Expert: Ali - 10/30/2008

Question
My cat princess is about 2 years old and when she is in heat she constantly meows and howels and she does this all day and night i dont even know when she sleeps we are getting her fixed soon and i was wondering if she would stop her crazy meowing it is starting to bother my boyfriend and his family. But she is my baby and i cannot get rid of her i have had her since she was 5 months old and im deeply attached. Please just let me know what you think

Answer
Jewls,

I routinely suggest that people spay or neuter their pets well before a situation like this happens. The vast majority of veterinarians are willing to spay and neuter from about 4-5 months of age and older, which usually means that the cat or kitten's caregivers don't have to deal with heat cycles and the annoying howling that goes along with them. Some veterinarians will even spay/neuter a cat as young as 6-8 weeks of age. Having Princess spayed is an ethical, responsible and loving thing to do for her. Your little baby will live a longer, happier and healthier life if she is spayed and the surgery is fairly routine. Veterinarians try to make sure that surgical sterilization is as low risk and routine as possible because of the serious pet overpopulation problem worldwide. Veterinarians will generally request that the cat not be given food from about 8 pm the previous night and that water is to be taken away from around midnight on. Most vet clinics would like to have the cat dropped off to the hospital for her surgery at around 7 or 8 am. Depending on the clinic's policy as well as her health and how complicated her surgery is your kitty could be ready to come home around 5-6 pm on the day of surgery or she may be kept in for 1-3 days. Before your kitty's surgery she will be given an injection of sedative to make her sleepy and then a small part of her tummy will be shaved and disinfected to prepare her for surgery. Once the kitty is ready for her spay the veterinary technician will place an endotracheal tube in her throat to help her breathe. This tube will be hooked up to a machine that will deliver gas anesthesia for the time that the surgery is happening so that your cat doesn't wake up during the spay. A veterinary technician will also hook the cat up to monitors so that the cat's vital signs can be closely watched during surgery to make sure that she is getting enough anesthesia and that she is doing okay. Once the surgery begins the vet will make a small incision in the cat's belly and remove the uterus and ovaries. Then the incision will be sewn up - in some cases your kitty will come home with a collar that looks somewhat like a lamp shade if she has been licking at her stitches excessively or trying to pull them out. Many vets use a tissue glue or they bury dissolvable stitches to avoid the issue of the cat picking at them. Once the surgery is all finished some vet clinics will do nail trims and check the cat's teeth at the same time just to be sure that everything is okay. It's very important that you realize that declawing a cat is an unnecessary procedure and it is equivalent to cutting off a person's finger at the first joint below the fingernail. I can recommend humane alternatives to declawing in another question if you wish. The vet technician will stay with your kitty until she is awake and then she will be placed back into her kennel to rest after her surgery. Any time that a person or animal is sedated and placed under anesthetic there is a small risk that something may go wrong, however in the veterinary field this isn't a common occurrence. The sooner you have Princess fixed the sooner the howling will stop. It is perfectly normal and natural for female cats that haven't been spayed to kick up a fuss and get loud and annoying when they are in season. Having Princess spayed will also lessen the risk of her developing serious health and behavioral problems. It's generally a good idea to have any cat sterilized as early as possible. The longer that you wait to have this surgery done the higher the risks that your cat will develop serious health problems. In the case of female cats that aren't spayed there is a risk that they can develop a very serious and potentially fatal infection of the womb called pyometra. In the case of pyometra the uterus fills with pus and there is a possibility that the womb will burst and send pus throughout her abdomen and major organs. If this happens the chances that the kitty will survive are fairly low due to such a toxic insult to the body and the stress and trauma caused by the infection. Female cats that are sterilized early on in life have a much lower risk of developing breast cancer or mastitis (an infection of the breast tissue). Early spaying prevents uterine and ovarian tumors as well. In terms of the behavioral end of things cats that have been sterilized early on tend not to develop serious behavioral issues like using urine and feces to mark their territory or howling and caterwauling to advertise their availability to mate. Spaying/neutering a pet also prevents the urge to fight over territory which can result in some pretty expensive vet bills to treat moderate to serious trauma that was sustained in a fight and pets that are sterilized don't tend to wander as much.

As a cat lover and someone who regularly rescues stray, abandoned and abused cats and kittens I feel that it is necessary to educate pet parents about the problems with allowing pets to breed even in the case where there are so many pets who are living in shelters, rescue organizations, sanctuaries and even on the streets around the world. Since pet overpopulation is a very serious problem worldwide I generally advise people not to breed their pets. I have heard a number of common arguments or concerns for people who don't want to spend the money to spay or neuter their pet. Some people feel that surgically sterilizing pets is cruel and unnatural - this simply isn't the case, having an intact cat that you aren't planning on breeding is cruel because they are hard wired to breed when they still have their reproductive organs. Allowing a cat to have one litter of kittens before having her spayed doesn't mean that she will calm down, in fact the exposure to the high hormone levels during pregnancy and nursing their babies can increase the risks of serious health problems. Pets that have been spayed or neutered are far less likely to develop annoying and destructive habits such as using urine or feces to mark their territory, fight or wander - not to mention the fact that female cats can be very annoying when they come into season with the constant yowling while they try to advertise their availability to mate. Sadly it is estimated that only 3% of cats and kittens who are admitted to shelters are reclaimed by their caregivers it would seem as though cats are generally viewed as disposable pets which means that they often become victims of intentional human cruelty, abandonment, and animal attacks. The leading cause of death in cats living in North America is euthanasia due to behavioral issues - spaying and neutering stops this cycle from repeating itself.... It is my opinion that breeding pets just isn't fair to the parents or the offspring, there are so many healthy and adoptable pets in shelters, rescue organizations, sanctuaries and even on the streets worldwide. All too often people who love animals are forced to make heartbreaking decisions to euthanize pets that are healthy and adoptable just because there isn't enough space to keep them all indefinitely and there just aren't enough resources to care for them on a long term basis. In an effort to avoid turning a pet in need away pets are euthanized daily. Spaying and neutering saves lives, it prevents the need for these heart wrenching decisions to be made by animal loving people.  

Sadly there isn't really a way to stop the constant meowing and howling without allowing Princess to mate and the trouble with that solution is that there are already far too many cats and kittens ending up being destroyed in animal shelters simply because there are too many pets and not enough good homes. I would advise against having Princess mated because although it's very possible that you will be able to re-home the kittens it doesn't guarantee that the reproduction will end with one litter because all of Princess's babies will have the potential to have or make kittens that just might not be lucky enough to get a good home....It's quite possible that you would find good homes for any kittens that Princess may have, however there isn't any guarantee that the new caregivers will spay or neuter their new companion and beyond that there isn't any guarantee that these descendants will not end up on the streets being forced to fend for themselves. Pets that find themselves on the streets alone must find ways to get food, water, a warm place to sleep and they must avoid becoming the victims of animal cruelty, poisoning, attacks by dogs or other cats and becoming the victim of an attack by a wild animal such as a raccoon, fisher or fox. Because there is a small likelihood that the cats would actually be able to find someone willing to care for them and provide necessities like medical attention, fresh food, clean drinking water and a warm place to sleep many of these stray cats die within about a 2 year span.... Spaying and neutering saves lives. If money is an issue you can certainly chat with local vets to see if you can come up with a payment plan. In many larger cities with SPCA shelters there is a program called SPCA Cares which offers routine medical care at low or no cost, so this is certainly another option to consider. Some cities have low cost spay/neuter clinics. I have also heard that some cities have vet clinics that provide routine care at a subsidized rate and they will often work out payment in the form of volunteer hours spent cleaning out cages or payment plans....I hope this information is useful.