Spayed cat in heat? Could a retained ovary mean another surgery?

I would have Phlily seen by a vet for this. It doesn't happen often, but sometimes an ovarian remnant can be left behind, causing the cat to continue going into heat. I recommend an exploratory surgery.

IT's not normal but rarely a very small piece of ovary might not have been removed for various reasons (accidentally of course, not intentionally). if this is the case you will have to test it over several months, if this keeps happening your vet will have to do a special blood test to confirm my suspicion. if the test comes back positive your vet will need to do another surgery, look for this little piece of ovary and hopefully find it and remove it, unfortunately this is not always the case and in some cases the vet does not find it. in such a case there is an alternative in a form of hormonal implant that needs to be done once every 6-12 months.

Hello. It is possible that a little bit of her ovary was left behind when Holly was spayed, or a small piece of the ovary fell back into the abdomen during surgery, vascularized & is now active. Even a tiny remnant can cause a cat to show all the classic signs of heat. If he behavior comes and goes, this is an indication that an ovarian remnant is present. There are some blood tests that can distinguish this, or your veterinarian might try to ultrasound her to try & locate if active ovarian tissue is present. In almost all the cats that we have seen with this behavior ( & most were spayed elsewhere ), we were able to open up a cat's abdomen & find a small piece of ovary still present. Once this was removed, all signs of heat completely disappeared. I do not know if this will stop her peeing, but it will clinically stop her estrus displays. Thanks for contacting Boop by Petco.

You should ask about a biopsy but the tissue would be ovarian tissue regardless of whether it is a remnant or ectopic tissue. The difference is the location of the tissue, and there would not be a way for you to know for certain. If you feel like you don’t trust your vet you might want to go elsewhere for surgery. An ovarian remnant is more common than ectopic tissue but I don’t think we know the incidence for certain.

Unfortunately, if your female cat has an ovarian remnant, there is nothing you can do in your house, short of keeping the male and female separated, that would prevent him trying to mount her. the exploratory surgery would be needed to find the remnants and have them removed in order for her to no longer experience heat cycles.

No you can't live like this forever. What I'm going to mention happens rarely, but there is a chance this is why Rue Rue keeps acting like she is in heat. Sometimes, again rarely, ovarian tissue can be left behind accidentally, causing the cat to act like they are going into heat. I'd have her seen by another vet for a second opinion. Best of luck.

The hormones would still be present in the blood stream for some time after surgery so it would be usual for the behaviors to continue for up to 3-5days after surgery. If it has continued longer than this you should contact your vet for a post-surgery recheck to ensure verything is healing well and there is no discomfort causing her behavior

Hi. Poor patches. If she truly is in heat, this could mean that there is still some ovarian tissue present. Your veterinarian may need to do some hormone testing, ultrasound, or even explore the area if he/she feels she is in heat.

Hello and thank you for contacting Boop by Petco. Holly cannot get pregnant, but it looks that she is showing ovarian remnant syndrome. This is when a small piece of ovarian tissue is accidentally left inside the abdomen during neutering. If Holly continues to show heat symptoms, she would need another surgery to remove the remaining ovarian tissue from the abdomen.

It can be difficult to know if they've been spayed or not if you don't have any medical records. You can request that the vet shave her belly to look for a spay scar, but they can be very faint if she was spayed at a very young age. If she still has signs of heat, then either she hasn't been spayed or there is some ovarian tissue still present inside her. You can have a hormone test (AMH) done to confirm that there still is ovarian tissue and then you know she needs surgery to remove it. Or the vet can just go to surgery to go look for it.