Expert: Jessica - 7/18/2011

Question
My kitten is over 10 weeks old and only at night she sucks on her insicion where she was spayed. She does this all night long, every night,  constantly to where I cant sleep because of the loud sucking in a happy way. When she is not sucking she is rubbing her face on mine or licking my face. What do I do? I cannot sleep at night and I dont want her to hurt herself. This is very annoying.

Answer
Hi Vanessa,

She can cause an infection or delayed healing of the spay site if it’s not fully healed, so unfortunately, she should wear an Elizabethan collar (E-collar) until this heals. These are the "lampshade" type collars you see, given mostly to dogs when they are healing from surgery. You can purchase these at some pet stores, or your vet can provide one for you.

As for her bothering you during the night, try to tucker her out before bed time with a good half hour of interactive play time, using feather wands or a laser pointer, etc., and then feed her a full meal of canned food. This should get her to sleep right away and have her sleep through most of the night. If she does begin to bother you, shut her out of your room. If she cries at your door, I would encourage you to endure the crying for the time being to train her now, while she’s still young. If you give in to her at this young age, you will teach her that if she cries enough, she’ll get her way. While it’s difficult to suffer through lost sleep with a crying kitten at your bedroom door, she will eventually give up, and she should soon learn that if she wants to stay in the bedroom with you, she needs to not be bothersome.

If she remains too needy at night, I would consider getting her a buddy, if this is possible. The only way I survived raising a very vocal orphaned kitten of mine was to send another cat of mine out with her when she would get banished from the bedroom at night. Some cats just aren’t cut out for spending much time alone, and this one just happened to be one of them. Fortunately, kitty companions can serve as well as a human one when we can’t be there to give them our undivided attention.

Good luck!

Jessica