Abstract
Background: Spaying is considered as a reliable surgical method for birth control and preventing potential feline reproductive diseases.
Aim: This experiment was carried out to evaluate the suitability of left lateral flank approach for routine spaying in cats.
Methods: Twenty-seven queens of 7-24 months old and 1.5-3.5 kg BW were spayed through flank laparotomy in the left lateral side of abdomen. The cats were categorized into two groups: Group A (n=12; cats did not yet give birth) and Group B (n=15; cats gave birth before). The studied variables included age, BW, vaccination history, skin incision length, total surgical duration, time needed for ligating ovarian pedicles and uterine body, suture materials, postoperative complications and healing duration.
Results: There were no significant differences (P<0.05) in age, BW and vaccination history of the cats between the two groups. The mean incision length and total duration of surgery were greater in case of Group B than Group A. The ease of entering into the peritoneal cavity, duration of ligating the ovarian pedicles and transfixing the uterine body did not vary significantly (P<0.05) between the groups, although longer time was taken for Group B than Group A. 62.96% spayed cats were found with no postoperative complication. The observed complications included wound site infection (7.41%), dehiscence of suture lines (11.11%), bleeding (3.70%) and oozing (14.82%) from wounds which were further treated successfully for complete recovery.
Conclusion: Left lateral flank approach can be an effective method of spaying in queens without any life threating complication.

Key words: Ovariohysterectomy, Flank celiotomy, Ligation, Postoperative complication, Queens