Any advice on pulling stitches out of a kittens tummy?

[monkeybumsmum]

Our lovely 7 month old cat was spayed two weeks ago.
The vet told us the stitches were dissolvable, and that if they hadn't come out after 2 weeks then to pull them out ourselves

Am quite squeamish, but have been having a go as they're still all there. They seem to be very solid and there is no give on them at all. Is this normal?

Cat is due to go to cattery on Thursday for a few days, and don't want to put her in there with stitches still in. I'm going away tomorrow and dh working till he comes to join us. We could try to get emergency appt at vets, but don't want to turn up and find out that we could have done it ourselves if we hadn't been such chickens

Any advice very much appreciated!

absolutely NO WAY pull them out yourself and I am shocked at the vets advice.
Take her to another vet and seek advice asap.
sorry for caps by the way just so shocked!

I thought you could get a vet nurse to take stitches out, without seeing a vet.

The vet should remove them as part of the cost of the neutering. Not something to do yourself

I've taken my pets' and my own stitches out before - easily done. Just snip each stitch with a very sharp pair of scissors and pull out with tweezers. Just sterilise everything first by putting alcohol on it and then putting it to a flame.

But ideally your vet should do it, I suppose.

if there's alot of resistence they could be growing over.

i'd ring vets and say you want them looked at.

Golly
Don't pull them! If stitches need taking out then you need a stitch cutter which is like a small scalpel blade . Can't believe the vet told you to do this without giving you more info, tbh. Sometimes there can be a little bit left which comes away easily but if they still seem quite firm then leave well alone. Newer suture materials can take longer to dissolve so vet may not have factored this in - but even so... Is this the same vet who didn't give you any advice re when to let her out and presumably didn't have her back for a post op check? If so, they sound pretty crap,tbh.
Call tomorrow and get an appt to have the stitches out ( no charge - a nurse can do it) but do let somebody at the practice know about the total lack of after care. And then change your vet.

Thanks everyone!
I would be much happier if a vet did it, and tbh I couldn't believe that that's what the vet said to dh when he collected her after the op.

I'll ring a different vet tomorrow and get an appointment!

Thank you

ps not that it should make much difference but I'm in Belgium - am pretty sure a vet would never give this advice in the UK!

Hi Bella Yes, 'tis the same vet... It seems to be almost impossible to find a good one here - animals seem to be treated very differently to how they are in the UK (ime anyway)

This vet seems to be the best out of a pretty horrendous bunch - with one of our dogs we ended up bringing her back to the UK for allergy testing as nobody over here suggested it and we couldn't get control over what was going on. Turned out she's allergic to just about everything, including humans but if we'd just kept going to vets over here we'd never have found out and couldn't have helped her.

Our cats stitches have already come undone, and she seems to have healed fine. I was under some misapprehension that dissolvable meant that they would literally disappear, but obviously not

It's cost cutting, pure and simple - and very sub-standard care.

X post - dissolvable ones do dissolve but they can take a long time and in any case they should have had her back in for a post op check in case of wound infection etc.
Hope you find a better vet

Thanks

Thanks