Stray cat strut : having a feral cat spayed or neutered

October 9, 2007 2:45 PM

A friend of mine is writing a novel and needs help with some questions about having a feral cat spayed or neutered. I hope that you all can help her fill in some details.

I know that having lots of questions in a single post is discouraged, but I am hoping that you might like seeing a glimpse into her creative process as much as I do.

1. If you have taken feral cats to be spayed or neutered, have you ever used a cat trap?

2. Where did you take the cat(s) to be fixed? Are there normally a lot of people waiting to get their pets fixed there? Are there a lot of animals there for other reasons? What animals do you normally see there? Bear in mind that my main character doesn't really like animals.

3. So what do you, the human, do once you're at the clinic or wherever else you've taken the cat(s) to be fixed? Is it like a regular human doctor visit, where you go into a room and the doctor comes in? Or do they take the cat(s) from you and you sit in the waiting room?

4. How does the cat get prepped or the operation and who does the prepping? The doctor performing the spaying/neutering? An assistant/nurse/I dunno who? Do you get to watch the process? I imagine they handle feral cats differently than strays, since strays are accustomed to human contact while ferals aren't. How do they handle it?

5. How long does it take and where are you during each step of the process? How long after the operation until you get to take the cat(s) back?

6. What does the inside of a vet's look like? I know this may sound like a stupid question, but keep in mind that I've never really had any pets!

posted by tumble to pets & animals (8 comments total)

It would probably be better if your friend visited a vet. Maybe if they rang and explained they were writing a novel and needed to get certain bits authentic, could they perhaps hang around for half an hour? Vet's surgery to be acknowledged in the thank yous.

In my experience, there's a huge range of surgeries. I knew one semi-retired woman who had a room off the side of her house, a collective of vets who owned an animal hospital, a couple of vets in a converted house and a group in a shopping centre.

How feral is the cat? If it's abandoned, mostly I've been able to coax it closer, but I didn't take it to the vets, I took it to a no-kill shelter. Otherwise a possum trap.

In general, the vet has come out, called the name of the pet, and we've gone into the examining room together.
posted by b33j at 2:53 PM on October 9, 2007

1. I have, Yes.

2. Vet. Not specifically. Yes, it's a vet. Bears and Tasmanian Snow Zombies. Ok?

3. Read a book or form a fight club, we can't talk about that though. Two life forms enter, one leaves with a vet, then you go home until they call you.

4. Dunno, I imagine there's some sort of pep talk. Personal trainer? We never see this, I would imagine there is some sort of fur removal and drugging process, kind of like that one party in college you don't want us to bring up again. Tag team human vs cat wrestling until it is sedated.

5. Couple of hours. 24-48 hours, depending on age and how much fun the cat had.

6. Ever seen Charlie and the chocolate factory ?

Visit the vet, talk to them and pick up a pamphlet on it, actually most of this can be found by calling a vet or talking to the spca or reading their intertubes webervision site.
posted by iamabot at 2:58 PM on October 9, 2007

The SPCA in SF has a lot of information on ferals (even a free DVD).
posted by Gucky at 4:15 PM on October 9, 2007

or have your friend call the local feral cat rescue, out local one traps them at night takes them to a vet for rabies shot, well check and altering then if they seem to be able to find enough food and shelter and are in a safe environment they will release them back where they found them. I am sure one of the volunteers would be glad to tell them some real life experiences if not even allow your friend to tag along for a rescue (especially if your friend gave a small donation or some cat food) The rescue groups I have worked with (but just of the canine variety welcome any help they can get)
posted by meeshell at 4:29 PM on October 9, 2007

1. Yes, I used a cat trap.
2. I took it to a special low-priced charity vet clinic that was doing $10 neutering that weekend. All of the other animals were people's pets, and all cats and dogs from what I could tell. I think nearly all of them were there taking advantage of the low-cost neutering.
3. They took the cat and we came back to get her a few hours later to pick her up.
4. You don't get to see it, but when you get it back the cat's belly is shaved with stitches and you have to keep it in your house for a day or two till it heals. I imagine they deal with the feralness by gassing the cat right away since they will have to at some point anyway.
5. A vet's office is like a doctor's office but easier to clean. Yeah, she really should just visit one.

Bonus Answer: The highlight of my feral cat fixing adventure was when I tried to stick a finger into her trap/cage to try to calm her by petting her and she bit the tip of my leather glove off. I don't think I realized till then quite how wild feral cats really are.
posted by Jess the Mess at 5:44 PM on October 9, 2007

This is for a stray (rather than feral) cat who was suspected to have rabies. Short version of the story - we fed a stray who hung out around our apartment complex and who was very cute and sweet. He then bit one of our neighbors. The neighbor called Animal Control, who came by and told me he would have to take the cat to be euthanized unless I took it to a vet and had it quarantined and neutered and agreed to keep it indoors.

1. Actually it was more like a raccoon trap. Steel bars, very alarming in my opinion. The cat went in there willingly though.

2/6. We were told by the Animal Control Services person to take her to a vet close to our apartment. He followed us to the vet and signed papers and I wrote a $250 check for the procedures. I've only ever seen other dogs at this particular vet but cats goes there too. There are cages in the waiting room with kittens for adoption. There are also bags of food for sale, a big scale for weighing dogs, and I believe a fish tank. Tile/laminate floors, lots of plants.

3. Since the cat had to be quarantined for 5 days, we left (obviously.) On normal non-surgical vet visits, you take the animals into the examining rooms and sit with them/hold them down and talk to the doctors.

4. I would assume that the operating room is a sterile environment just like a human OR. You don't get to watch. I don't know if you could if you wanted to.

Bonus picture of the cat in this story, 3 years later.
posted by tatiana wishbone at 8:38 PM on October 9, 2007

I work in a vet's office.

1. Never done it myself, but they do look much like raccoon traps.

2. Normally you would take the cat to a vet. Sometimes there are low-cost spay/neuter days at shelters, but a vet is more likely (and it is what I will talk about). Depending on the size of the office/hospital there may be no one but you there, or there may be several people there with or without their pets (they may be waiting while a procedure is done). It is very rare that you would see anything other than a dog or cat. I work at a 24-hr emergency hospital, with a doctor who specializes in exotic pets (the catchall name for everything from rabbits to lizards) and we get maybe 6 or 7 exotics a week.

3. The normal vet office visit is very much like a human doctor visit. A receptionist or veterinary technician (the RNs of the animal world) will take you and the animal into an exam room, where you will wait for the vet for some length of time. The vet will come in (usually with a technician) to do a physical exam and talk to you for a few minutes. For a spay/neuter this is the point where they will take the animal from you and the tech will go out back with it while you return to the waiting room.

4. The animal will then be sedated by one or more technicians -- usually with an injection, but particularly nasty cats can be put in a terrarium-like box into which anesthetic gas is pumped. This procedure is usually known as "knocking him/her down." The area will then be shaved and scrubbed (again by the techs) with antiseptic. The doctor will then perform the operation (only a few minutes for a standard neuter, longer for a spay). A surgical technician will assist and monitor anesthesia during the procedure. The animal will usually then be given a drug to counteract the sedation, and placed in a cage to wake up. You will not get to watch.

5. The procedure only takes a short time, but you will probably be told to leave and return some hours later to pick up the animal, as they may have several procedures lined up for that day, and may not get to your pet immediately.

6. Tatiana nailed the traditional components of a vet's office: big scale, plants and a fish tank are practically de rigeur.

My email is in my profile if there are other questions.
posted by Rock Steady at 10:02 PM on October 9, 2007

I moved in to a house that had a yard full of feral cats. I have become an expert on the subject! I work with Alley Cat Resue (find them on the internet under Alley Cat Allies). They allow me to borrow traps and we set several traps at once baited with wet cat food. The cats stay in the cage until early morning and they are transported to a specific vet familiar with ferals. Ferals are given a shot of anethesia in their humane trap before the door gets opened. The cats are then prepped the same as any other cat and they are returned to the same cage to wake up from surgery. With feral cats, no one can handle them when they are awake. When they are under, they are given basic shots such as rabies, and they are ear-tipped, which means the tip of an ear is removed or notched so any other animal worker will know by sight if that cat has been spayed/nuetered.

Sometimes I pay extra and ask the vet to give the feral cat a hit of Advantage flea treament. It only lasts 30 days and I'll never get close enough to that cat again to put it on the cat, but at least for one month of it's life it can not be miserable with fleas.

I was not an animal lover when I moved to this house, but I do feed these cats. I feel it is the least I can do after cutting their balls off, you know? They are living in my yard and they don't bother anyone else and they are not reproducing. You must get any animals that you feed neutered/spayed or else the cycle just continues.
posted by 45moore45 at 6:52 PM on October 17, 2007