My wonderful husband does not want to spay our indoor 5 month old kitten. He adores her & thinks spaying will change her personality. Someone said "Let her come into heat once & after he goes through that he will happily agree to spay her"...there is no way she can get outside and we have German Shepherds so no stray cats can come into our yard. We do not want her to have kittens. Question - will her personality change if she has one heat & is then spayed ?? - after one heat & spaying will she go back to being our sweet loveable baby?? If she sprays urine during her first heat will she then pee forever or will that habit go away??
-
Too many ads? Join our community of cat lovers now to reduce ads by 90%! Click here to join for free!
Spaying after first heat
- Thread starter margo
- Start Date
By letting her go into heat you increase her chance for mammary cancer dramatically (if she never goes into heat her chances are zero). A female cat in heat is a very unpleasant thing to listen to (constant howling) and will go on almost continually during spring and summer. Spaying a cat does not change their personality, it just makes a happy healthier pet.
The reason sometimes that people think their personality changes with spaying is that kittens commonly calm down at about six months old. It will happen whether or not you spay. But if you wait until she has a heat cycle, you are endangering her future health. And not even years into the future, because even one heat cycle opens the uterus a little and allows bacteria in and she can get an infection that is life threatening. So, I would recommend spaying right away so you have your kitty with you for the next 20 years. And if she does go into heat and one of her particular vices is spraying urine, that habit may not necessarily go away after spaying. So, another reason to spay now. Oh, those German Shepherds may be fiece, but cats will go through fire to get to a female in heat. Becky
Waiting to spay it a bad decision. THe hormone shift associated with heat, can influence her personality much heavier than the slight shift from spaying.
Please spay her before her first heat, if for nothing else but her health.
Spotz
Please spay her before her first heat, if for nothing else but her health.
Spotz
My cat had 2 and a half years of heats before we could afford to get her fixed. I feel horrible to think of all the health risks we've put her through. Luckily she didn't add to any population while she was intact. She did have the 'joys' of motherhood though, since she had gone through a whole pregnancy with no kittens, and was able to raise a litter of orphans. Giving them a better beginning, and giving her the babies she so desperately was looking for. She got them two days after she was due. (very long drawn out story)
For two and a half years we endured the howling, rubbing, and even masterbation with her. It was torture for me as well as her. Finally when I was offered a spay certificate for $40 I jumped on it. Didn't tell my hubby, who stressed that I spent that much money (we were not financially stable at the time). We got her fixed shortly after. She is still the same cat she always was. She does still kinda howl, but now it's with a toy in her mouth, and she stops when NyghtShade finds her.
I do think it's MUCH better to fix before a heat then after. From personal experience, I agree whole heartedly.
I agree with the others about this. I have known many cats over the years, all of ours have been female, and all were spayed before their first heat. All of them were dear loving cats, with no personality change. Also, if you get it done while they are so young, it's a much simpler operation, less danger of complications. I had british shorthair once, she was spayed just before six months old, and they were able to do it with keyhole surgery - Winnie only had ONE stitch, and recovered from the op amazingly quickly. So my advice would be - arrange it asap!
Sue
Sue
I had an appointment to get my older cat spayed (she was about five months old we thought) and she went into heat the night before! Cats in heat make so much noise and that in itself would make you wish you had done it earlier. I really wish we hadn't waited until we got the spayday coupon. We're getting our new kitten spayed as soon as she reaches 4lbs. For health reasons and for the sheer annoyance factor of having a howling kitty, you should get her fixed asap. Annabelle didn't change at all after she was spayed, neither did the cat we had when I was a child. None of my friend's cats, males or females, have had any sort of personality change after being fixed, other than not spraying. Annabelle has never sprayed after we got her fixed.
