Shes spayed but acts like shes not.

Question
Hi Jessica,

Thank you for the opportunity to ask this question. I have a beautiful kitten who is now 8 months old. I got her from the human society and she was spayed when I bought her back in February. She still had the stitches in...

About a month and a half ago, she started rubbing her face on things and meowing more and louder. I called the vet and I took her in the next day thinking she had a possible ear infection because of the rubbing of the sides of her face. When I went in, the vet said she is showing signs of being in heat: tail going straight up when she is petted and behind going up. But she is spayed. He thinks when she was spayed the vet from the human society, didn't get all the parts of her reproductive system and she still has enough remaining to produce hormones to make her act the way she does.

First, does this sound right to you?

Second, if it is possible, is there a way to do a blood test (of the hormone being produced for example) first so we don't go and open her up for surgery to find out this is not the case?

Also, he is going to charge me $250 to do this surgery. Part of getting a cat from the human society, was the low cost - this seems excessive.

I appreciate your time and thank you for any assistance you can offer.

Christine
St. Louis, MO
Owner of Scarf

Answer
Hi Christine.  Yes, this does sound right to me.  It can happen with any vet, but it may be more common with vets who are working with a humane society because they will often spay 25 or 30 cats in one day!  The ovaries are fished out with a hook through an incision less than an inch long, so you can see how a little oversight could occur.

$250 is steep, isn't it?  Unfortunately, it is pretty average.  Vets in my area charge up to $350 for an average spay, and taking time to locate a piece of missed ovarian tissue can make the procedure more labor intensive.

There are blood tests that can measure estrogen and progesterone that may indicate the spay was incomplete.  An ultrasound may be more accurate.  People generally don't opt for these because they come to suspect an incomplete spay when the signs are pretty clear the cat is in heat, and further tests would just be added expenses.

Sometimes you can get assistance from a low-cost spay clinic.  You can check out neuterspay.org and lovethatcat.com to see if there might be a clinic near you.  Or you could call the humane society and see if you may be able to bring her back at little or no cost for the procedure on their next spay day.