9MO HIMMI IN HEAT? LOSING HAIR?

Question
My family bought a female himilayan from a pet store at the end of the summer. The kitten is now nine months old, and as my wife and i mull the age old questions of claws and breeding, she is displaying behaviors i, and our book from the pet store, would contribute to her being in heat. in addition to the vocals, neediness, rolling around and treading her rear paws, she also seems to be losing an extra amount of hair. to our knowledgge this is her first cycle, and she has been displaying symptoms for approximately three days. we also have a neutered three year old maltese male pup, who has not helped the situation at all. he has gone through the motions with her, we stopped them as soon as we found them, but whenever they play, which is quite often, she seems to lose more and more. she almost seems to be developing a bald patch over her left hind leg. please let me know anything you can about our cats current situation, any thoughts and considerations on declawwing and alternative methods with two small children in the house, and what to do about her cycles, should we fix her if we are undecided? PLEASE HELP ME!!!

Answer
HI Jason,
I highly recommend having her spayed.  Having her spayed will decrease ovarian tumors and more problems down the road.  You won't have to worry about her coming into heat anymore either, or worry about her getting out and getting pregnant. This is for her health.  The other reason, is that there are too many cats being bred and ending up in animal shelters.  Breeders select only the finest of the breed in order to keep the breed going and insure a healthy bloodline.  By breeding your cat to just another himmie, it weakens the bloodline and eventually you end up with very poor quality himies which are often sick.  So, in my opinion,unless you have a show quality himalayan with excellent pedigree, she should be spayed.

I don't agree with declawing a cat either.  I have assisted many a vet in declawing cats. It is a very painful procedure.  The cat is put to sleep and a dog nail clipper is used to literally remove the top portion of the cats toes.  The cat is then bandaged up and oftentimes there is consideralbe bleeding. When the cat wakes up, they are not given anything for pain.  They can barely walk and the bandages are very annoying to them.  They cannot use litter as it will get into the wounds, so you have to use shredded newspapers. Many cats will not use that, and tend to start using the carpet as their litterbox.  It is a very cruel thing to do to a cat.  I have always trimmed the nails of my cats from kittenhood on.  If you start when they are young, they will allow it. Mine still "talk" and carry on when I do it, but they allow me to.  Just snip off the ends, being careful not to take too much to make it bleed. There are also special "caps" that can be put on their nails, but I have never tried those.  If you provide a scratching post, you shouldn't have much trouble training her to use it and not the furniture to scratch on.  My cats have a floor to ceiling tree, the best investment I have made for them!  They love it and scratch on it to their heart's content!  

I'm not sure what to tell you about the bare patch, however, I do have a good friend who is a himalayan breeder that would be more than happy to answer any questions. Her name is Fran and you can email her at fbradpurr@netzer.net.
Just tell her Becky sent you!

God Bless,
Becky