Advice on litter trays and keeping cats calm after spaying

[TheGirlWhoLived]

Hi, I am just after some advice if possible. I have two lovely kitties who are now 9 months old. They quite like the look of outside and I am going to get them spayed so they can enjoy the garden, and if they do wander further afield then they will be safe from pregnancy! (They are fully vaccinated and microchipped)

My worry is the advice for after spaying is that they stay indoors without jumping on things… we don’t have a viable space we can make safe enough (no tables, beds, windowsills or furniture is the advice) and although they spend most of their day sleeping under a bed or on a chair, they like to escape the 5 year old by jumping out of reach!

This obviously isn’t ok for after spaying so I was wondering about getting them a crate each something like this and putting separate litter trays, a fluffy blanket, food and water for a week just to make sure they heal up properly and don’t tear the stitches!

any advice would be really welcome

Cats don’t get the memo of taking it easy after an operation! As soon as they get home they will be jumping about the place as if nothing happened to them

you don’t need crates or anything like that, just give them their pain killers and let them get on with it, being locked up will do far more damage to them!

They will go stir crazy and crash around if you crate them or lock them up. Just keep the 5 year old calm and let them get on with it.

You may well find that if they are in spay vests then they won’t jump around as much anyway.

(We have 2 female cats who were spayed when DD2 was 5).

Oh really? That’s great to hear! They are going to have the little suits so I was hoping this would keep the stitches as still as possible. I will 100% keep the 5 year old out of the way and calm, he isn’t a complete tornado, he just likes a snuggle - maybe I could put him in the crate 🤔

How long is realistic to stay at home with them (we are going to Legoland on 7th so would it be better to get it done Tuesday 30th as planned or to wait until after?)

My 16 year old is looking after them whilst we’re away overnight

Well I had arranged to wfh the day after the spay - the cats totally ignored me and just did their thing (mainly sulking under the sofa) and me being around made no difference at all. Having the spay done on 30th and going away on 7th with 16 year old around to check on them sounds totally fine. They will be a week post spay by then.

The only thing is that it is worth checking the stitches to make sure they are healing well (which you can do just by lifting up the vests). Our vet asked us to send a photo through 3 days after the spay to check all looked good.

And one of ours bit a hole in her spay vest and had to go back to the vet to have a cone on: but again by a week you should know whether anything like that is likely.

Thanks for your advice! 😊

In case it helps, when I had fosters who’d just been spayed I put Cat YouTube on for them & they sat for a while watching it. The other thing I did was to make steps up to their favourite places using boxes so there was less need to jump.

Hi @stormsandsunshine! How are the girls?

I’ve never tried to keep cats still after spaying-and many vets don’t advise it these days. Trying to stop them is more likely to cause damage than just letting them get on with it!

Thanks, it’s possibly out of date advice as I think it was just AI from google. Really appreciate all the replies. Cat YouTube sounds interesting! Maybe I can get ds and cats to watch together 😁