I received an email this morning from Sushmita (name changed), asking my help for what to do when there are kittens being left on the streets and she already has seven such kittens rescued in her house.

This situation is so common for so many people concerned about animals and their welfare. Abandoned, helpless kittens left on the roadsides and kind people trying their best to save their lives by syringe feeding or bottle feeding them every couple of hours 24/7. Despite of all the love and dedication for such work, many such kittens don’t survive.

The suffering of abandoned kittens and puppies seems so unnecessary when we have a good solution to prevent unwanted pregnancies and unwanted puppies and kittens. Surgical sterilisation continues to be the best and most recommended and life-long solution for population control in cats. And by the fact that such appeals for help as just this one from Sushmita are so common, it is clear that there is huge need for cat owners to be able to have better access to spay/neuter surgery services.

At the WVS India ITC   we have just completed the third ‘cats only’ – surgery experience program of this year, led by WVS Taskforce vet Dr Sumanth. Super popular. As always, there would be so many more vets interested than what we can take.

So what is in a cat? Why we have to teach about cat surgeries separately from dog spay/neuter programs? And what are the benefits for vets to learn to spay cats? The need for population control in cats has been getting more attention recently, with the ABC rules (2023) specifically also mentioning cats. In areas with less free-roaming dogs, cats can do well and breed more or less continuously.  

From the anesthetic perspective the first and most important factor is that ‘cats are not small dogs’. They are cats. Different species with its own specifics when it comes to metabolism of drugs, such as anesthetics or analgesics.

However, they are also small. Cats are smaller than dogs. From the surgical technique perspective this means that we can spay a cat from a relatively small incision compared to dogs and that the anatomic structures that we handle when spaying a cat, such as the ovaries and ligaments, are smaller and often much more delicate than in dogs. Having smaller surgical instruments and smaller drapes with smaller windows can make a huge difference in the precision of the surgery resulting in neater outcome, happy cat and very impressed owner who will be likely to praise you and the procedure to all his/her cat owner friends. And soon they all want to have their cats spayed because as much as cats are lovely pets – no one wants to be dealing with the constant cycle of pregnancies and how to find homes for yet another litter of kittens. Animal shelters are just way too aware of how hard and heart-breaking it is to try to save and adopt abandoned kittens that end up on in boxes at their doorsteps. There simply is not enough homes for them all. But there is a lot of work for vets to do in spaying cats.

To help those vets who would like to do more cat surgeries but generally prefer to have smaller artery forceps and a spayhook (FLAT handle) – we have great news. Just Keep Spaying – Cats – instrument set has been introduced to the Access to vet care -online store. It also has smaller drapes with smaller window and the scissors are wonderful, delicate Metzenbaum scissors, perfect for the delicate cat tissue.

The spayhook is also available separately, in case you already have all the other instruments and just would like to give spayhook a try.