When To Spay?

Question
Hi Jessica, You've helped me twice before and I need you again. I have a 5 month old Siamese female kitty. She needs to be spayed but I wondered if there is a good time for this. In other words, I've heard it's best to let her have one heat session (or whatever it is called)and I've heard to not let her do that. Any particular guidelines on this? She is an indoor kitty so no chance of any "dating" without my permission. Thanks so much.

Answer
Hi Joanne.  Glad you asked this question!  There are no known benefits of allowing a cat to go into heat.  If she goes into heat just one time, her chances of developing mammary cancer later in life TRIPLE.  And it triples the next two times she goes into heat - three heats, she's about 1000 times more likely to develop mammary cancer than if she never went into heat.  And if she goes into heat once, she may go into heat again before you can even schedule a spay appointment.  They can go into heat as often as every 10 days.

It's all the more important to have her spayed now because a.) Siamese are more likely to develop lymphoma than the average cat, and b.) Siamese sexually mature younger than other breeds - often around 6 months old.  So I urge you to make her appointment immediately.  

Neuters and spays are being performed very early, thanks to safter anesthetics than we had before.  In most states, animal shelters are not allowed to adopt cats out until they're altered, so many are routinely spaying kittens at just 7 weeks old.  So your little girl is plenty old enough to be safely spayed.