1149. An Hougang cat scratches her owner

Monday Oct 22, 2012

"It is OK," the young Malay woman smartly dressed in grey, made up well and covering her head with a deep blue head scarf had made an appointment for her cat to spay. She was from Hougang.

She got her left hand scratched as Dr Daniel held the cat while I injected the xylazine+ketamine 0.2+0.8 ml IM.  She had asked me whether she ought to be around while I gave the anaesthesia injection as her presence would calm her cat.

"My cat starts being aggressive when she is taken out of the carrier at the other vet for her two vaccinations," she said.

"It is good idea," I said. "The other female cat I spayed recently went ferocious as a lion inside the crate when the owner left and when we wanted to take her out for injection. In front of the owner, she was OK and cool."

As predicted, her cat hissed. Dr Daniel had prepared the injection. He held the cat by the scruff while the lady talked to the cat. I injected the left side of the muscle quickly.

"Is it done?" the lady asked as the cat swiped her left hand and left a claw mark more than 3 cm long. "Is your hand bleeding?" I asked,
"No, no, it is only superficial."

I was relieved that the cat didn't scratch her face but her presence was most vital to the sedation as the cat was distracted. Dr Daniel put the cat back into the carrier.
"Just close the door," I said as the lady tried to push back the fabric bedding inside. Her cat hissed out and shot another claw at her. This was a 3-year-old cat and it took her 3 years to have the courage to spay her.

"Is she caterwauling?" I asked.
"No," she said. "She caterwauled last month."
Actually cats come onto heat by caterwauling at non-regular intervals and 4 weeks is about the time that ovaries would enlarge and caterwauling would come. During the spay, the ovaries and uterus were much enlarged as a cat on heat and so it took a longer time to spay.

Young cat owners like this lady are more well informed as she knows what caterwauling means and kinder to cats. That was why she did not want her spayed as that would be 'cruel'.


 "Since the cat scratches you so often, have you thought of declawing ," I advised as cat scratches can be infectious and can cause bad scars on a young lady.

"No declawing," she asked me what tool to buy to clip the sharp nails.
"Just buy one of those cutters used to cut chicken bones or hedges," I described to her the tools. "Use the sharp tips. I don't encourage declawing and almost 100% of the Singapore cat owners don't declaw their cats. 



OCT 25, 2012
The owner just phoned at 6.30 pm saying that her cat was panting and meowing. Earlier she could not poop. But the spay wound was OK. "Can she pee?" I asked. "Not today," she said. "My cat was OK this morning." I could hear the cat meowing in the background and asked her to bring the cat down the surgery for examination.

Compared to the cat of the Nepalese couple spayed around the same time and written in an earlier blog, this cat has some strange behaviour 3 days after spaying. The cat of the Nepalese couple was much younger.