Tohru Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 I am pregnant right now and am having a very difficult time deciding if it is right to spay a cat while she is pregnant. All our other pets have been fixed, except for our kitten, which we were going to get around to doing when she was a little older. She belongs to my son and I actually don't pay attention to her until recently when my son began asking if I thought the cat could have worms because her stomach was hard. I felt her belly and she is definitely round with nipples forming. She is about 6-8 months old and no one even knew she went into heat. We scheduled the vet to spay her next Wednesday and he will do it even if she is pregnant. Please help me decide! Is it right to have her spayed now or should we let her have her babies and then spay her? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 Does your ds know dk (dear kitty) is preggers? If not, then do it. If so, then would he be traumatized if he knew what happened to the babies? If so, then let her have the litter...but get dk spayed when those babies are 5-6 weeks old. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sputterduck Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 I could not do it. I've seen places that'll take the babies out even when they are full term and kill them all. Breaks my heart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plucky Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 I don't think it is wrong to spay her now, but I wouldn't do it. If you are having qualms then you may want to just let the kittens be born. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 Nope, I would wait and spay her after the kittens are born. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gingersmom Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 The same thing happened to my neighbors cat. I would wait until she had the kittens and then have her spayed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katilac Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 Do you think you have any chance of finding homes for several kittens? If not, they will likely be put down at the shelter regardless. At this time of year, the animal shelter near me has an average of 70 kittens they are trying to place - - just kittens, not cats. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teachin'Mine Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 I could not do it. I've seen places that'll take the babies out even when they are full term and kill them all. Breaks my heart. Same here. You can consider it a wonderful life lesson - letting her have her kittens and raising them and finding good homes for them. It's not the easier route, but it is the one that will provide much better sleep at night. Your son will learn from it, and remember the choice you made. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jujsky Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 What does your vet recommend? That is a young cat, and if she is small she could face risks delivering kittens right now. If the vet feels it could harm this young cat's health to give birth, I would spay now. If not, I would let her have the kittens and spay after. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raceNzanesmom Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 I couldn't do it either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LidiyaDawn Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 I'd wait. Yes, you'll have to find good homes for the kittens (or take care of them yourselves) but that's part of pet ownership.. you said yourself that you didn't "get around" to having her spayed and that you "don't pay attention to her" -- unfortunately, this is what can happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DianeW88 Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 I have done it and would do it again. We have adopted three homeless kitties, and right at this moment, we have 4 or 5 more kittens and cats that come to our home every night to be fed. They live outside, they are soaking wet when it rains, they are scarred from fights and if I can't trap them and get them to a vet who generously spays/neuters feral cats for free, they will continue to reproduce and make the problem worse. It breaks my heart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marianne in TX Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 You can consider it a wonderful life lesson - letting her have her kittens and raising them and finding good homes for them. It's not the easier route' date=' but it is the one that will provide much better sleep at night. Your son will learn from it, and remember the choice you made. :)[/quote'] Yes. This. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekland Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 I did it once with one of our cats and have always regretted it since. There's no way I would ever do it again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LisaKinVA Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 I couldn't do it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lovedtodeath Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 If you do it after the kittens are born then you need to wait until the kittens are 10-12 weeks old. They need to nurse. I had to buy formula for all of the kittens that I have gotten from the Humane Society because they were weaned too early. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lovedtodeath Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 I have done it and would do it again. We have adopted three homeless kitties, and right at this moment, we have 4 or 5 more kittens and cats that come to our home every night to be fed. They live outside, they are soaking wet when it rains, they are scarred from fights and if I can't trap them and get them to a vet who generously spays/neuters feral cats for free, they will continue to reproduce and make the problem worse. It breaks my heart. I agree. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeekingSimplicity Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 What does your vet recommend? That is a young cat, and if she is small she could face risks delivering kittens right now. If the vet feels it could harm this young cat's health to give birth, I would spay now. If not, I would let her have the kittens and spay after. I recently had to do this with a young cat. We didn't know she went into heat, and didn't know she was pregnant till after she was spayed. The vet said it was a good thing we had it done because she would not have been able to have the kittens on her own. It would have meant a midnight c-section. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnTheBrink Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 There's no way I could do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laundrycrisis Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 If the cat is too young to safely deliver I would go ahead and do it for her health's sake. However - when I was about 9 we took in a stray dog and my parents had her spayed even though she was pregnant. The poor dog spent weeks tearing up the house looking for her puppies, looking under cushions and behind things. It was very sad and I have always wished she would have been allowed to have her puppies and that we could have found homes for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pax Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 We recently had this happen. Our ragdoll kitty is older, a little over a year, but we hadn't gotten her spayed due to a bad reaction to anesthesia. She became an inside cat. Of course, she escaped and came back pregnant. I just could not spay her so she had her kittens. They have been such a blessing. A pain in the rear - but a blessing. We had made the decision that if we couldn't find homes for them, we would provide a home for them. Luckily she only had three. We have a home for one and as they aren't even 6 weeks, we are looking carefully for a home for the other two. We insist on knowing the people who are adopting personally, they have to sign a contract in which one of the provisions is that if they are unable to care for kitty they have to return it to us. Also, everyone has to give us a $50 deposit which we will return as soon as we get proof of spay/neuter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tohru Posted May 27, 2011 Author Share Posted May 27, 2011 Okay. Thanks for the replies. We do have three other female cats that we spayed, plus two pedigree dogs that we neutered. I'm fully aware of the pet overpopulation problem and we try to do our share. I'm glad that I'm not the only one that feels like this. We'll reschedule the vet until after she has her kittens. This is my son's first cat. He's been very responsible in taking care of her, but it seems we both have learned a lesson. We'll probably keep one or two of the kittens and I'm pretty sure we'd be able to find good homes for the rest of them. My MIL and a friend have both been wanting another cat, so maybe between them, we can make sure all of them are fixed and have homes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fairfarmhand Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 Okay. Thanks for the replies. We do have three other female cats that we spayed, plus two pedigree dogs that we neutered. I'm fully aware of the pet overpopulation problem and we try to do our share. I'm glad that I'm not the only one that feels like this. We'll reschedule the vet until after she has her kittens. This is my son's first cat. He's been very responsible in taking care of her, but it seems we both have learned a lesson. We'll probably keep one or two of the kittens and I'm pretty sure we'd be able to find good homes for the rest of them. My MIL and a friend have both been wanting another cat, so maybe between them, we can make sure all of them are fixed and have homes. you may be in luck... Many (not all) first time kitten mommies have smaller litters/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarlaS Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 If you do it after the kittens are born then you need to wait until the kittens are 10-12 weeks old. They need to nurse. I had to buy formula for all of the kittens that I have gotten from the Humane Society because they were weaned too early. Watch closely for signs of weaning. She could start the process @ 3-4 weeks. Some cats will put up with nursing kittens until they are 3 months old--some won't. As soon as they are weaned (not necessarily completely), she will come back into heat. She would then need to be kept inside until you can get her spayed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teachin'Mine Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 Okay. Thanks for the replies. We do have three other female cats that we spayed, plus two pedigree dogs that we neutered. I'm fully aware of the pet overpopulation problem and we try to do our share. I'm glad that I'm not the only one that feels like this. We'll reschedule the vet until after she has her kittens. This is my son's first cat. He's been very responsible in taking care of her, but it seems we both have learned a lesson. We'll probably keep one or two of the kittens and I'm pretty sure we'd be able to find good homes for the rest of them. My MIL and a friend have both been wanting another cat, so maybe between them, we can make sure all of them are fixed and have homes. Yeah!!! Please keep us updated - we want pictures!!!! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reading Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 I couldn't do it, either. I'm glad you'll wait. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SweetBean Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 I'm so glad you are going to wait. I know I couldn't do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spaceman Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 This happened to us and we let her have the kittens. She was very very young, and had a litter of just 3. It was easier to find homes for those 3, than larger litters. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sputterduck Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 Yes, pictures are a must! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cassiemc Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 No, I wouldn't do that. It's pretty easy to find homes for free kittens. I'm pro-choice and I wouldn't do that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lorrainejmc Posted May 27, 2011 Share Posted May 27, 2011 I'm glad I got to the end and saw your decision was the one I wanted to see:001_smile: OTH, we had a scare like this recently. We adopted a 2yr old chihuahua female from an elderly breeder and she was in heat and had been with all the other dogs this woman had. The dog is so small, I was v worried for a few weeks and did think I might have to something I didn't want to do if she did end up being pregnant as, IMO, she could have had pups that were too big for her to deliver if she had been mated by some of the male dogs I had seen there. Thankfully, we adopted her on time.:001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenL Posted May 28, 2011 Share Posted May 28, 2011 I'm so glad to hear you are going to wait! And yes, pictures when she has them! :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alenee Posted May 28, 2011 Share Posted May 28, 2011 I don't think I could do it but a warning about the kittens: because mama is so young, you may only have a very small litter and it's quite possible that they will die shortly after birth. Just something to be prepared for in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted May 28, 2011 Share Posted May 28, 2011 If you do it after the kittens are born then you need to wait until the kittens are 10-12 weeks old. They need to nurse. I had to buy formula for all of the kittens that I have gotten from the Humane Society because they were weaned too early. Our 6wko babies continued to nurse after their mother came home from her surgery, but by then they had mostly self-weaned, so it wasn't much nursing anyway. Cats can (and usually do) go into heat when the babies are 3-6 weeks old; waiting until the babies are 10-12wko can be disaster if you're trying to keep the cat from breeding forever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jyniffrec Posted May 28, 2011 Share Posted May 28, 2011 I don't think I could do it but a warning about the kittens: because mama is so young, you may only have a very small litter and it's quite possible that they will die shortly after birth. Just something to be prepared for in advance. This happened with us. She kept moving them around and they all ended up dying. Do you know why it happens? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ereks mom Posted May 28, 2011 Share Posted May 28, 2011 I could not do it. :iagree: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unicorn. Posted May 28, 2011 Share Posted May 28, 2011 I did it once with one of our cats and have always regretted it since. There's no way I would ever do it again. :iagree: No way in H#LL would I ever do it again. We had it done to one of ours, vet said it was early enough. She was a thin cat, afterwards, every time she eats, her belly swells and she looks like she is going to give birth any minute. She is miserable. Never, ever, ever again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngelBee Posted May 28, 2011 Share Posted May 28, 2011 I didn't even know that was possible. :( I would wait. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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