2919. 20 minutes to spay a caterwauling 7-month-old cat

Tuesday Aug 30, 2016


I was demonstrating spay to an RI Intern. RI sends 3 batches of Sec 4 interns to Toa Payoh Vets based on their interest in veterinary medicine.

Today, I demonstrated the pre-op and operation of a 7-month-old cat being spayed by me.  

How long does it take for an experienced vet to operate a 7-month-old caterwauling cat?
Incision to end of stitching = 20 minutes.

The time is longer as the cat was moving on incision and I had to top up with 3 minutes of isolfurane + O2 gas, hence prolonging the surgery.

I tried a tested anaesthetic formula used by the other vet who sterilize at least 20 stray cats per day.
the formula is as follows:

Cat 2.6 kg
Xylazine 20 = 0.26 ml IM. Wait 5 minutes.
Ketamine     = 0.16 ml IM 
Surgery with top up gas if necessary.

I tried this formula but combined in one syringe xylazine and ketamine IM instead of separately in 2 syringes. Waited 15 minutes. But the cat showed signs of movement on incision but the anaesthetic gas was effective.

A video is produced by my RI intern.