Yes, and I would always recommend making sure that you have a fresh, clean bowl of water available at all times of the day.

I want them to start working on either canned food or dry food at that six-week mark. But once they're about 10 weeks, they should be consistently on dry food.

I definitely wouldn't recommend it. Even though that's like an age-old thing that we see, I wouldn't recommend it. It's not the best nutritional support for these guys.

No, it's an age-dependent necessity. Those younger kittens that are purely on milk at that stage in their life need to be bottle-fed. But as they get a little bit older, again that six-week mark, we can go ahead and transition them over to dry or canned kitten food.

I generally recommend that kittens should start weaning about five to six weeks of age. So, of course, if you come across a kitten who is not with their mother that's younger than that five to six week of age, then they'll have to be bottle-fed. But if they're older kittens, so at least about six weeks of age, then we can go ahead and start transitioning them over to canned or dry kitten food.

If there's no pain medication given to prevent it, it's just like any other kind of surgery, or even if you fall off the bike or cut your finger with a paper cut or anything like that—any trauma to the skin will cause pain. But we're very adamant here in Advanced Animal Care in Advanced Animal Care Berea that we prevent any pain at all. So, we are very aggressive with our pain management protocol for pets.

Of course. And honestly, that's our favorite time to do it. The microchip needles are a little bit big because, of course, they have to deliver that microchip. And, so we can do it while they're asleep and not having to feel it. We prefer that here, but that doesn't mean that we can't do it while they're awake if you want it done sooner. It's just a personal preference to make it easier on your pet.

There can be a complication anytime we put a pet under anesthesia. And that's why we recommend doing pre-anesthetic blood work just to make sure organs are functioning appropriately, but that's why every dog or cat that goes under anesthesia gets an exam by a doctor here at Advanced Animal Care, Berea. Some complications can't be predicted, and some will be during the surgery, and some could potentially be after the surgery. Sometimes a suture may break, or there can be a bit of swelling. An infection can develop, so we do our best to prevent any of these from happening, but there is always that possibility.

Cat neuters are very similar to cat spays. They receive the same doctor exam. They get the same sedation and pain medications so that they were made comfortable. They go under inhalant anesthesia as well. The most significant difference is there's not as much to do with the neuters. And, so what we do is instead of closing their skin incisions, we leave those open to drain. There are no sutures back there, but their skin heals together quite nicely in about four to seven days, and you can hardly see a scar.

Here at Advanced Animal Care and Advanced Animal Care Berea, we have a pretty comprehensive plan for your cat. The reason is we want to make sure that there's no pain involved and that we keep them as comfortable and keep the stress levels down as much as possible.

All of our cats receive an exam before they go under general anesthesia and have their surgical procedure performed, and a veterinarian performs that exam. They all receive some sedation medications so that we help reduce their stress while they're in the clinic because it's not a normal place for them to be. We make sure we get pain management on board to keep them as comfortable as possible while they're here and after the surgery.

Then, once they've got all of those on board, depending on the procedure that your pet is going to be having, we'll place an IUD catheter to give them fluids to keep them hydrated throughout the procedure. We put a breathing tube in to deliver inhalant anesthesia to keep them asleep during the procedure. And then, the veterinarian will perform the procedure. They use sterile materials, sterile drapes, sterile gloves—the whole kit and caboodle.

The procedure itself doesn't take long. The average cat neuter is over and done with in under 15 minutes. And the average cat spaying can be anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes. And then here, I like to put buried sutures in my spays so that you don't have to bring your cat back to stress them out so that we have to take those sutures out later. Those sutures dissolve under the skin in about two to three months. And there's generally a minimal scar there.