Pregnant Cats in January?

Well, here we are in the dead of winter, and we have just seen our first two pregnant cats. This past week, we saw two pregnant cats, and one of them was barely six months old!

Cats are supposed to be seasonal breeders coming into heat around February and continuing until late fall. The last two years we have spayed cats that were in heat all winter long, and now we are seeing pregnant cats in January.

I guess the people who write text books should begin to mention that cats are beginning to be in heat year round, and unless you plan to let your female have kittens, better have her spayed by five months of age.

Cats used to show signs of heat from February through October, 2-3 days every three weeks. They don’t actually ovulate until they have a meeting with a Tom cat. Now, clients frequently tell us cats are showing signs of heat for about 7 days and cycling as often as every other week.

If you have never been around a cat in heat, they act shamelessly friendly, Yeowling to get out through the wee hours of the morning, and they continue this until they are spayed or pregnant.

There are already more cats than there are good homes. The Oklahoma City shelter often runs specials for free cat adoptions. The least we can do is spay and neuter by 5 months old.

If you don’t want your female cat soliciting your visitors, 2:00am yeowling is not your idea of partying, and having a litter of kittens is not your idea of community service, January is the month to have your cat spayed.

And let’s not leave out those Tom cats. They will be having late night rendezvous fighting with other males for their right to party. The procedure for male cats is less invasive, less costly, and recovery is quicker.

Hope you enjoy reading the blogs. I try to post interesting trends that we notice because of the volume of cats and dogs we see.

Thanks, Dr. Jake Boyer

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