We are very fortunate to have a wonderful partnership with a veterinarian who built a surgery suite at her home in Columbia, MO. She has over 30 years of experience in private practice, shelter medicine and surgeries. Over the last ten years she has focused on providing surgical services to shelters and non-profit organizations in the area.

The veterinarian we use does not have a public practice. She provides care exclusively to a small number of non-profit organizations who need spay/neuter and other surgical services for the cats in their care.

Costs are low because the surgery suite is located at the vet’s home, so there is no overhead such as building rent, large staff to pay, etc. The veterinarian has a single assistant who is also a family member - this helps keep payroll costs low! She does not utilize vet students or volunteers. She also works to keep costs as low as possible because she enjoys being able to help non-profit organizations who work to spay and neuter cats in the community.

All cats receive excellent care when they go for surgery. See below for more information on what type of anesthesia is used, pre-op exams, etc.

All cats (except those that are feral or too fractious to handle) are given a brief exam on intake. The vet listens to their heart and lungs and checks eyes, ears and other things that may need to be noted and/or treated. The cat is then weighed. Feral or fractious cats are visually examined and their weight is estimated. Once they are sedate enough to be handled an exact weight is obtained and the vet listens to the heart and lungs.

Each cat is given a dose of meloxicam which is an anti-inflammatory pain medication. They are then injected with a mix of drugs often referred to as “Kitty Magic.” There is a spectrum of safe doses based on weight, and the cat is initially given a dose on the low end of the range. If they do not respond to that dose, they can be given more if needed. Cats are then prepped for surgery. This entails shaving the abdomen on females and the scrotal area on males. A surgical scrub is used to clean the area and then the cat is moved to the surgery table. A pulse oximeter is used to monitor heartrate and oxygen and a mask attached to an anesthesia machine delivers a combination of gas and oxygen. The dose of gas can be increased or decreased easily, and once surgery is over, the mask is removed and the cat typically wakes up pretty quickly.

After surgery is complete, the cat receives a small green tattoo on their abdomen which is a visual indication that they are fixed. Vaccines, blood draws and other services are then completed as applicable and the cat is returned to a clean carrier with some food. They are monitored closely until they are able to hold up their head and then they are moved to a recovery area where they can eat some of the food in the kennel and be monitored.

Waiting until cats are six months old before spaying or neutering is an older philosophy that increases the chances that a cat will get pregnant or develop behavioral problems before being fixed. Cats can go into heat and get pregnant as early as four months old, and each heat cycle a female cat goes through increases her risk of developing mammary cancer. Male cats can begin spraying and/or fighting once they reach sexual maturity. By fixing cats before they are four months old, it’s not only possible to prevent pregnancy, but also undesirable behaviors like spraying.

Plus there are other benefits to fixing your cat while they are young.

1. Surgery times on young cats are typically much shorter, with smaller incisions. This reduces anesthesia risk and recovery time.

2. Less injectable anesthesia is needed to sedate them for surgery prep. This means a faster wake up - most cats are “back to normal” by the time they are picked up to go home.

3. Fixing before a cat reaches sexual maturity is the only way to guarantee they won’t escape from the house and come back pregnant!