I think we’ve all seen the cartoons of the cute little demure female cat in the house and the 15 Tom cats outside singing, loud cat songs. That’s the cartoons. It’s not quite the same.
Cats have very different cycles than humans. (Just as different as dogs are different.)
In general cats come into heat when the days start to get longer. And we call it “heat“. If you want a fancy word, it’s called “estrus”. It is absolutely not a menstrual period. I tend to be pretty emphatic about that with people. I guess partly I want them to sound educated. And the other part is, I want people to understand what they’re dealing with.
So I have some clients who would rather not sterilize their animals. I get it. A few of my clients have intact female cats. Intact means they are not spayed. Spayed. It’s a strange word that means ovarohysterectomy.
Anyway…
Definitions are done.
Back to a cat in heat.
Often they stop coming into heat, sometimes called coming into season, when the days get short. Like in the winter. But then the days start to get longer and sooner or later, she starts cycling again. I have one client whose cat comes in the heat about every three weeks and it lasts about three days. I have another client whose cat came into heat every three days for three days. Three days on. Three days off. Three days on. Three days off. That owner couldn’t take it and got his little girl fixed. I understand.
Oh, and I still haven’t told you the behavior. Sometimes the females make loud noises. They have an arched back posture and hold the tail way over their back and definitely have their girl parts presented much more publicly.
These are all ways for the female to attract a male.
We’re talking cats here people!
The only way to get her to stop coming in the heat? It’s either for her to have sex with a male or get her fixed.
Cats are what is called “induced ovulators.“ This means their ovaries have eggs ready to hatch, but the eggs do not hatch until they have intercourse. The intercourse is what causes the eggs to hatch – this induced ovulation.
So if you have a little girl cat, and you want to delay getting her fixed for health reasons, go for it. Know what to look for. There’s no harm with the behavior. Other than you might not sleep as well.
And if you do decide to get your female kitty sterilized, spayed, try to do it in the period of time when she’s not making horny cat behaviors.
What health reasons might make you want to delay surgery? There’s an abundance of information that shows that the earlier dogs get fixed, the taller they grow and the more likely they have hip and joint disease. We have less information about cats. From observation, I can tell you that I do see changes in size of body parts the younger they get fixed. So there may be an advantage to delaying sterilization. There just aren’t enough unsterilized cats yet for people to share the health consequences. Give it time. Science will catch up.
As veterinarians, we can spay a cat at any time. Just there’s more blood flowing to the uterus when she’s in heat so it makes it a little bit harder to tie everything off completely. As surgeons, veterinarians want a surgery to go well and not have complications. For that reason, we prefer NOT to spay cats who are in heat at time of their surgery.
Now you know.
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Still seeing patients in Tampa, Clearwater, and virtually.