My cat was spayed recently.. Help?

Question

I adopted a six month old female cat this past Friday from a pet shelter. She was spayed around Friday morning and I picked her up around 5pm on the same day. Her incision looks clean,light pink like the skin around the area, just some light swelling which I've been told it's normal. She was pretty active on Friday, running around and jumping a bit. She also ate dry cat food on Friday, around 8pm, and since Friday she's been urinating regularly. Although, since saturday... she hasn't really eaten all that much. She'll just pick at her food a bit and drink water. I even tried giving her wet/canned food which seemed to have caught her attention but she really didn't eat. She has also been sleeping quite a bit. Should I be worried? I contacted the pet shelter to ask if this is normal but they told me to contact my Vet(which I don't have one), considering I'm strapped for cash... Any advice or suggestions would be very gratefeul, thanks.

Answer 1

I work at a shelter and therefore see tons of spays every week.

Anyway, this is the advice I would give to someone calling me with the same concern...

Keep an eye on the incision site for swelling, heat radiating from the wound, excessive redness, puss, or foul smell. If anything like that occurs to see a vet immediately (or bring back to the shelter for their vet to have a look).

BUT this doesn't sound like anything to be worried about. A spay is a MAJOR SURGERY and your cat probably isn't feeling too good. I've have major surgery and the last thing I wanted to do was eat. Watch her eating for the next few days and make sure it starts to pick up. Keep offering her the wet food. If she start to loose weight or get sick bring her to the vet immediately.

Also, this is sad but true, sometimes shelters will spay a cat that is showing signs of sickness (or spays right before it becomes apparent). The spay is stressful so the sickness takes hold and can become a full blow upper respiratory infection. If your cat starts sneezing, snotting, coughing, hacking, gets runny eyes, drooling, and looks like she's not feeling good make sure to bring her to a vet right away. URI is easily treated with antibiotics but can be life threatening if not caught in early stages. My shelter covers the cost of these medications but not all will. Make sure to contact them.  

Answer 2

its a little bothering that you adopted a cat but dont have a vet nor do you have the money to get one...especially considering she will need to see a vet in a couple of weeks for the stitches out!

and what if somehting had gone wrong, what would you do if she got an infection, or what if something happens weeks from now?!

but...

her behaviour is NORMAL for a cat whos just a few days since a spay surgery, give her a quiet place to relax, dont fuss her too much and make sure she has acess to food and water at all times...

as long as shes eating and drinking at least a little shes fine and should be back to herself within 5-7 days.

Answer 3

all you can do is ring the shelter where you got the cat and tell them they should have a vet there for when they bring the cats and dogs in give it a go .

Answer 4

It's most likely a side effect from the anesthesia they put on her.  When my cat got spayed, I had to stay in one room with her for a week to make sure her stitches dont open.  (But they opened the first night and i had to go back and they stiched them again!) I would say just wait one more day and if she is still not acting the same then I would say take her to the vet.  Try feeding her treats or anything that can go down her stomach.  Make sure she is eating! Good luck!