Quick spay video!

...on Animal People! Thank you, Cat Welfare Society, for pointing me in the right direction!

This 60 minute video is in installments. Links are down the right column.

I would add one caveat to the kitten spay. The kitten should completely recover to normal kitten playfulness within a day (the kitten should not be encouraged to play, however, we know kittens! The kitten should WANT to play). Any lethargy at all should be reported to the vet. You should not follow our normal human inclination to "wait a day or two to see whether he will pick up a bit" if a kitten seemed tired, won't play, or starts out bouncy and then gets lethargic a day or so later.

With these new anethesia and spay procedures, most lethargy would not be due to the procedure. It might be due to stress, infection, or unnoticed problems (parasite load, incubating illness etc.). When kittens are sent home with laypersons, it is very important to make them feel comfortable about calling back or going to their own vet (if the kitten was spayed at a clinic that does not provide ongoing care) if they notice a problem. It's normal for your adult cat to be sore and perhaps a bit stressed and pissed off at you after a spay. There is emotional baggage with an adult cat that can translate into sulking, etc.

Kittens (unless feral) usually don't sulk. A sulky post-spay kitten is a kitten that needs a look-see by a vet.

I have run into a few situations where people got their kittens fixed at "free" clinics where the kittens died afterward. This was probably due to being unthrifty before the surgery, or acquiring an infection from being crated right next to a sick kitten. I myself, when clinics were new, had infection run through my entire facility because of a bug picked up at a clinic where probably 30 kittens were all set on the floor in crates next to one another, from three different shelters, and some kittens were sneezing, with weeping eyes.

Experienced clinics have learned to keep populations separate, and cover the crates and cages. But I've been to clinics where covers I've put over my cats in traps have been pulled back by students and left off (I've been volunteering, so I go back and pull the covers over them again), or where volunteers checking the cats have gone from cat to cat without washing their hands (and even when we do, how effective is this fast wash?) checking the cat's gums.

When working a mass clinic, unless the cat feels very cold or is not waking up fast enough, don't touch his or her mouth, eyelids, etc. if you are checking a multitude of cats. You will spread disease from cat to cat. Making sure the recovering cat is wrapped in towels, and checking body heat, giving massages, adding gentle warmth via rice socks, etc. is more effective. I know it is "routine" to touch an eyelid to check for a twitch, or look at gums for proper color. But if the cat seems to be recovering OK, subjecting multiple cats to this is not a good idea. If a cat does not seem to be waking up, wash and DRY your hands before poking around near mucus membranes.

When small kittens recover from surgery, they are immediately fed so they don't become low on blood sugar. This usually means poking wet food or Nutrical into their mouths. It's a messy and slightly hilarious business. One volunteer should handle one litter. They should never handle two kittens from different sources (two different homes or shelters) at the same time, when they are poking their fingers into one kitten's mouth and then the other.


Cover crates and traps pre and post surgery with multi-population clinics.

Inform owners that they should take a kitten to the vet if it does not recover to full bounciness within 24-48 hours. Do not wait!

Volunteers should keep fingers off eyes and mouths of cats while working "recovery." When you must check membranes, wash between cats, or between kittens from different shelters or homes.


(And let's not pick on mass clinics. These are issues at standard vet hospitals as well. For goodness sake, if you bring in your kitten for a healthy pet visit, leave it in its crate in the waiting room, and don't sit right next to the woman with the sneezing cat! And don't let people who have brought in their sick pet, pet your kitten. Leave him in his crate and, quite frankly, cover the crate entirely, especially if you are coming into the clinic late in the day when countless sick animals have paraded through).

If you are bringing a sneezing or coughing cat into the vet, COVER THE CRATE! Don't let your rescue animal or pet spew bugs all over the other pets in the waiting room. Do what you can to reduce infection of other pets.


All learned the hard way. So you don't have to.