Rehoming and neutering

[Asparagusluvva]

Just re homed an 11 month old cat. I want to get her spayed but wondered how long I should leave her to adjust to her new home before the trauma of surgery . 2 weeks ? A month ?

Any advice welcome

I would get her spayed now - she's already well overdue.

You really don't want a cat in season in your house.

I would do it now as well since she will need to stay indoors for her wound to heal sufficiently. Depending on her healing rate that could be nearly two weeks anyway.

Just make sure she has several quiet, darkish places for her to hide in that you all ignore so she can feel safe

@sunsetsandboardwalks Can you expand more on why I wouldn’t want a cat in season in my house ? Do you mean that she’ll try and get out? We have to keep her indoors anyway , for a few weeks?

Definitely get it done now. Cats in season are noisy and desperate to get out!

I adopted an unspayed girl and was dreading her going into season. Fortunately we got her snipped before she did.

Cats in season will spray (scent mark), they scream, they can become destructive and can hurt themselves in their attempts to escape. I've also known in-season cats to poo in order to mark.

Once a cat starts marking in your house, it can be incredibly, incredibly hard to get them to stop. And cat pee stinks - really stinks. Get her neutered - ideally it should have been done before she came to you.

It is distressing if they come into season, they howl and pace, and may also spray. You don't want to go through that or put her through it.

Please get her neutered asap, call the vet tomorrow. You will probably have to wait a week or so anyway for them to have surgical time available, so book in right away.

Don't worry about her being traumatised by surgery, that is very unlikely. All my female cats, including rescues, were back to normal within 24 hours. In fact I once had to stop my female trying to play-wrestle a few hours after getting back from the vet!

Going into season isn't very pleasant for a cat. They can feel very uncomfortable, feel under the weather, irritable and frantic. It's like a massive itch they can't scratch and can drive them a bit mad. From your point of view, lots of meowing and yowling and it's a bit upsetting seeing them out of sorts and miserable.

And yes she'll be trying to get out any chance she can. You need to keep all the windows closed and watch for her sprinting out an opened door. TempCat is the result of the first lockdown closing vets and delaying spays. His mum got out and got knocked up by the local Tom. Her smell will attract all the boys so you'll have Tomcats yowling outside as well!

I'd do it sooner rather than later.

I would also get her spayed now for all of the reasons mentioned already. I cannot see any benefits to delaying being spayed.

I had a kitten go into call earlier than 'normal'. I found it distressing to witness.

I rehomed two ex-breeding queens who needed to be neutered. I was going to get them neutered within a month of getting them but they were so skittish I couldn't get them in the baskets. I lived to regret this!! They went into season over Christmas and I have never heard a noise like it. One of them would go to the front door and literally scream. This happened over Xmas eve when I needed to sleep on the sofa because my parents were staying... Needless to say, they were booked in to be done very quickly after Xmas! Having them spayed also made a huge difference to their personalities and they settled much quicker afterwards.

Here is my cat tax

Thanks all, I didn't think about the noise issue , and also the spraying. I had thought that applied mostly to males .