cat castration

Question
QUESTION: hi! I castrated my cats yesterday and today they got an antibiotic shot..this morning before going one of the cast licked the whomd so its started bleeding..and later at the time of the shots he told us to take the cat in again tomorrow to get another antibiotic shot..when this veterinary is governmental and gave us no information at all regarding after care..I just wonder if we should let the whomd bee or if we should clean it daily? Does our car need another antibiotic shot tomorrow really when he got one today? arent the shots long lasting ones?

ANSWER: Josephine,

I don't know what the antibiotic shots are for, unless your cat was sick before you took him to be neutered. I've had LOTS of cats neutered and NONE have ever been given antibiotics afterwards. A TOPICAL antibiotic is applied to the surgical area, but not given internally. Neutering is a minor surgical procedure with a little slit made in the cat's sacks. It shouldn't even bleed.  

I would let the cat take care of himself, you don't need to do anything except make sure the cat stays away from dirt for a few days so the incision will stay clean and not get infected. The cat will heal quickly, and he will keep it clean himself.

First I would try to find out exactly why the vet thinks the cat needs antibiotics. He may have a good reason, but I would find out what it is before the cat possibly gets over-medicated needlessly. Ask him the questions you asked me about the shots. If you don't feel confident, comfortable, and sure about his answer then I wouldn't give the cat anymore antibiotics. Or, you might want to try calling another vet's office and ask the receptionist if giving antibiotics after neutering is a standard procedure there, and why if it is.

Here are a couple of articles on neutering that you may find informative;
(copy and paste, or type, the whole links into your address bar)

http://www.cozycatfurniture.com/cat_newsletters/cat_newsletter_6_issue.html

http://www.thepetcenter.com/sur/Spayandneuter.htm

I hope this helps. And thank you for being a responsible pet owner!

Tabbi

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi Tabbi! thanks for your fast reply!
I called another vet as you said and they do antibiotic shot in the area after surgery..but said it shouldnt bleed, only if it has been licking (as it did before getting a collar)they told me that if he have had a shot today we should wait until tomorrow and bring him in to them if hes still bleeding..

Another question..how should the area look? It looks like they still have half their gear left, probably from a bit swelling? The vet that carried out surgery told me that i could clean it with human bionidin(its better than iodin he said)But you said we should let the whomd heal by it self and let it be?
By the way..Its a Municipality vet in Dubai that carried out the surgery, I dont recommend it to anyone!
Thank you for your help and time!

Answer
Josephine,

I don't know what a Municipality vet is, but guess there are some trade-offs for living in such a beautiful place! I understand they have horseracing there. I would see if maybe they have an American track vet for the horses. They usually know alot about small animals too, and maybe you can get a new vet for your cat if you ever need one.

A neutered male cat will still look like he is a male but the 'male parts' won't be as big and defined. That's normal. The cat isn't supposed to look like a girl after, though some look pretty close. The neutering doesn't remove the 'male parts', it just removes what is IN them.

Your vet's and my opinion differ, but you have to ultimately make the decisions. Cats have great healing powers. Personally, I wouldn't use a collar OR Iodine. Would YOU like Iodine put 'back there' if you just had 'them' opened up? I wouldn't....ouch! Plus I wouldn't like my cat licking Iodine off and ingesting it. And though collars may be necessary in some extreme cases, my opinion is that they make a cat crazy. They want to clean, soothe, and heal themselves but they can't, and having the collar on adds additional stress on top of going to the vet and having surgery.

Unless a problem can result in a serious medical issue, serious injury, infection, or pain to a cat, I let Mother Nature take care of most minor things. Sometimes she knows more than we do. That is why they say a cat has 9 lives. They really don't, it's just that they survive, and heal from things that would probably kill a person or another type of animal.

I hope this makes sense! Let me know what happens with your kitties...but they WILL be fine!

Tabbi