[dreamangl686]

casper is going to get neutered on march 7. getting him fixed was part of his adoption contract. i can get a discount on the rabies and neutering at an animal hospital that works with the organization, so i scheduled an appointment. however, he has only been there once when he was 9 weeks old to be tested for FIV/FLV. is any additional blood work usually necessary before neutering? i know it is routine surgery, but it is still surgery... sorry if i'm paranoid :???: i'm a pediatric nurse and casper my only child!

 

[shan841]

I dont think they usually do bloodwork for kittens. If he was older, they would. But you can always request it be done for piece of mind

 

[doodlebug]

Pre-anesthesia blood work is highly recommended no matter what the age. Vets may make it optional for kittens or young adults as the likelihood of issues is small...but it is possible for there to be some abnormalities that would make the anesthesia dangerous. Ensuring, before the surgery, that your cat's kidneys and liver are functioning properly so the anesthesia can be cleared from the body just seems like good common sense to me.

In addition, this blood work will provide a baseline for comparison if your cat gets sick in the future. So my advice is to have it done.

 

[Alpaca]

I would advise it as well for the very reasons doodlebug mentioned.

 

[Kobster]

YES! We run a small chemistry and PCV before ANY anesthetic procedure, no matter the age of the patient. We've caught congenital kidney problems, anemia, infections, etc this way. Better safe than sorry!

 

[marie73]

That's how they found out Cinderella was sick. If they had put her under, she wouldn't have woken up. We had another month together because of the blood test.

 

[asrowley]

The shelter ran one before Pinky got spayed (I didn't have to pay for it) luckily they didn't find anything. But I've heard of them finding all sorts of strange things.

 

[dreamangl686]

Thank you everyone for your responses! I thought it didn't make sense not to have pre-op blood work. I'm going to look into having blood work done first. I weighed him the other night and at four months he is a little over 3.5 pounds.