How to Know if a Cat Has Been Spayed

In order to control the quickly growing cat population, many folks choose to have their pets spayed. If you adopt a stray cat, however, sometimes it can be difficult to determine if spaying has already taken place. It is already difficult to determine if a male cat has been neutered, but it can be extremely difficult to determine if a female cat has been spayed. There are some tricks you can use to save yourself a needless, already performed surgery. Use this guide to determine if your cat has been previously spayed.

Things You'll Need

  • veterinarian
  • Keen vision
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Instructions

    • 1

      Check for clipped ears. A notch in the ear is an easy way to determine that your cat has been spayed. It is now quite common policy for rescue shelters to clip the ears of the cats they spay. They realize it can be difficult to tell otherwise, so they try to make your job a bit easier.

    • 2

      Turn her over on her back and look at her belly to see if it has been recently shaved. Although it can be very difficult to detect female cat sterilization, the cats are always shaved before surgery. If she has been spayed recently, the belly hair will be visibly shorter.

    • 3

      Look for a small scar below her tummy. If your cat does have short belly hair, look for a small scar on her underside. Unfortunately, this scar becomes very difficult to detect if the cat has had time to heal or if her fur is long and dark. Sometimes it disappears entirely.

    • 4

      Keep her inside for about a month to see if she comes into season. Cats thats that are spayed will no longer come into season. Coming into season is signaled by a restless feline that meows constantly and rubs on furniture a lot.

    • 5

      Take her to a vet. If worst comes to worst, you can always take your cat to the vet or pet shelter to determine if she is spayed. They see cats every day and have a better chance of seeing the scar.