Pediatric spaying and neutering is a speciality that not all veterinarians are experienced at or feel comfortable performing. However, early spaying and neutering has now been validated by a significant amount of research.

For years, the recommended age for spaying or neutering was 6 months, but medical techniques and anesthetic drugs have improved greatly over the past 30 years and now procedures such as pediatric spays and neuters can be performed with little risk to a young, healthy animal. In fact, there is evidence to suggest that the animal can recover from surgery more quickly than an older adult.

Because most of PAF's work is with feral cats, we are often faced with spaying and neutering feral kittens if they are too wild to be socialized. One of our veterinarians is extremely experienced at pediatric surgery and we have successfully spayed and neutered hundreds of feral kittens. Pediatric spaying can be done as early as 6 weeks but we see no reason to spay that early as feral kittens this young can be tamed. If we trap kittens younger than 14 weeks of age, we generally foster them for awhile, prior to any surgery, to see if they can be tamed. Anything 14 weeks or older that is extremely feral is scheduled for pediatric surgery.

Our pediatric vet also performs surgery using a laser which means less bleeding, less swelling, a sharper incision for quicker healing, and less time under anesthetic. PAF feral cats and kittens are very lucky to have the expertise of Dr. Janice Crook of Mosquito Creek Vet Hospital.

The following link provides some helpful information on pediatric spaying and neutering:

http://www.auburn.edu/~simslni/sheltermedicine/pediatricspayneuter.html

We hope that more veterinarians will practice pediatric spaying and neutering to help reduce pet overpopulation.

Lana Simon, Director
Pacific Animal Foundation