How Long After Spaying does Mom Still Have Milk?

natzsm · Oct 26, 2009

My Mom cat got spayed two weeks ago when her kittens were six weeks old and already eating solid food moisened with substitute pets milk. Right now, the kittens are on purely solid food.

The kittens were put in a fairly large playpen to prevent the kittens from breast feeding and to eventually wean them.

In the meanwhile, another nine month old kitten from Mom's previous litter started breast feeding and Mom cat allowed this. I thought that this would go on for just a few days because my vet told me that Mom cat should stop producing milk right after being spayed.

After about a week, Mom cat was still allowing her nine month old kitty to breastfeed so instead of "giving" the milk to her "old" kitten, I decided to place Mom cat in the playpen so her younger kittens could enjoy any milk she has left- if any.

She has been having regular "supervised" visits to the playpen, twice a day for the past week and has been continously breastfeeding and cleaning her two month old kittens. The kittens are also eating the recommended kitten food plus some vitamin supplements.

1. How long will Mom cat still have milk- and should I still allow the breast feeding sessions?

2. Would the breast feeding PLUS the catfood already be over feeding the kittens?

Mitts & Tess · Oct 27, 2009

Usually we remove the kittens from the mom before we spay the mom. It takes about a week for it to dry up. You limit the food she can have which helps dry it up. Normally vets want it to be dried up cuz its much harder to do a spay when a cat is engorged.

I wouldnt let the kittens nurse from this mother any more. She needs her strength to recover. If she is having to produce milk, it takes a lot out of the mother that should be directed at healing. If your providing a good quality food for the kittens there is no reason why they should continue to nurse.

Plus think how painful it is on the incission part for the mom to be nursing. I always hate the part of sequestering the mom and shes so engorged. It hurts to look at the momma cat.

:? Sympathy pains on my part!

P&R · Oct 27, 2009

Mom may have already dried out and they're "nursing" out of comfort rather than for food. I know my old kitten, Alice, comfort nursed off my dogs (one who never had a litter and one who had her last litter probably a year before that (before I got her) so neither were producing milk. If mom was annoyed by it she'd let the kittens know so it's probably comforting for her as well.

mickeyandthecubs · Sep 17, 2013

Sincere apologies for bumping a 4 year old thread, but I had a very related question:

Is it true that it's bad for the kittens to nurse from a mother cat that was just spayed? My vet says the milk turns acidic and might induce nausea/vomiting in the kittens.

Also should I be concerned that the kittens might rip the mom's stitches apart while nursing? It's been 6 days since the mother was spayed and the mother cat is now fully alert and active.

maewkaew · Sep 20, 2013

No it is not necessarily bad for kittens to nurse from a mom cat that was spayed. sometimes for example a cat is spayed at the time of having a c section and the kittens still can nurse after a day or so.
I don't understand why the vet is saying the milk turns acidic. that should not usually happen.
But the risk is if these are big kittens, they might hurt the incision. so if these kittens are like 2 months old, I would separate them from the mom when you can't supervise. When you can watch, let them hang out with her some but put some kind of clothing on her to impede them from nursing and stop them when they try. of course give them plenty of kitten food .

How Long After Spaying does Mom Still Have Milk?

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