Sorry I should know all of this but I am so worn out from recent events that
I am finding that common knowledge is slipping my mind. Some would call it
old age I call it worn and frazzled out :-(

Hi Matthew,

Hope that stress doesn't last for long.

We've only had one cat go into heat. She was pregnant when we found her,
then after the kittens were a couple months old she went into heat.

It was probably a couple of weeks of her obviously in heat, she was so
restless. She was in constant motion -- kneading and scratching and
yeowling.

A little over 3 weeks later, we took her and the kittens in for spays
and neuters. We were told after the operation she was still in heat,
although her outward symptoms were gone. They charged about $15 extra,
not too much.

The girls had more pain than the boys after the operations, so just make
sure you get pain medication for her for at least the first day. We used
a clinic recommended by a local rescue instead of our regular vet
because we had a crowd to take in, but they did not offer pain meds. We
didn't think to ask and were so sorry we didn't.

Hope all goes well,

Rhonda

Hi Matthew:

Just a word about heat spells.  Although they don't last long,
sometimes, cats can go repeatedly into heat, one spell after
another, so one thing you might want to do is watch carefully
for any signs of the spell ending so that you can take advantage
of what might be a short window of opportunity and whip her in
to TED so that he can whip it out before she goes back in heat
again.  Mind you, I'm gathering this is her first heat spell, and it
doesn't go that way so often on the first spell, but it can do,
I've seen it happen with Luthien when she was young.

Good luck!

--tension

I think it varies a great deal. I think Sugar's first one was about 3 days.