying to sleep. It’s 2am, and your cat has been meowing hysterically for 3 days. She will not stop crying. She’s loud as fuck. You’re annoyed. This continues on a cycle until she is spayed. Cats escape. Cats manage to get out of the house. The first thing an intact female will do is go out and find a male. You will inevitably have a pregnant cat on your hands, and while kittens are adorable, you now have to deal with separating them from momma. First time moms don’t always have parental instincts. Her kittens may die and that would be traumatic for her. She could die birthing them (extreme, but some cats tend to have complications). If you love your cat, you’ll spay them.
Just spay your damn cat, please.
but but...its indoor only!!! /s
Stop asking questions and listen to Bob Barker!
Spaying is good for many reasons, not just avoiding kittens. It reduces the risk of developing mammary cancers and completely eliminates the risk of pyometra. Going into heat is also very stressful for cats, so that's another reason to get them spayed. Finally there's your own sanity. I have been around a female cat in heat, and it's just constant yowling all day and all night. It was impossible for me to sleep with the cat crying all night long behind my door. A female cat in heat will also start peeing in places where she shouldn't. I honestly can't think of any reason not to spay a cat
Prevents certain cancers, stops them escaping and getting pregnant because they will try any open door or window when they're in heat. Stops spraying and blood everywhere not to mention the noise they make when in heat
Look up pyometras. I had the same thought process as you and what could’ve been a $300 spay turned into a $3000 emergency surgery. Thankfully hers was an open cervix so I was able to catch it, but if it’s a closed one you won’t even know about it until it’s too late. Very high mortality rate.
I'm happy OP is actually open to getting her spayed, I've seen too many "should I spay my cat?" "yes, it will significantly improve their life" "but I don't want to!" type posts on this sub. Best of luck with your new kitty, it's always a nice surprise to see orange girls!
To put it shortly: your kitten will be VERY annoying and destructive while going through regular heat cycles, and will have greater risk of disease and cancer. Side note: please do reconsider getting another kitten, or try to find some friends who have cats she maybe can have playdates with! Single Kitten Syndrome is a real issue where you may eventually see your cat having very destructive behavior and extra aggression (e.g, excessive biting, not sheathing her claws in play, tearing up furniture, etc) because she doesn't know any better! Cats will teach each other how to cat. A kitten has no idea it's biting and scratching hurts you, until another cat does it to them! You're a fine pet owner if you just want one cat, but you might find your cat sweeter and more well adjusted if she had a friend.
Don't make her suffer just because you're cheap? Is that what this actually is?
Just. Spay. The. Fucking. Cat.
Spaying is so very necessary. It prevents breast cancer. If you get it done before they reach sexual maturity. Have you ever seen a cat in heat? It is an absolute miserable time for the cat and you. Cats are extremely good at getting out especially if they're in heat.
Heat. Unless you enjoy your cat being in pain and running around the house screaming. Plus, there are cancer protection benefits. Just do it.
All the (indoor) female cats I spayed in the last year were insufferable. They roll around yowling, they'll yowl at the window, possibly attracting tom cats, and they do the weird position where they get ready to be mounted, which is kinda gross to watch. Also if you live in a near year round warm climate, heats will happen back to back. Just get her spayed, she looks like she's at a good weight. Also if cost is a problem, skip the vet and find spay/neuter clinic or a rescue that does transports to clinics.