Spaying or Neutering Your Cat with Dr. Anderson
Our veterinarian near San Diego offers spay and neuter services for kittens and cats.
Did you know that spaying or neutering your cat can help prevent certain illnesses and diseases and help your cat live longer?
Both of these routine operations completely remove your cat’s reproductive organs so that they no longer feel the need to mate or advertise for a mate, which can lead to behavioral problems. It's also much more cost-effective than caring for a litter of kittens.
Benefits of Spaying and Neutering
Having your cat spayed or neutered with Dr. Nathan Anderson provides certain health benefits that can help your pet live a long and happy life.
The major benefits of spaying and neutering include:
- Helps prevent testicular cancer in male cats
- Helps prevent uterine infections tumors in your female cat's breasts
- Male and female cats are often better behaved.
- Your male cat will be less likely to go roaming for a mate
- Female cats won’t advertise for a mate by yowling and urinating because they will no longer go into heat.
Spaying Your Cat
Female cats can be spayed as early as eight weeks of age, which is before your female cat enters her first heat. Spaying early provides the most health and behavioral benefits, but you can spay a cat at any age.
The process of spaying your cat involves completely removing the uterus and ovaries through a small incision. The procedure typically takes less than an hour, but it can take longer if your cat is in heat or pregnant at the time of the operation. All spay surgeries are performed under general anesthesia. After your cat wakes up from the anesthesia, she can typically return home with you the same day.
We do ask that you monitor the incision and make sure your cat does not try to bite or scratch the area. Your cat will need to have reduced activity levels for up to two weeks, but most cats feel much better the day after surgery.
Neutering Your Cat
Neutering your male cat involves making a small incision in the testicle sack and completely removing the testicles. This procedure is performed under general anesthesia and only takes a few minutes.
Once your male cat wakes up from his surgery, he can go home with you the same day. Like female cats, we do ask that you monitor the incision for signs of infection and proper healing and prevent your cat from scratching or biting the area.
It usually takes one or two weeks for the area to heal, but your cat should start acting normally as early as the day after surgery.
Spaying and Neutering at our Veterinary Practice
Anderson Feline Veterinary offers spaying and neutering for all sizes and breeds of cats. When you schedule your pet’s surgery, we will give you pre-surgery instructions, which usually include not feeding your car for a certain amount of time prior to the surgery.
After the surgery, we will give you instructions on how to care for the wound and the signs of infections to look for while the incision is healing. If you have any questions or concerns before, during or after your pet’s spay or neuter, Dr. Anderson would be happy to answer them.