Hands-on Advice on Caring for Your Cat after Spaying Operation

Both our female cats have been spayed. Snowy, the Egyptian Mau was spayed eight months ago. Savannah, the Savannah cat was spayed yesterday. Since Savannah just came home from her operation yesterday, we are taking some special measures for her recovery, I would like to share our experience of taking care of the cats after their spay operation.

Cats are small creatures compared with dogs. Most of cats are spayed when they are still kittens, so they are especially fragile after the spay operation. 

Snowy, our Egyptian Mau Recovered Quickly from Spaying

I never knew how the operation was conducted until the night before Savannah’s operation when I watched a video online about such procedure. It is similar to C-section done on women. The cat’s lower abdomen is cut open and some stuff is taken out, and then the skin is stitched together. I am not a biologist or medical doctor, so I do not know how fast the wound heals, but based on what I saw, it must be pretty painful even in the healing process. 

Your vet might have given you some instructions on how to care for your cats after the operation, but not all vets actually have cats of their own. I am going to share with you some hands-on advice for a speedy recovery of your cats. My advice is particularly useful if you have multiple cats at home.

Nutrition: hand feeding is needed during first few days

Like people, a cat who just went through such a big operation needs good nutrition to recover. You do not need to buy anything special to your cat, just feed her/him the regular food. But because your cat will be wearing a recovery collar, it is extremely difficult for them to eat and drink normally. During the first few days, mostly likely you need to feed them by hand. We did this to both Snowy and Savannah.

Rest: separate the cat from other animals at home

During the first week or so after the operation, your cat needs a lot of rest. It is important not to let him/her interact with others (animals and people) too much. Activities like jumping and running may affect the wound negatively.

For both Snowy and Savannah, we actually put them in separate rooms for the first week after their operation. Each day we allowed them to get out of the room and interact with other cats for limited time, and we always monitored their interaction closely.

Hygiene: more cleaning is needed

A clean environment is crucial to the recovery of any patient. When our cats had their neuter or spay operation, I always cleaned the entire apartment before their return from the hospital, and maintained a high level of hygiene throughout their recovery process. All the cats’ utensils were cleaned daily. Now it is summer and it is quite hot here. I try to keep the rooms cool to reduce the risk of infection.

Lots of TLC (tender, loving, and care)

I have written about the changes of our male Bengal cat after his neuter operation. What surprised me most after going through our female cats’ spay operations is the extra emotional needs of our girls. If your cat just had the spay operation, or is going to be spayed, do pay attention to her emotional needs, and give her more love and care.

Snowy, our Egyptian Mau, slept with “daddy” every night, literally on his chest or neck. Savannah is doing the similar things. She felt most comfortable and happy sleeping on our bed.

Even though they need to be separated from other cats constantly, they do not want to be alone. You need to spend more time with them, talking to them, petting them, or simply staying with them. 

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Cat Neutering: a Sad Procedure

For the first few months after we got our cats, I was overwhelmed by their cuteness. Then my family began to poke me with the question “when do you want to spay/neuter them?” Initially I was very against the idea of spay/neuter. I thought it was too cruel and was against nature. But my family kept persuading me to do it, saying it was good to the cats’ health. Eventually I gave in.

Our Bengal cat whose name is Tiger, was neutered when he was about six months old. That was the biggest medical procure on him so far. Prices varied greatly for cat neuter operation. I called at least five different clinics to ask the prices, the cheapest was around $200, and the expensive ones were over $400. We chose the one on the higher end because we did not want to risk anything.

Our Bengal Cat at Four Months Old

Several weeks before the operation, our vet did some blood work and checkups to make sure that Tiger was healthy. One day before the operation, we took Tiger in. He spent a whole day and night there to get familiar with the environment, so he would not be too scared before the operation. We had to bring some dry and wet food for his stay as well.

It felt horrible to walk out of the clinic without Tiger. We did not know how it was like staying there for the night. Was he cold and scared? We thought about him constantly. Even though Snowy, our Egyptian Mau was at home with us, it just felt much quitter without Tiger there. Yeah, it was sad. The next day Tiger had his neuter operation on the early morning. He stayed there until the late afternoon when we picked him up.  

The staff at the clinic was nice enough to send us pictures of Tiger during the day and right after the neuter operation, so we got to see how Tiger was doing. The pictures showed that Tiger stayed in one of the caged areas with his own litter box and the carrier that we brought him in. He seemed rather confused and scared.

When we saw him after the operation, he was very happy. I often wondered what his thought process was at the time. Was he thinking we abandoned him? We never know.

It took two weeks for Tiger to recover fully from his operation. During those two weeks he had to wear a cone. During the first several days we had to feed him by hands because it was so difficult to eat with the cone on. It took some time for Tiger to learn to live with it. The discomfort of the cone was obvious.

When everything returned to normal after Tiger’s full recovery from the neuter operation, we gradually noticed some changes in him. The major one was the reduced energy. Tiger was very active and playful before the operation. But after that, he spent most of his time lying around. He was not as curious and playful as before. Before the operation he was able to jump to the top of the refrigerator, to the kitchen counter top, but he did not do any of those even three months after the operation.

It has been about five months after his operation, only in the past two weeks or so did we see some increased energy in him. He became more active after I began to take him out for walks.

After going through Tiger's neutering process, I think cat neutering is a mysterious and sad procedure. I am not sure if it is really that good to the cats’ health. From the cats’ perspective, it is almost a terrifying experience. It is like being kidnapped by the aliens, put to sleep, and when they wake up things have changed.  

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Cat Toilet

Cat Toilet

When my family got the Egyptian Mau to me, one of my major concerns was about her litter box. I am kind of a clean freak. I almost always keep my place sparkly clean. Cleaning someone’s poop just sounded disgusting. I compared different types of litter boxes and eventually chose regular storage bins that could be purchased in Walmart. It was just a couple of bucks. 

Snowy seemed really like her litter box and I think she still does. The only problem is, when she gets overly excited, she likes playing with her litter. Every time when she played, she would splash some of them on the floor. It is difficult to withstand the chemical smell released from the litter.

Therefore, I have been searching for new ways to resolve this problem. Then, I saw this rather magical cat toilet. As you can see from its design, it seems quite neat. All I need to do is adding clean litter from the top. Snowy would use it like how humans do. When it is time to change it, I just take out the tray at the bottom and empty it.

I was excited to try it out, so did Snowy. I put some of her poop chunks inside the toilet so she knew that it was her toilet. She spent some time sniffing it and actually tried to use. For several days, I watched her progress and was quite satisfied.

Then the problem began to emerge. She was too curious about the mechanical structure of the toilet and began to play with it. She played with the litter and disposed them quickly . She then managed to pull the bottom container out. Not long after, she almost completely disassembled her toilet. That was when the cat toilet experiment came to an end.

I still wish there is something more effective to deal with the litter box. Next, I may try teaching her how to use our toilet. For the time being, though, I will stick to the cheap Walmart storage bins as Snowy’s litter box.   

          This allowed me to reach the conclusion I always doubted. I am now convinced that simple open air litter boxes are an enjoyable experience for cats. This is because they cater to their natural instincts of digging, dumping, smelling, and covering. At the same time, they do not restrict their movement as in the case of the more sophisticated litter boxes/toilets. However, to keep this an enjoyable experience for my cats, I have to clean their litter boxes once in the morning and once in the evening and change them every weekend.  

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