Will spaying or neutering be painful for my cat?

No, they'll come in as Bruce did, where he had a checkup from the veterinarian, and had blood work to make sure everything was fine before the surgery. The cat will be sedated then anesthetized, so they will be completely asleep through the surgery and then they will ake up. And when he goes home that very day, he'll go home with a little bit of medication, an anti-inflammatory or pain medication. And they do very well.

There is pain involved in the procedure, of course. Yes. A female, for example, we are opening up their abdomen and we are physically removing their ovaries and uterus. So yes, of course there is some pain. The good news is, nowadays, the anesthetic protocols that we use, the pain control that we have afterwards, the pain is almost negligible. Most of the time now with the regimen of pain control that we use, if the animal is painful after surgery, we didn't do our job right, let's put it that way. So there are so many good drugs out there that make them pain-free and allow for quick, healthy recoveries. Yeah, it's virtually a nonissue now.

These days, we use such good pain medication, as it’s safe and effective for cats. There's no reason for any cat or dog ever to have discomfort.

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.

It is surgery. They're under anesthesia when this happens, so do they feel pain during the surgery? No, of course not. They're asleep just like we would be asleep. Here at Four Paws, I take pain control seriously, and I do a lot more than a lot of regular veterinarians, which means our costs will be slightly higher, but I know my patients are much more comfortable. They get pre-op pain injections, intra-op pain injections, and local incisional blocks, and they get cold laser when they wake up, cold packing, and medications to go home for pain, inflammation, and straight pain. We do a really good job here making sure our patients recover, and we have fewer complications because you can't heal when you're in pain. As much as we don't like to have to medicate our animals, studies have shown both humans and animals will heal better if you have pain control post-op.

As they are surgeries, pain is expected. However, proper analgesics and pain management during the perioperative period can help lessen the pain. The goal is to prevent pain from happening as much as possible.

Just like any procedure, there is a little bit of pain associated with it. However, by maintaining them under anesthesia and utilizing good pain medication such as Zorbium, which is an opioid, and also Onsior, which is also a pain and anti-inflammatory medication, we thoroughly control their pain after surgery.