Removing Cat Stitches

[amarshall0919]

My 1 year old cat, Smoothie, was spayed 13 days ago and is getting her stitches out today. She has been suffering with some hormonal issues which is why she had to get spayed in the first place. The vet told us that before they done the surgery, she freaked out on them, was hissing, and tried to attack them like she has been doing towards us. This is why I had hoped they were going to use three dissolvable stitches, so she would not have to go back. However, they did not.

To ease my mind some, how exactly do they remove the stitches? Are they going to have to sedate her since she is quite unpredictable and uncontrollable? She had an awful time coming off of the anesthesia, and it was hard to watch. I’m very nervous.

 

[Kieka]

Removing stitches if just like with humans; a little snip and pull out the thread. As to sedation, it depends on if they need to. With three stitches they may be able to remove them without sedation but they may not. If they do need to, it wouldn't be the full on asleep sedation (I would assume). There is a mild sedation where the cat isn't asleep just distant and they can reverse it with another injection very quickly. They used that for my boys abcesse a few years ago so they could flush it and clean it. He typically doesn't handle the full sedation well but this one was like nothing happened pretty quickly.

 

[amarshall0919]

Removing stitches if just like with humans; a little snip and pull out the thread. As to sedation, it depends on if they need to. With three stitches they may be able to remove them without sedation but they may not. If they do need to, it wouldn't be the full on asleep sedation (I would assume). There is a mild sedation where the cat isn't asleep just distant and they can reverse it with another injection very quickly. They used that for my boys abcesse a few years ago so they could flush it and clean it. He typically doesn't handle the full sedation well but this one was like nothing happened pretty quickly.

Thank you so much for answering! That makes me feel better.

 

[vince]

I have removed stitches on several cats (my own hands, too) with no problems after the incisions have healed. No big deal as long as there's no infection, and that's easy to see. At least for me, it just itched while the sutures came out.

I think they use Propofol on cats, just like they do on people. I can say from personal experience that the reversal injection acts very fast and residual anesthesia is minimal to nonexistent. I was up and on my feet in no more than about 20 minutes after the end of the several procedures. I think the two cats I had fixed were both administered Propofol and had none of the long-lasting drunkenness that I've seen in some of those YouTube videos.