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Millie the Tortoiseshell Cat for Spay

Millie’s owner brings her to our clinic on the morning she is booked in for a routine spay operation. Our reception staff welcome them into the clinic and invite them to take a seat in our spacious waiting room. One of our nurses will admit Millie in one of our new consulting rooms, running though important questions to make sure she is ready for her anaesthetic and answering any concerns her owner may have. It is important that Millie has an empty stomach prior to undergoing a general anaesthetic to avoid vomiting whilst she is anaesthetised. This means that she must have had no food after 8pm the night before her operation.

Our nurse will then take Millie through to weigh her. Millie will then go to the brand new Cat Only Ward in the quiet end of our clinic (Alton surgery only). Here her heart will be checked before she is given an appropriate premedication such as pain relief and sedation. If Millie has not been seen by one of our vets prior to coming in for her operation then a vet will undertake her initial examination. We aim to keep this time as calm as possible and have separate kennelling areas for particularly vocal patients so that Millie can relax quietly on a comfortable bed as her premedication takes effect.

Once she is sedated, Millie is then taken through to the Preparation Room where a nurse will hold her and her Vet will anaesthetise her. Our general anaesthetics are maintained with oxygen mixed with anaesthetic gas. The Preparatory Room is a lovely light space fully equipped for anaesthesia and also has a specialised table for dentistry work and bathing animals. Here Millie’s fur will be clipped away to avoid contamination of the Operating Theatre. For cats, spay surgery is usually done from the flank rather than midline like with bitch spays.

Next Millie is moved into our refurbished operating theatre where her skin is cleaned for the sterile spay procedure. Here we have a Capnograph to monitor her anaesthetic in detail and we can keep her warm with blankets and special heated mats. Her vet will then perform the spay operation which involves surgical removal of her ovaries and uterus by making an incision through the middle of her abdomen. Throughout her operation, Millie’s nurse takes regular measurements to ensure her anaesthetic is carefully controlled.

Once Millie is carefully sutured closed, her anaesthetic gas is switched off so that she slowly wakes up whilst being given oxygen to help her. She is wrapped in blankets and once awake she is taken back to her comfortable kennel to quietly recover, monitored carefully by our nursing staff.

When Millie is up and about and we are happy with her pain relief, she is allowed to go home with appropriate medications and an after care form that will be explained by our nurses.

Millie will need to come back to the clinic for a post operation check up that may include removal of sutures placed depending on whether sutures are dissolvable or not.