Thursday 9 April 2009

Kitten Diary #3

kittens ready for packing

The kits are progressing well.

On the 1st April, no joke, they went into the vet's for their neutering operations. At five months I feel this was a little early, despite many assurances from cat professionals that it makes no difference to development. I worry that while they are still growing so fast removing natural hormones from their bodies will be damaging. And with regard to this, several people have told me that body weight is used by some veterinarians to determine when the operation is best done, with very small female cats having to wait until they have gained pounds. I'm not sure of the reasoning behind it. I asked our vets here and they were dismissive.

But the RSPCA had extracted a promise from me, the Cat's Protection League are now recommending neutering at four months or even earlier and I wanted to get it over with in this country - not because the vets abroad are incapable but because it would have been difficult to negotiate in my poor French had anything gone wrong.

Everything went well, the actual surgery is very minor for the boys, just a quick snip of the scrotum and pop them out if that's not too much information. Raven had to have her side shaved and more serious work through an incision in her abdomen. The hole looked quite tiny, the sutures were neat and there has been no infection. The stitches dissolve by themselves and the hair is growing back quickly. She was racing about like a mad cat as soon as we got her home.

The cost of the operations was about £40 for the boys and £60 for the girl, to include a follow up visit to the nurse and pain medication if needed (it wasn't), so not too bad compared to the relatively uninvasive procedure of getting the passports at £160 each! These cats are costing a fortune.

We still haven't quite decided when we'll make the trip to France for the summer. We're all desperate to get there, even the kittens although they don't realise it, they love the outdoor life, but work stops play. It's a problem.

1 comment:

ICQB said...

Love your kittens. Glad to hear they're healthy and happy and ready for their French Adventure.