Can a pregnant female cat still be spayed?

Answer 1

Yes, you can. Our friends had it done with their cat. It just means that there won't be any kittens.

Answer 2

A vet can spay a pregnant cat but it would be like an abortion. I don't think a vet would do it unless the kittens are dead or the mother cat is having a problem. It is a shame that the cat was not spayed before she got pregnant, but if it was me, I would let the cat have the kittens and try to find them good homes then get her spayed after her milk dries up. But be careful she can get pregnant again even while nursing kittens.

Answer 3

I am a vet tech at a BUSY cat shelter and we run a spay/neuter clinic. I can assure you 100% that you CAN spay a cat while it is pregnant!!!! Yes, it aborts the kittens. Last year, we spay-aborted 500 kittens. Where would the homes for 500 more kittens have come from??????? We can hardly find homes for the adult cats, and tons of kittens without adding 500 more to the number.
It is sad, and if more pet owners would spay BEFORE they were having litters, we may someday be able to avoid this practice.

We spay them as long as they are not in active labor...right up to the very end!!!

According to our vets, they would rather spay a pregnant cat than a cat in heat....but we do both all the time.

As for the other "myths"...the mom recovers FINE. IT does not cost $1,000. Our shelter does low cost spay/neuters. We charge $50 for a spay..pregnant,in heat,or a kitten. Is it better to have kittens die easily from an overdose of anesthesia, or let them be born and kill many of them down the road when there are no homes and they are sick?????????

Answer 4

One of the most controversial issues is whether or not to spay a rescued pregnant cat. While some people are repulsed at the thought of killing kittens, others believe the question begs a larger issue, that of the overpopulation problem.
Stray female cats have an uncanny knack of finding shelter immediately before giving birth, and will suddenly appear at a doorstep, seeking human help. Other female strays will find themselves cast out into the streets, punished for getting pregnant, because their owners failed to spay them and keep them indoors. Or the owner, in an attempt to salve their conscience, will surrender the pregnant female to a shelter, as a "found" stray, or summarily dump her at the door of a known rescuer

All too often, these pregnant females are kittens themselves. It is fairly common for a cat to have its first estrus period between four and six months of age, and to give birth as early as at six or seven months. This situation is rife with potential for disaster, both to the survival of the mother cat, and to any kittens that live.

Unfortunately, many veterinarians refuse to spay or neuter cats until they are six months old, which only exacerbates the problem. Guidelines for early spay/neutering are 6 weeks or 2 pounds.

Spaying of a pregnant cat includes abortion, a word that involves emotional reactions, whether applied to humans or to cats.

Animal shelters approach the issue in different ways:

Spay the mother cat; if late-term pregnancy try to save any viable kittens (this would not happen in a "kill shelter."
Spay the mother cat in all cases, right up until birth.
Observe what has been called the "Gold Standard," and never spay a rescued pregnant cat.

This issue is emotional on both sides. Proponents don't like having to take lives of unborn kittens, but their position is based on pragmatic reasoning. Opponents simply do not like the taking of lives under any circumstances, whether born or unborn.
Background
The larger issue should be addressed first, that of an enormous cat overpopulation problem, primarily caused by cat owners' failure to spay or neuter their cats. Often the resulting pregnant female cats are thrown out on the street, where they and their surviving kittens continue to mate, and the offspring from those matings continue to mate. The horrifying reality is that a pregnant female cat and her descendents can account for the births of over 420,000 kittens in just seven years.
Animal rescue groups, humane societies, and TNR (trap-neuter-release) groups are overwhelmed in trying to staunch the flow of new kittens, and "kitten season," which extends for a long part of each year is met with dread by these groups. Dread, because they know that this year's kitten crop will be responsible for the deaths of last year's kittens, or older cats, at shelters. There simply isn't enough space to house them all, and something must give. It's a matter of supply and demand. In a world that loves kittens, kittens are a dime a dozen.

While spaying a non-pregnant female cat will prevent the birth of anonymous future kittens, spaying (and aborting) a pregnant female cat prevents the birth of live embryos, a thought that horrifies many people.

There is more information available about your question, continued from above. Go to the site mentioned.

Answer 5

I voted some thumbs up and some thumbs down, but let me tell you the harsh REALITY. In the past year, I have fostered (hand raised) three litters of kittens (total 9). You have no idea how hard it was to find them homes. I have three with me now, who are over three months old; three local shelters are full; and there are no takers. I could get them into a shelter, but, because of the influx of other unwanted kittens, they would be euthanized within a week to make room for more kittens for whom there were no homes.

Yes, it sounds cruel to spay a pregnant female. How much more cruel is it for those kittens to be born, loved by the mother and humans around them, and then be packed off to a too small cage in a large room that smells of cat urine because of the number of cats, with dogs barking and howling in the background, and be put down in three or four days, because no one wanted them.

Please spay. The end result is usually the same, unfortunately.

Answer 6

The answer is yes. However, it is generally unpleasant for the vet depending on the development of the unborn kittens. The vet ends up removing the embryonic sacs and putting the kittens aside to die. Some vets drop the kittens into water to die. It's not something vets like to do. However, if the lives of the unborn kittens are going to be horrible, you won't be able to adopt them out, and they will be throw aways, it's better that they never see the light of day. Awful subject.

For whatever reason you posted the question,
Good luck with the answers you need.

Happy Tails.

Answer 7

No, my female was in-heat and the vet would not do the surgery until she got over the in-heat phase. Worked out great! The sweetest cat i ever had. She lived to be 21 yrs., before she had to be put to sleep. She was more than just a cat, she kept me company when i was sick and alone.

Answer 8

Yes, though essentially you are also giving her an abortion in the process. My girlfriend's cat got out and mated with a stray male (we saw it happen as we were trying to catch her. (Cats mate VERY quickly) and she took her cat to the vet three days later and she was spayed.

Answer 9

The veterinarian would have to tell you if it is safe for the cat to have the kittens aborted and the spay to be done.

Answer 10

Not with out the kitten's dead and mother cat with alot of promblems that might lead her to death. Wait till the kittens are born and are 8 weeks old. Then the kittens will live, there mother will be fine with a lot of milk to feed them, and you won't be spending 1000 dollars.