Spaying And Neutering Helps Your Community
- Research shows that, as an individual, you help reduce overpopulation issues in your community when you spay or neuter your pet.
- Spaying and neutering your pet helps reduce the number of stray or unwanted animals in your community.
- Reducing the amount of stray animals helps prevent other pets and wildlife from being injured or killed in fights.
- Fixing your pet helps lessen the amount of stray animals getting into or causing car accidents, getting into garbage cans and damaging property.
Learn how fixing your cat helps combat the cat overpopulation problem and how you can take action in your community.
Behavioral Effects Of Spaying A Cat
Spayed cats are often calmer than their non-spayed counterparts because theyre not driven by their reproductive hormones. When female cats are in heat, they will become restless because theyre searching for a mate. They can also feel anxious and become more prone to feeling irritable.
If you have multiple cats in your home, an unspayed cat can act more territorial because she wants to secure a mate for herself. She can also become very loud to attract a mate.
Although feral cats may have mating seasons, indoor cats can go through heat cycles year-round. A full estrus cycle can range from 1-6 weeks, with 3 weeks being the average length of a cycle. Cats can be in heat for about 6 days. Therefore, depending on your cat, you can experience heat-driven behaviors every couple of weeks.
Funding Options For Trap
1. Set up a savings plan.
You know your budget better than anyone, so decide how much money you can afford to save each month for the cost of spay and neuter services. Talk to your veterinarian to estimate what the cost will be based on the number of cats you will be helping.
2. Hold a local fundraiser.
TNR benefits the whole community, so it should be a community-wide effort. Community members can support TNR through fundraising events like bake sales, garage sales, and car washes. Learn more with our Organizing and Promoting Events guide.
3. Fundraise online.
You have a network of friends, family members, co-workers, neighbors, and others who might be willing to help fund your TNR efforts. There are many online fundraising tools you can use.
Be sure to explain your plan to spay and neuter the cats in your community and share pictures of the cats whose lives donors will help to improve. Outline your financial goal to fund all TNR costs, and ask them for a reasonable donation. Of course, any donation is great, but its best to provide a specific number that you feel will help you reach your goal.
4. Work with veterinarians and spay and neuter clinics.
Some veterinarians and clinics may be willing to provide spay and neuter surgeries at a lower cost because you are performing a service that helps the community. You can find low-cost spay and neuter services in your area by searching online using terms like low-cost spay and neuter and spay and neuter clinics.
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Neutering Your Cat Key Facts
- Neutering means surgically preventing cats from reproducing
- Its recommended that cats are neutered at around four months old
- Neutered animals might have slightly lower food requirements so you just need to feed them a little less
Neutering your cat can have really great benefits, both to them and to you! Plus youll be helping to tackle the growing crisis of pets being abandoned, dumped and given away because there arent enough homes to go around.
What is cat neutering?
Neutering means surgically preventing cats from reproducing. In males, the operation is called castration and in females its called spaying.
With castration both testicles are removed which takes away the main source of the male hormone testosterone. With spaying, both the ovaries and the uterus are removed which means the female is unable to become pregnant.
Ideas To Help Pay For Cat Food
1. Check for surplus cat food at your local animal shelter or even at a food bank or food pantry. Some animal shelters also have animal food banks. See our state-by-state list of animal food banks.
2. Ask your local grocery store or pet supply store to donate broken packages or dented cans. Some retailers will also donate just-out-of-date products, which remain good for a few months longer than the sell-by date.
3. Ask local veterinary clinics if they have surplus or just-out-of-date foods they are willing to donate.
4. Hold a cat food drive. Pick a day and location and publicize your event. Try to involve clubs you belong to or your workplace. You can also see if local high schools or volunteer organizations are interested in holding a drive. Or, ask local grocery stores and pet supply shops if you could put out a bin to collect cat food donations.
5. For seniors and individuals with diminished mobility, Meals on Wheels may offer pet food services, depending on your communitys program.
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Spay & Neuter Assistance
Update 6/7/2021: The Spay & Save program has resumed spay/neuter surgeries at the Oregon Humane Society, the Humane Society for Southwest Washington, and the Cat Adoption Team. At this time the program is serving cats only at all locations. Appointments are extremely limited at this time due to capacity and social distancing requirements. To get on the waitlist for the Oregon Humane Society please visit our website to fill out an online appointment request form. To get on the waitlist for the Humane Society for Southwest Washington please call them at 360-693-4746. Listen to the phone tree and select option 3 and then option 6 to leave a message for their team. To get on the waitlist for the Cat Adoption Team location please visit their website to fill out the online appointment request form.
Please note that most wait times for an appointment, at any of our open locations, is between 2-6 months. Please be patient as we make our way through the waitlists. You will receive a call from someone on our team to schedule your cat/cats once your name is up on the list. Thank you for your patience.
For Animal Control Officers
Animal control officers can request vouchers for animals in their community. Homeless cats and dogs in municipal shelters, cats and dogs owned by low income residents, and feral cats may qualify for help.
Not sure if an animal qualifies? Please review our Animal Eligibility Chart.
To request a voucher submit a Voucher Request Form to . Requests need to be for specific animals no general requests are accepted.
Look at our list of providers to see if there is a clinic in your area that has joined our program.
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How Alley Cat Allies Promotes Spaying And Neutering
Alley Cat Allies works to ensure officials, advocates, and the public are aware of the critical benefits of spaying and neutering cats. We give them tools and information so they can take steps to increase spay and neuter in their communities. Heres how we do it:
Thanks to our donors and supporters, Alley Cat Allies has been able to make a difference for so many cats and so many communities through spaying and neutering. Join us and we can accomplish even more!
Benefits Of Spaying Or Neutering Your Cat
According to Dr. Jennifer Coates, veterinary advisor with petMD, spaying a female cat before her first heat cycle virtually eliminates the risk of mammary cancer. She says that this condition is especially serious in cats since feline mammary cancers tend to be very aggressive in comparison to other species.
Spayed female cats also cannot develop ovarian and uterine cancers or a potentially fatal uterine infection called a pyometra, Coates adds. Other health-related issues related to spaying include negating the possibility of the complications that can occur with pregnancy and birthing.
For male cats, Coates says that the benefits of neutering are primarily behavioral, although the procedure does eliminate the possibility that a cat will develop testicular cancer as he ages.
Anyone who as ever tried living with an intact male cat will tell you that the vocalizations, escape attempts, roaming, fighting and urine spraying associated with normal tom cat behavior can get old really quick, she says.
Feline AIDS and leukemia can both be spread between cats through bites, often spurred on by sexual competition, says Coates. So, reducing the urge to mate also reduces the likelihood that your cat will contract one of these oftentimes fatal infections.
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How To Get In Contact With A Free Spay And Neuter Clinics For Cats Near Me
In order to get in touch with the spay clinic, you need to rely on Google. You can search on google and you will be provided with a list of spay and neuter clinics near me. There are many organizations that host various stay clinics too. You can contact those organizations too in order to get access to a clinic. These types of clinics are mostly available state-wise. Each state has a different agenda when it comes to neuter and spay clinics.
What Age Can Cats Be Neutered
Cats become sexually mature from the age of around five months. In order to prevent unwanted pregnancies, its recommended that cats are neutered at around four months old, after they have completed their primary vaccinations. Some vets still recommend spaying at five or six months and its quite safe to neuter older cats.
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Are Complications Common With Spaying
In general, complications are rare during an ovariohysterectomy surgery. However, as with any anesthetic or surgical procedure, there is always a small risk. The potential complications include:
Anesthetic reaction. Any individual cat can have an unexpected adverse reaction following the administration of any drug or anesthetic. Such cases are impossible to predict, but are extremely rare.
Another potential danger associated with anesthesia arises if the cat is not properly fasted prior to anesthesia. Anesthetized patients lose the normal reflex ability to swallow during swallowing, the epiglottis, a cartilage flap at the entrance to the windpipe, closes and prevents food or water from entering the lungs. If there is food in the stomach, the cat could vomit while under anesthesia or in the early post-anesthetic period, allowing the food to enter the lungs and cause aspiration pneumonia, a potentially life-threatening condition.
Illness will increase the risks associated with anesthesia. Pre-operative blood work is a useful screening test that may detect pre-existing problems that could interfere with the pet’s ability to handle anesthetic drugs.
To minimize the risks, it is important that all pre-operative instructions are strictly followed and that you report any signs of illness or previous medical conditions to your veterinarian prior to any sedation, anesthesia or surgery.
Resources To Help Pay For Spaying And Neutering
1. Alley Cat Allies Feral Friends Network includes veterinarians with community cat experience and low-cost spay and neuter providers. Request a list of Feral Friends Network members in your area.
2. State funded spay and neuter programs. Your state may have money available for low-cost or free spay and neuter services. Eligibility requirements, like being a low-income household, and the process involved, like required co pays or using vouchers, will differ depending on the specific states program. See our spay and neuter state fund chart.
3. The following are low-cost spay and neuter referral services:
- ASPCA spay/neuter programs: A list of spay/neuter clinics across the country
- PetSmart Charities: Low-cost clinics across the United States.
Need to spay or neuter community cats as part of a Trap-Neuter-Return effort? See our tips on Funding Trap-Neuter-Return below!
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Why Do These Cats Need Our Help
Left unaltered, free-roaming cats continue to reproduce creating more homeless kittens. Through TNR, free-roaming cats live out their lives without adding to the homeless cat population. According to scientific studies, free-roaming cats gain weight and live healthier lives after being altered. TNR programs are proven to stabilize and significantly reduce the size of free-roaming cat colonies. By limiting free-roaming cat populations, fewer unwanted and homeless cats are taken to shelters and euthanized.
Why Should I Care About Spaying Or Neutering My Pets
Every year, thousands of animals are born into short lives of suffering and death in Albuquerque because people did not spay or neuter their pets. There are simply not enough homes for the dogs and cats that are born because of this type of neglect.
Spaying and neutering provide health benefits in addition to preventing litters. Spaying helps prevent uterine infection and breast cancer, which is fatal in about 50 percent of dogs and 90 percent of cats. Neutering can prevent testicular cancer if done before 6 months of age. Neutering also reduces roaming, and nuisances such as foul odors in spraying by cats. It can reduce aggressiveness and fighting among both dogs and cats.
Under most circumstances, it is against the law in Albuquerque to own a dog or cat unless you have it spayed or neutered. There are programs that can provide the services at no charge for low-income and moderate-income residents. There also are programs that will help you arrange for the free spay and neuter of the street cats in your neighborhood, to help control the cat population while providing humane treatment of the animals.
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How Do I Obtain The Free Spay Or Neuter Service Voucher
Qualified low-income and moderate-income residents who reside within the City of Albuquerque with DOG and CATS who have no medical issues:
- Apply to the Spay/Neuter Lottery anytime in English or Spanish.
- If your application is selected during an upcoming lottery, you will be contacted by AWD via phone and email.
- You will have one week to respond to AWD and claim your voucher. If you do not respond within one week, you application will be put back into the pool of lottery applicants.
- Proof of qualifications including ID, proof of residence, and proof of income eligibility MUST be presented at the time of your appointment.
- Vouchers are subject to the participating veterinary decisions about the condition of the dog.
- Vouchers surgeries are performed at a private veterinary clinic who are partnering with AWD. Citizens may incur additional costs not covered by AWD, including additional charges for non-routine surgery, antibiotics, or testing. AWD cannot cover these costs, they are the responsibility of the citizen who owns the animal receiving surgery at the time of services.
- Residents are reminded that the City of Albuquerque Free Spay/Neuter services are for City of Albuquerque residents ONLY.
- If you reside outside the city limits in Bernalillo County, you may obtain a spay/neuter voucher by visiting the Bernalillo County Animal Control Office at 3001 2nd St SW, Albuquerque, NM 87105.
Spay & Neuter Services
The Spay & Save program offers affordable, low-cost spay/neuter surgeries for pets owned by residents in the greater Portland metropolitan area. We offer a tiered pricing structure based on program guidelines. Please contact Spay & Save with any questions about the program and services. Visit Spay & Save online or call 345-7729 for more information.
Notice: If you have a Spay & Save appointment at OHS, drop-off hours are 7:15-7:45 a.m. The OHS Animal Medical Learning Center lobby is open for Spay & Save drop-offs before the rest of the shelter opens to the public. Please arrive on time!
For stray and feral cats, the Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon offers low-cost spay & neuter options.
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Treating Your Cat After Surgery
The Cost Of Spaying And Neutering
The average cost to spay/neuter a cat can range anywhere between $50 and $100. Neutering tends to cost less because it is a less complicated procedure than having a cat spayed. The total cost of the procedure usually covers the surgery and anesthesia as well as hospitalization. Most vets will check liver and kidney function prior to surgery. This can add $30 to $50 to the cost of the procedure. Vets also tack on an additional $50 if the cat is pregnant, in heat, or overweight. To spay/neuter a cat helps ease the burden on animal shelters. As a result, many shelters and vet clinics are eager to fix pets at a reduced cost. Cat owners should get price estimates from several animal hospitals to find the best prices.
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