The room she recovers in
Bring your cat home to one quiet room, not the run of the house. She needs her litter tray, water, a low comfortable bed, and dim, calm surroundings within a few steps of each other, because she will be groggy and unsteady at first. Keep other pets and excited children out for these two days, and remove anything she could jump onto: a spayed cat should walk, not leap. Follow the discharge sheet the clinic gave you on feeding that first evening, since advice on a small meal versus waiting varies with the anaesthetic she had.
The first evening: grogginess is expected
Sleepiness, wobbliness, and a lack of interest in food are normal in the first hours after an anaesthetic. She may hide, stare, or sleep deeply, then seem brighter by bedtime. Offer water where she can reach it without climbing. What matters is the direction of travel: each check should find her the same or a little better, never worse. A cat who cannot be roused, who is crying persistently, or who vomits repeatedly is not following the normal pattern, and that is a call to the clinic or its out-of-hours service the same evening.
Checking the incision without disturbing it
Look at the wound at every check, but do not touch, clean, or apply anything to it unless the clinic told you to. At this stage it should look neat and dry, with mild swelling or slight bruising around it acceptable in the first two days. Warning signs are the edges opening, fresh bleeding, discharge, a bad smell, or swelling that is clearly growing between checks. Keep her cone or recovery garment on exactly as instructed, because one determined licking session can damage a healing incision. Check she cannot slip the cone when she grooms or eats.
Eating, drinking, and the litter tray
By the morning after surgery most cats are eating something, even if portions stay small for a day. Track whether she is drinking and whether she has passed urine and stool, since the clinic will ask precisely those questions if you phone. A cat who has eaten nothing at all by the day after surgery, or who strains in the tray without producing urine, needs veterinary advice that day. Fresh water in a heavy, tip-proof bowl helps a clumsy, cone-wearing cat drink without soaking her bedding.
A checking rhythm for the whole household
Forty-eight hours of monitoring fails when everyone assumes someone else just looked. Agree set check times through the day and night, and write down appetite, toileting, energy, and the wound in a few words each time. That written run is gold if you do need to call, because you can say exactly when she last ate and how the incision changed. Split the overnight check between adults if you can, so one tired person is not making every judgment alone at three in the morning.
When a check turns into a call
Phone the clinic promptly for bleeding, an opening wound, repeated vomiting, refusal of all food into the second day, straining without urine, laboured breathing, or a cat who seems to be going downhill instead of recovering. Trust the trend you recorded rather than hoping the next check reverses it. Recording each spay-recovery check in Care Teams in KinsLe, timestamped as it is done, gives the whole household one shared picture of how she is healing.