1148. KPI - Spaying a ferocious caterwauling cat

Today, a Nepalese couple brought in a tricolour 7-month-old caterwauling cat adopted from the SPCA. "Will she stop making noises after spaying?" the wife asked. "Yes," I said.

For caterwauling cats, the ovarian and uterine blood vessels are enlarged and special care must be made to ligate well. I threw around 10 knots on each ovarian side and around 15 knots on the uterine body. I don't do transfixing ligatures on the swollen uterine body.
As the cat was ferocious after the owner left and was put inside the cage, my assistant Min was pawed at everytime he tried to take the cat out of the cage for me to do the sedation injection. He went to get a big rag. "Don't do it," I knew this cat would escape from his crutches if he tried to grip her scruff of the neck now that the cat was big eyed and hissing.

ANAESTHESIA

"I will inject the cage through the cage," I said.
Mr Min had his idea of lassoing the cat and then pulling one leg out for me to inject the back muscle. He tried and I injected partially as the cat twisted and turned, pulling back her leg. He attempted again and I managed to inject the 80% of the remaining sedation drug. So, there was not 100% given.

Normally at xylazine 0.15 and ketamine 0.6 = 0.75 ml IM combined would give a very good anaesthesia for me to spay. In this case, the cat was twitching her legs towards the end of spay and there was no need to top up with isoflurane + O2.

Skin stitched - first skin incision = 21 minutes. I hooked out the ovary at the first attempt. A caterwauling cat takes much longer to spay as I had to ligate the ovarian side with 10 throws of the knot each and the uterine body with 15 throws. 3/0 absorbable x 1 packet used.

I would expect 10 minutes will do for normal non-caterwauling cats. Will check out my other KPI cases of cat spay.

TOTAL TIME FROM INJECTION OF SEDATION DRUG TO SKIN STITCHED =
11.43 am - 11.10 am = 33 minutes. The cat was clipped after sedation but normally I get the cat or dog clipped before sedation, thereby reducing my surgery and anaesthetic time. It takes about 2 minutes to clip.

As at Oct 25, 2012, no complaint or news from the Nepalese couple.