Spay operation

Neutering

Declaw operation

Feline surgical procedures

Spay operation

Advantages of spaying:

Eliminates unwanted kittens. A well fed healthy female cat will easily produce over a dozen kittens a year, year after year. Even if you find homes for your own, you will be displacing other unwanted kittens that might otherwise have avoided starvation or a one-way trip to the pound.

Keeps your cat from going into heat. If your six month old kitten begins to howl day and night and climb the curtains, or if you hear her out raising a ruckus with other cats, she's in heat and overdue for her operation.

Disadvantages of spaying:

May aggravate any preexisting tendency to be overweight. This can be controlled by diet.

Recommendation:

Have your female kitten spayed when she is four to six months old, before coming into heat the first time. Shelters often spay kittens before adoption.  This is useful for population control, but spaying at such an early age is  not necessarily in the best interest of the kittens themselves.

Neutering

Advantages of neutering:

Eliminates strong tomcat odor.

Reduces tendency to fight with other male cats.

Reduces territorial urine marking, especially indoors.

Eliminates your cat's natural inclination to wander in search of a female,   reducing the likelihood of automobile accidents, gunshot wounds, etc..

Disadvantages of neutering:

Aggravates any tendency to be overweight. This can be controlled by diet.

Recommendation:

Although neutering household male cats cannot realistically be expected to have any effect on pet population, it is important to eliminate the strong tomcat odor and reduce the urge to fight. Male kittens should be neutered when six to eight months old.

Declaw operation

Pros

Declawing is an effective way to preserve your furniture from damage by indoor cats.   If you've provided a good scratching post, and squirt bottle correction isn't working, declawing is probably a better option than euthanasia. 

Cons

The feet are sore after surgery.  While four or five month old kittens are often happily batting at toys in a day or two, older cats may seem sore for a month or even longer.  We give injections to control pain after surgery, but even so their feet hurt afterwards.  We discourage  the operation and think of it only as an alternative to euthanasia. 

Declawed cats are less able to protect themselves, so the surgery may not be a great idea for cats that sleep outdoors at night.

Deprived of the ability to scratch, cats that are aggressive toward people are more likely to bite.  Declawing is not a good way to deal with behavior problems.

What age

The ideal time for declawing is when kittens are four or five months old.