maize Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 We had a stray cat show up and have kittens at our house this spring; the mama cat was not feral at all, I suspect someone raised her then dumped her when they realized she was pregnant. The kittens are being well socialized by my children and will make delightful pets. There is a program near us that will spay/neuter a mother cat and all her kittens (under 4 months) for $25; I'm wondering if this is safe and healthy for the cats. If so, I'd like to take them all in before I try to find homes for the kittens. We had our own cats fixed at the local vet and it was over $100 for each, no way I can afford that. Is there a downside to this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ktgrok Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 We had a stray cat show up and have kittens at our house this spring; the mama cat was not feral at all, I suspect someone raised her then dumped her when they realized she was pregnant. The kittens are being well socialized by my children and will make delightful pets. There is a program near us that will spay/neuter a mother cat and all her kittens (under 4 months) for $25; I'm wondering if this is safe and healthy for the cats. If so, I'd like to take them all in before I try to find homes for the kittens. We had our own cats fixed at the local vet and it was over $100 for each, no way I can afford that. Is there a downside to this? It's safe. Usually the reason it is cheaper is twofold....they have volunteers staffing it so no salary, and they are doing a ton of them at one time, so bulk pricing. The vets I worked with,and some of the techs, volunteered once a month for a program like this on their day off. Sometimes we hosted it at the clinic I worked at. They'd do dozens and dozens, one after another. But it was the same staff that did them for $100, with the same medications, same technique. However, less TLC, as there might be two animals on the surgical table at once, etc. This was for a trap/neuter/release program. I don't remember any problems/deaths/etc. Even with the super quick assembly line quality. Now, if this wasn't a special program for feral cats where people were volunteering, and was a normal vet clinics regular price, i'd be very very frightened and assume they are using lesser quality staff/meds/etc. It's just not a sustainable cost to offer it so cheap. The only reason these programs can do it is that people are volunteering their time and they often have donations to help support it. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ailaena Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 We have similar TNR programs here that are crazy cheap/free for feral cats and cheap for tame ones. The under 4 months thing is a weird rule to me because we had to bring my daughters cat back twice until she was big enough to handle the anesthesia, and she was near 6 months old by then. However, now that I'm thinking about it, almost all of my other cats were 8-10 weeks when I had them fixed. Maybe she was just super-tiny. Of course, maybe the rules have changed in 10 years! Anyways, I've had a few cats fixed at places like this and they used normal supplies and anesthesia, and my cats turned out perfectly fine. I know there was once an exposé about how they skimped on pain meds during surgery, but I have not experienced a place that does that. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peach Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 We've had 2 done at clinics like this. It was a huge volunteer thing, with all our local vets. Regular folks volunteered in droves to to warm the cats and pet them as they came out of anesthesia, people brought food :) We never had any issues at all. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terabith Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 When we adopted from the shelter, our kittens came to us spayed at 8 weeks. No problems. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shellydon Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 I prefer to wait until 6 months for males due to possible UTI problems later, but I would not hesitate to spay/neuter before adopting out. The world does not need more cats/kittens. When we rescue kitties, we often spay/neuter before adopting out. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catz Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 I just had kittens done at about 10 weeks through a subsized shelter program and it was no big deal at all. It was more traumatic for the humans that had to hand over their new babies. ;) I would do it. $25 is a crazy price point. We paid a bunch more than that. I think it was about $100/kitten. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mergath Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 Wow, that's a fantastic price! We had a similar situation over the winter- took in a stray, pregnant cat that was living in our neighborhood and found (amazing, fantastic) homes for the kittens- and I wish I could have had them all spayed and neutered for $25. Our vet charges $200+ for females, something like $150 for males. It's painful. Our shelter does have cheap spay/neuter days, but they only do one every three months or so, and the slots fill up literally a day or two after they start making appointments. I would absolutely have them done at that age. It's perfectly safe. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MercyA Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 I would have it done in your situation. Bless you for helping the kitties. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tita Gidge Posted May 23, 2016 Share Posted May 23, 2016 In general I believe it's better to wait a bit longer to spay/neuter - but that's for pets, in ideal situations. I care for two feral colonies, and we absolutely spay/neuter our kittens as early as we can. I don't socialize them because our local shelters and craigslist are already overwhelmed with kittens, but as soon as we trap a kitten it gets fixed (then released). The colony on my property is up to 27 cats (because there's one elusive mom and one PITA neighbor who won't neuter the pet tom he lets out daily), and we have a regular 16 that come for twice-daily feedings. They're social-ish and let us pet them; some will let us hold them, but most just tolerate us because we equal easy food. The others we see around the property, and they feed after the larger crowd has left. I think it's awesome your kids are socializing your litter, what a great lesson for them to learn! For anyone who finds an intact stray or feral .... Google for TNR resources in your area. Through a national organization I found a local group that has assisted me in TNR'ing the cats on my property. Of the 27 cats, we've TNR'd 26. I couldn't have done that without substantial assistance. My local group lent me extra traps so I could set out 7 at a time over 8 months. They offered a grant and helped me find a local vet hospital willing to accept the grant money for reduced neutering. Then they helped fundraise to offset a number of the neutering surgeries I needed. Finally, they even helped with transport and post-surgery cat-sitting when I had to travel. I used to laugh and joke about those crazy cat ladies. Now I'm just grateful for them! :lol: 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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