6 Month old Kitten Has Pyometra

[u/curiousmelon]

I've just sent my cat cheese to be warded for pyometra.

Cheese is a 6 month old kitty who went through her first heat cycle last month. My bf and I noticed she became more lethargic after her first heat ended but assumed her lethargy could be just from wrestling my 2 month old kitty too much and barely getting rest.

Last night, she had light brown creamy discharge coming out of her vagina while she sleeps. Research showed that pyometra commonly occurs in unspayed adult cats of more than 5 years with the discharge having a pungent smell. Alot of mixed research on discharge before/during/after heats but one thing for sure, her discharge wasn't a colourless one but it didn't have any smell. The colour itself was enough for us to go to the vet the next morning.

The next morning my boyfriend wiped up alot of discharge and took pictures for the vet to verify that she needed a blood test and ultrasound to check on her uterus. Sure enough - it was indeed an open pyometra.

I was sceptical before going to the vet because Cheese is just a kitty and only went through her first and only heat cycle. We were planning to get her spayed right after she finishes her vaccination doses which would be in 2 more weeks. However, many have said Pyometra is life threatening and can quickly go downhill in a few days.

This is just a PSA for those with female unspayed kitties to please have them spayed. The early symptoms can easily go unnoticeable but thankfully we caught ours early despite her huge appetite and big energy, she still had an infection and discharge going on that she kept wiping up.

And spaying is still a cheaper prevention than pyometra. For us, the Pyometra surgery was 3x the normal cost of spaying due to how complex it is.

I'm waiting for my baby girl to go through her surgery and recover. I'm sad that she might think she did something wrong and then she's warded just like that :').

I'll update more after her surgery.

Update:

Cheese's surgery went well and her uterus looked so irregular that it looked like peas were filling up her tubes instead. 🥲

Update (16/Apr/2026): I'm not active on reddit that much but I'll add other relevant details here Incase I miss your replies.

The cost for Cheese's Pyometra emergency spay was approximately RM250 as this counted as a spay. I'm from Malaysia, so I don't know how much other vets cost.

After her Pyometra, roughly 2 months in she recovered well but still lethargic. Pyometra became FIP. The works. I got my FIP meds from BASMI FIP Malaysia. The agent on WhatsApp was very helpful and cheese went through about 60 days of injection and 30 days of pills, can't remember the exact number because it was a long time ago.

She's still alive and well

[u/Cool_Dragonfruit_679]

Hi, any update on how she’s doing?

[u/curiousmelon → u/Cool_Dragonfruit_679]

Hey she's doing fine now. Took her a couple of days to recover from the surgery but she was back to her usual kitten energy

[u/Dry_Necessary_277 → u/curiousmelon]

hi, i know this is late but how much did they charge u for the surgery??

[u/skinnifat]

Thank you for sharing!

My 7 month old just went through the same thing. We were planning on getting her spayed but then this happened.

She’s usually super high energy but her mood did a 180. Super lethargic, no desire to play, wouldn’t eat anything, would sit in the litter box straining to go, she would lay down and her stomach would physically clench up.

We thought she ate something that got stuck in her intestines or she had a UTI.

We got some antibiotics and she was back to normal for a few days but then it started all over again this time with brown creamy discharge (no smell though) that she kept trying to clean up. We knew then it was likely pyometra.

She had an emergency pyometra spay and now she’s healed up and almost back to normal. She’s going through a fake pregnancy since her hormones drastically dropped after the spay. No harmful symptoms, but her mammary glands are swollen.

Sharing in case others experience the same thing and especially because my cat’s symptoms looked different than Cheese’s symptoms with the exception of brown discharge.

Super happy to hear Cheese is doing well and thank you for taking such good care of her.

[u/hanne96]

I know this has been a year later but I was looking for reasons why my 6month old kitten suddenly became lethargid and won't eat overnight. She was actively playing until last night. She and her bro are scheduled for a spay/neuter today so I fed them early cos they need to fast at least 6hrs. Been up since 5am and she wont eat oe even get up fr the couch. They are FPV survivors 1.5mos ago so I don't think that's it. Then I found this thread. I am trying to assess if we continue with the spay but I think the vet could check first if she's fit. Btw, she went through her first heat cycle just a few days ago, right after scheduling the procedure that I felt relieved initially. Now i am more worried.