spayed ragdoll in heat???

Question
I purchased my darling baby Bella, a seal bi-color ragdoll, from a breeder who required she be fixed by her vet before purchase.  Bella just turned 1 year old and has had a few strange bouts of behavior that last 3-4 days...  she cries, cries, & cries, carries on like no amount of attention in the world will be enough, rubs against everything, flips & flops back and forth constantly on the floor, and goes nuts upon being touched - especially scratched near her back-end where she starts to tread her back two legs.

I've never had a cat who hasn't been fixed, but this sure sounds like a cat in heat to me - am I nuts?  I know that ragdolls mature very differently from other cats, so I'm wondering if this is just part of her maturing process or is it possible something when wrong with her spaying procedure?

Any advice would be much appreciated!  Thank you!


Answer
This does, indeed, sound like a cat in heat. I don't want to cast any aspersions on Bella's breeder, but I am wondering the same thing as you -- whether something went wrong with the spay or (god forbid) whether you were charged for one but it wasn't actually done.

The only way to tell for sure is to get Bella to your vet. I would think that a quick physical exam would be able to determine whether the uterus is present or not. If it is, then you are obviously going to have to deal with the situation and your breeder and/or her vet have some explaining to do. Be sure you can get your vet to put his or her opinion in writing so you will have backup. If, on the other hand, there is no uterus there, you'll need to discuss this with your vet. A spay involves removal of both the uterus and the ovaries. It occurs to me that if it is done on a very young cat, perhaps one of the ovaries might have been missed and if so, it could still be in there doing its hormonal duty -- so you will have to discuss this possibility with your vet and act on the resulting recommendations.

I'm quite interested in hearing how this turns out and hope you will let me know. Although most of the breeders I know spay their kittens before they go to new homes, I don't because my vet is against the early spay/neuter process for a number of reasons and I believe situations like this might be one of them.

Good luck resolving this.

iris