Spay Surgery Question - 5 Wks Before Flight Or Wait Until Several Wks After?

[Adelei]

I need a little advice about spaying my cat. There are a LOT of background details that I'm leaving out, because otherwise it would take me even longer to ask/explain.

I need to get my almost 9 month old cat spayed. I would have liked to get her spayed much sooner, but I found her seriously injured back in August when she was around 3 months old and she was only just recently cleared by the vet to have the surgery. I'm in China, but in the process of moving my 3 cats back to the USA. I just took one and I'm taking her on April 1st (she has to be the next one, leaving out details here). She will stay with my Mom and 2 other spayed female cats until I and my neutered male cat join them in July.

So far, I don't think she's gone into heat, but then again, I don't have any experience with cats in heat. At her age, I would have expected her to already go into heat, but she is pretty small for her age. She's indoor only.

So my choices are to get her spayed next week, which is just 5 weeks before we make a 28 hour trip from here to my mom's OR get her safely to America and then have my mom wait several weeks+ until she settles in and then have my mom take her to be spayed.

I'm on the fence, b/c I'm worried about her flying just 5 weeks after the surgery. I'm worried about her flying anyway, because she had a head injury and so many other things wrong. I also don't think that the vets here take out the uterus, at least they didn't with my other female cat. The vets here are, in general, pretty terrible, which is one reason why I'm moving back to the USA (leaving out loads of details here). My mom really wants me to get it done in the USA, for that reason.

On the other hand, I'm afraid that if we wait until May, she will most definitely have gone into heat by then, increasing her chance of certain cancers. I'm also concerned how her being a fully intact female will affect the group dynamic when she's introduced to the other two cats. She's already familiar with one of them (my cat that I just took), but she hadn't gone into heat while that cat was here (I don't think). And while my mom is urging me to wait, I don't think she'd appreciate it if the cat started spraying the house or causing trouble with the other two.

I guess my main concern is whether it's more dangerous to fly 5 weeks after spay surgery or more dangerous long-term for her to start having heat cycles (due to the increased risk of cancers). And of course, I don't know how leaving the uterus in affects the long-term risk either. Any thoughts?

 

[Jem]

I'm normally a "spay as soon as you can" but, just my personal opinion, I would wait.
My concern is what if the healing does not go well after the surgery? Couple that with the fact that you say the vets are terrible.

Many cats live long healthy lives even if they have gone into heat a few times before getting spayed, so my concerns on "an increased risk" of cancer if not spayed takes a back seat to the more probable complications of getting spayed so close to moving. And this is only IF she goes into heat before you can get her spayed and of course the increase risk of cancer goes up with EVERY heat cycle, so if by chance she only experiences one and she is still under a year old when you do it, I would hope she would be OK.
I found some information saying that a spayed cat (before first heat) has a 9% chance of mammary cancer, but if the cat is spayed at least before a year old, even if she has experienced a heat, it is 14%.

Again, just my personal thoughts. There is a risk no matter what you choose to do.
Good luck with your move!!!!!!

 

[She's a witch]

I don’t know what I would do, but referring to removing the ovaries only and not uterus- most Western European countries do this (reasoning behind is that such surgery is simpler and less invasive and the uterus “dries out” anyway so there is no chance of pyonetra). Personally I am not a fan of this solution (I think just because I was used to removing both I think) but my experience (not in China) is that you can always find a vet that would remove both ovaries and uterus (ovariohysterectomy rather than ovariectomy), just call around.

Edited to add: just as you can always find a good vet everywhere even if bad is more common.
If you decide to spay her there, can you maybe take the male cat with you first and her in July?

 

[Adelei]

Edited to add: just as you can always find a good vet everywhere even if bad is more common.

Well, I've found the best vet I can find here in my city and I think he really does care about the animals and knows more than any other vet around, but he's still not great. I'm very active in a rescue group full of foreigners and local Chinese, so believe me, I've asked around. This is the best vet, but he's still not up to American standards.

If you decide to spay her there, can you maybe take the male cat with you first and her in July?

No, I can't take her in July. That was one of the details I left out for brevity. My male cat has Cerebellar Hypoplasia (the cat version of cerebral palsy). For various reasons, neither my mom nor I are comfortable with her taking care of him for three months. I mean, taking him in April would solve the problem of when to spay my girl cat, but it would open up a lot more problems.