Cat Spay Guidance

RE: Cat Spay Guidance

Robyn — Fri, 16 Aug 2019 10:44:03 GMT

I'll speak to them today and see what they say - it's so weird. That's a good shout about rest at home though - I'll say to all the girls about really stressing to keep them rested/crate rest and see if we get any differences there. it doesn't look like we're doing anything weird compared to other clinics so maybe it is coming down to owner compliance.

RE: Cat Spay Guidance

Alice Weaver — Fri, 16 Aug 2019 07:14:35 GMT

We had an issue with suture material a reel breaking and reported it to the manufacturer for investigation, so it’s definitely worth doing.

We resee all cat spays 3 days and 10 days post op and cat castrates 3 days post op. The practice I work in doesn’t have a permanent vet at the moment () so a variety of protocols are being used depending on the vet’s preference. A variety of suture materials are used; swaged or off the real. I’ve never seen anyone use monocryl in a cat spay?

Our post op checks are usually done by nurses. I personally have seen no issues- maybe some tiny seromas that aren’t worth worrying about. The only castrate complications I’ve seen are immediately post op before discharge (ie haemorrhage that we address before discharge) or swelling/irritation because clients aren’t keeping cones on as instructed! Everyone goes home with Metacam post op.

Could the complications be due to patient interference at all? Or client compliance with keeping spays indoors and no crazy jumping around?!

RE: Cat Spay Guidance

Robyn — Thu, 15 Aug 2019 15:03:52 GMT

As an exciting adjunct to this, we've had a couple of cats come back with really excessive muscle swelling this week, and one with a fairly nasty seroma/wound infection. All used monocryl for muscle and skin. I'm wondering if there's something funky going on with the batch - do suture companies have similar reporting policies to pharma?

RE: Cat Spay Guidance

bumble bee — Tue, 23 Jul 2019 10:34:47 GMT

We use PDS & monocryl or vicryl with monocrly for the skin sutures. One injection of NSAIDS with premed & then we offer 3ml bottle of NSAIDS to go home.We normally see them back in 2 days & then 6 months health chk to make sure weight not going to high.

RE: Cat Spay Guidance

Robyn — Wed, 17 Jul 2019 13:30:53 GMT

Overall it looks like it might be normal postop swelling, but enough to have made a note of in clinical notes. Intradermals have been a recent addition and co-coincided pretty neatly with introduction of monocryl, but all my vets have been previously experienced with them so I wouldn't imagine there would be any issues there. Definitely a point for the vets to chat about in their clinical meetings though.

Probably the biggest issue in analysing all this is that we're firing through vets pretty rapidly at the moment, so the new vet's data might be throwing things off as they take some time to shift over to practice protocols.

RE: Cat Spay Guidance

Sal the 1st — Wed, 10 Jul 2019 19:33:46 GMT

is this a recent finding or something that has been going on a while? if recent what else has changed? Have you always used monocryl or is this a new thing ie does it coincide with the beginning of your problems? The reason I ask is that sometimes the cut ends of your monocryl sutures can be a bit spiky and irritating as internal sutures if they are left a bit long. We see ours back at 10-14 days for stitches out - unless they have sc PGA as the skin closure. Alternatively has the suture pattern changed, stitches too tight? or is the swelling you are seeing just normal post op?

RE: Cat Spay Guidance

Robyn — Wed, 10 Jul 2019 16:05:38 GMT

[quote user="apache"]

Also interested in your protocol and what problems you are seeing. We generally don't see them back.

Triple GA, flank, single pack of monocryl for ligatures, muscle and intra dermal in skin. Maybe a dab of glue. Single shot of NSAID.

[/quote]

Oooo, I wonder if they're just things we see bc we do see them back (in the same vein, I wonder how many postop complications cats really have after castration...)

What we're mainly seeing is postop complications. We've had a few weird ones that have opened up recently, but the mainstay seems to be muscle swelling which occasionally needs extra nsaids. One vet uses catgut for muscle, the other uses monocryl off the reel, and there doesn't seem to be a difference between the two protocols (I know RCVS advises monocryl packets, I don't know that anyone has sat down and worked out the costing etc. I'd be curious to know what the PDSA protocols are).

This is probably something for them to have a clinical meeting about, but since I'm the one collating data, I thought I'd have a poke about for anything obvious.

RE: Cat Spay Guidance

apache — Mon, 08 Jul 2019 19:22:17 GMT

Also interested in your protocol and what problems you are seeing. We generally don't see them back.

Triple GA, flank, single pack of monocryl for ligatures, muscle and intra dermal in skin. Maybe a dab of glue. Single shot of NSAID.

RE: Cat Spay Guidance

molladog — Mon, 08 Jul 2019 12:43:20 GMT

What issues are you having ?