spaying while pregnant?

can you spay a cat while she is in heat or pregnant?

 

We spay pregnant cats at our monthly spay neuter clinics. I have no idea about being in heat though.

ETA: I do believe that you can't spay a cat that just gave birth and has milk in her, just an FYI, and I'm no vet or expert so hopefully others can chime in

 

ok .. I was just wondering .. I saw an ad on craigslist for a vet practice that is offering low cost spay/neuter and it said they can surgery while the cat is in heat or pregnant. I guess I didn't think they could do it at that time.

 

I adopted Minou when she was 11 months old and in heat. I had her spayed immediately with no problems.

 

A spay is basically a hysterectomy/oophrectomy. In a nutshell, the uterus is lifted out of the body and can be done to pregnant females tho heavy bleed risk is higher in a pregnant cat. This does result in fetal death. As far as spaying females in estrus, that can be done too, though some vets do charge more due to the increased risk of heavy bleeding.

~M

 

yep, my late Kitty was in heat back when she was spayed, about 18 years ago. that's how i first found out about it. and i just had a stray spayed a week or so ago that the vet said was in "raging heat" to quote her exactly.

it does usually cost more when they are though. it's been explained to me as to why but i can't remember the details right now as i am so tired i can't hardly see straight but it's usually not a bunch more.

and yes, like Mary said, it can be done while they are pregnant too but it does mean the babies do not make it.

 

Oh yes, for sure, but as others have mentioned, there is more blood in the area so they have to be more careful.

I wanted to also add that our shelter used to have to wait to spay previously nursing moms (kittens weaned) til their milk dried up enough but our current shelter vet loves to do flank spays, going in from the side. Of course, its more shaved area and more obvious, but it avoids the breast area and we dont have to wait as long til spaying the recent moms.

 

In dogs, vets will usually avoid spaying while in heat because they do seem to bleed more and there is a higher risk of complications. For cats, it's honestly sometimes hard to catch them at a point when they are not in heat, just going into heat, or just finishing a heat cycle. Dogs have biannual estrus (heat); cats have a year-round estrus festival.

 

wow .. so much information to take it! When I was younger and had my first two kitties, my parents just took care of getting them fixed. When I grew up and got married and me and peter got our furkids we just took them to the vet right off the bat and had them checked out and they told us when we could come back to get them fixed. None of my cats ever have been out door cats so I wasn't worried about them getting pregnant and I guess I didn't think they could go into heat so young.