Help on Kitten's age

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

when I mentioned this to my vet he was very shocked, said that the BVS (I assume the british vetenary society) recommended waiting till 6 months old. 

I don't know why he would be shocked - many british organisations are in favour of early neutering.  The British Small Animal Veterinary Association is a member of The Cat Group which promotes early neutering. 

http://www.fabcats.org/neut.html

I really wish British Vets would get with the times and start encouraging early neutering.  If they have doubts about it they should do some research into possible side effects.  And then they might start educating vets about it.  I agree with Desley that early neutering is the only way in which we are going to reduce the number of unwanted cats.  Sadly we can't rely on everyone to neuter and to keep their kittens indoors until they're done.

re kitten growth - when I got Mosi at 14 weeks he grew so much in the first couple of weeks - I could almost see him growing in front of my eyes.  Then he stopped and didn't appear to grow much for a few weeks.

[Susieh]

In regard to the kitten's age.  I really think a lot of it it to do with their parentage and start in life.  I have 3 cats and they are all quite different in size and all are rescues.  The only one who is large is the one who was born and brought up in rescue, with lots of good food and well cared for.  The others I got aged between 8-14 weeks but by them I think poor nutrition had already meant they were small for their ages.

I have a friend who let her small cat have litter after litter of kittens and as a result the kittens were all small, the mum cat weak and unable to give them all the nutrition they needed, as well as passing on fleas and worms to the little ones too - all of which contributed to their small size.

Mum cat happily now spayed and kittens all rehomed responsibly.

[Desley (booktigger)]

I think from a rescue point of view, early neutering is good, as it means that no one can 'forget' to get the kittens neutered at the right time, and no cat that leaves us can ever reproduce - but sadly our vets wont do it younger than 5 months.
I can't see why the BVS would be shocked at early neutering, even CP are acknowledging it now, and I know a rescue who have been doing it for about 15 years now with no probs, and there have been cats done for longer in the US, so there is the data available now to prove that it is safe. Most people who have had it done say that the cats bounce back a lot quicker than at 6 months old.
CC - it isn't unfair at all for breeders to neuter, and they will only do it on pet quality cats, which is how it should be, they are being responsible by making sure that only the top quality cats will be bred from - they wont neuter show or breed quality cats, but they will only go to very carefully vetted homes and they will charge more for their kittens.

[ccmacey]

Hi the breeder probably does that so no one can breed them , which i would find unfair.

[BellasMum]

Bella will be getting dressed in the beginning of February, my vet charges £54 for the op, I am getting her microchipped at the same time which is £16, I thought these prices were good, when I was looking into getting a cat I looked at cat breeders, they sold their kittens at12 weeks old and they were dressed, when I mentioned this to my vet he was very shocked, said that the BVS (I assume the british vetenary society) recommended waiting till 6 months old.  As a first time cat owner I am trying to  get all the info I can.  No worries about her having kittens though as she is a house cat, but I know that the op can prevent certain types of cancer.

[Ellie]

Hi and it's nice to hear someone using dressed 

I had the same problem when I wanted Rascal dressed as she is really wee. She was 9 months and just under 2kg and the vet said to wait a bit longer again. When she came into season I put my foot down and said I wanted her done. Since then her weight has gone up to 2.2kg but she still looks wee.

[Michelle (furbabystar)]

But, she will now neuter as young as 4 months, and has said CP have produced something saying that neutering can be done as young as 3 months.

I'm still not sure about neutering that young.
 
It is, however, getting more popular to neuter at a very young age

[Desley (booktigger)]

I Can't see why your vet wont spay at that weight, Shadow was spayed recently despite still being small for her age - and a month before she was spayed, she was only 1.7kg, the vet didn't say her new weight, just that she was still small. But, she will now neuter as young as 4 months, and has said CP have produced something saying that neutering can be done as young as 3 months. Despite Shadow being small for her age and it being December, the vet did say if she had been left one more week, she would have been in heat, she had a large follicle apparently.

[chimpzoo]

i'm from newcastle but live in scotland, before i got my kitten i phoned the owner and they said the kitten's mum wanted to go outside but had to be dressed first. I was thinking ' she really gets that cold? '

  all sorts of images came to mind.

[ccmacey]

Most likely she wasn't the age they said, you can tell if a kitten is too young if they are not doing things for themselves eg eating and cleaning properly. I was given a kitten, which I was told he was 9 weeks, I wondered why he wasn't eating kitten food and took him to the vets only to find out that he was 4 weeks and wasn't even weened.

[Ela]

I think in the USA the say dressed as well.

Some kittens we home at 8 weeks are less than 1½ kilo and others over 2 and they could be from the same litter and treated the same.

Many years ago a vet told me that they like females to weigh about 5 lb before spaying, however, occasionally a kitten will come into season when smaller, then you have to weight the risks of spaying (which nowadays are very small) with the risks of pregnancy. Also we need to remember that in some parts of the USA  they neuter/spay kittens a a few weeks old.

Which reminds me only yesterday I received a phone call to say that someone from another rescue had advised them that their female wont come into season until about March when it gets warmer, as most of us know on here nowadays cats come into season at any time. So please if you have any unspayed/unneutered cats please think about getting them done. We are having a special offer next month and offering neuters and spays for £5. We do this twice a year and usually about 100 people take up our offer.

[MBll]

Another scots here  & yes dressed is a scottish saying lol

[Beccles]

Hiya!

I spose just like humans some cats will just be small and skinny (lucky so and sos) and others won't. I have 2 6 month old kittens, sisters, and one's about half a kg bigger than the other. They're both incredibly healthy, lively, eat like furry little horses, play nonstop - I guess it's just one of those things. And yep it does seem to be a Scottish term, as far as I can tell - certainly I've never heard it used south of the border except by an expat Scot 

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

  yes dressed is a scottish term as we have learned on here LOL.

You need to resize the pictures and there is a freebie down load that you can use, which you will find here


http://www.download.com/JPEGCompress/3000-2204_4-10404412.html?tag=lst-0-1

[BellasMum]

The vet was non-comital on her age , just said she was small, I managed to use Bella's picture taken middle of November as an Aviator, sorry I know it's hard to judge size when there is nothing to compare her to, i will try to figure out how to turn my pictures of her which are 1Mb to 50KB which is the maximum allowed, any advice would be apreciated.  Hi Rebecca, is Dressed a Scottish term then ?

[Beccles]

 

"dressed", I suspect.

[BellasMum]

Me again
How DID you know I was Scottish?

[BellasMum]

Hi
I have pictures but when I tried to attach them said they were too big and I don't know how to reduce their pixels, any advice?

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

  to Purrs 

sorry I dont know about kittens but a picture of her may help, something that shows her size against something else.......how old does the vet say she is?

I guess you must be scottish going by us now eduacated english to scottish expressions 

Anyway we want pictures any way 

[BellasMum]

Hi All
Just discovered your chat and I am looking for some advice.  We got our kitten Bella a while ago and were told she was 7 1/2 weeks old, I took her to the vet 2 days after we got her and he said she was underweight and she wasn't cleaning herself properly, so I had to clean her bottom for a few weeks.  She is now 6 months old and I had her at the vet a few days ago for her pre-op check for getting dressed but vet said she was very small, she weighs 2.2kg and to leave it a month. This is the first kitten we have had so I had no reason to doubt that she wasn't the age we were told, but my friend got a kitten that was definatly 7 weeks old and she seemed to be much bigger than Bella when we got her.  Bella is a lovely girl who has my husband wrapped round her little finger, even though she has broken a few of his favourite ornaments, and has me searching on the Internet for the best scratching posts, toys and food.  Has cost me over £100 in vet fees already for vaccinations, flea removal and eye infection, and probably the same again for getting dressed, microchipped and whatever else, and she is worth every penny.  Does anyone think that she may have been younger than we were told when we got her?