Spaying op only one/two stitches! amazed

artieanna

I had my cat spayed a couple of days ago and to my delight it went fine. When we brought her home I was expecting a med - large wound stitched with around six stitches (my last girl had this done 11 yrs ago ).

When I checked her out she only seems to have one stitch maybe two, to say the least I am amazed that it was possible to do it with such a small incision...Once the anasthethic wore off her she was perfect and is since.

Anyone else find that veterinary surgery has improved this much...

I suppose I also want to say here that anyone afraid that spaying is a big op with sick pet ...it's soooo not anymore...Go for it!!!

The Sweeper

Because I'm in Oz, all rescue cats are spayed before rehoming. This includes kittens, who are spayed as young as 8 weeks.

Instead of a shaved side with a three inch incision and eight stitches and a week in an elizabethan collar, the boys have no stitches at all, and the girls have a one inch incision on their tummy, where there's hardly any hair anyway so there's virtually no shaving or itchy regrowth. (Front leg will always be shaved where anaesthetic was delivered). Girls have 2-3 stitches that stay in for 10 days. Keep them quiet for 24-48 hours and try not to let them jump all over the place (not easy with small kits!) Check the wound daily for redness, heat or swelling and revert to the vet immediately if you see any.

They can be sore for the first day, but not as bad as when they're older. If you're nimble enough you can whip the stitches out yourself after 10 days but if you're not game, the vet does it for free.

I believe some vets in Ireland are starting to embrace the practice of young neutering for cats, I've seen some folks posting on here saying their vet'll do it at 12 weeks instead of waiting until six months.

The issue with neutering young is that by removing the organs that produce hormones, the animal misses out on that great wash of teenaged hormones occuring during puberty. That wash of hormones plays a part in prompting the sealing of growth plates - so (and this is highly simplistic as an explanation) the hormones released during puberty in a non-neutered animal prompt the long bones to stop growing. This growth will stop anyway in a neutered animal, but there's evidence to suggest that the animal may be longer and taller as an adult than it would have been without being neutered.

This growth factor isn't a problem in the domestic cat, but in a giant breed dog like a great dane, for instance, the recommendation is to allow them to go through puberty before neutering because of the importance of their overall skeletal development.

There is limited evidence to suggest that early neutering in male cats leaves them with a narrower urethra, which can contribute to problems with struvite and oxalate crystals in later life, but those crystals are controlled in the first place by diet and low environmental stress.

Basically I haven't seen a good reason yet not to do early neutering with cats, especially moggies, and the recovery you cite in your post is a definite plus!

Discodog

There are two types of Spay. The smallest incision is from Keyhole (laparoscopic spaying). Unfortunately only two Vets offer this in Ireland - one in Ratoath & one in Cork. It involves two incisions that are so small as to not need stitches.

With a normal spay opinion varies regarding the size of the incision. I know Vets that can spay a dog via a small incision but others prefer to make a larger incision so that they can fully examine the surrounding area. Their argument is that wounds heal sideways & so the length of the wound is not a critical factor.

The significant difference between a keyhole spay & normal spay is that the former only removes the ovaries whereas the latter removes the ovaries & uterus. Also keyhole does not involve cutting through the muscle layer & the need for both internal & external stitches.

Whilst veterinary procedures have advanced, Ireland is well behind Europe regarding spaying as keyhole spays are rare here but commonplace in Europe.

One of the major studies into keyhole spaying was done in Australia so they appear to be well informed.

The Sweeper

Just to confirm the spays I'm talking about aren't laparoscopic. They're just extremely neat!! Chances are that on very small animals, you can take out very small organs with very small incisions.

Discodog

I usually go by the principle with dogs that males should be neutered late to allow full growth & development. However females should be spayed before their first season as it dramatically reduces the risk of breast cancer which is very prevalent in dogs. I don't have any recent experience with cats so I don't know if the same principles apply.

I have done a lot of research on keyhole spaying as my Greyhound girl is due to be spayed. The decision was between a normal spay locally or 2+ hour drive to Dublin for a keyhole. The rapid recovery with no need for stitches has pretty much won the argument so it will probably be a keyhole spay.

Hopefully the practice will spread but probably not during a recession as Laparascopes are seriously expensive.

SophieSakura

With all my cats I've gotten spayed, they always have tiny incisions One didn't need any external stitches, and the last one only needed 2 stitches.

My cats and small dogs I got spayed about 10 years ago only had about 3-4 stitches.

But I think it just depends how good the vet is at finding the uterus and removing it with just a small incision. Because there's no reason that the incision should be any bigger 10 years ago than now . . .

But the place we went before that they had huge incisions with about 10 stitches and the skin stitched in such a way that some of it rotted off and the cats got infections . . . so yeah, don't assume that all large animal vets can operate on small animals just because they say they can :eek:


I do still think spaying is a big op, though, and it causes them pain, but it's worth it

artieanna

My girl is a year old, she got in kitten young she had two both about nine weeks old now (mad things but I love them;)) So while she is young she not as young as the kittens sweeper mentions.

Sweeper my vet would not do op on cat until 6 mths old. I'm amazed that kittens can be done so young. I always find it difficult to keep my cat kitten free as there are lots of neighbouring males around and I end up with a pregnant cat as soon as she gets any way mature.

My vet is young not long qualified (2-3 years) I am very happy with him, I have to say that going by the wound he did a great job and the stitches don't need to be removed (seems they dissolve). My previous vet operated on both my dog (whos still with us happily:))and cat, the wound was larger and both were sick enough for a day or two.

I don't know the ins and outs of what was removed or not all I know is my girl was and is flying since the op and she really didn't suffer. She was on my knee purring when I got her home.

I think it probably depends on the vet, and the cat....

I now have a little male and female to face the snip in few months and I hope it goes as smoothly!

Thanks guy for all the info I thought mine was done by keyhole surgery but it appears not as it was done by my local vet and it wasn't mad expensive....