But there is one family member that should not be giving surprise gifts this Christmas – your family pet.

The average female cat can have up to 18 kittens per year, adding up to over 100 kittens in her lifetime.

Whilst a litter of kittens can be exciting, managing a whole family of cats is often stressful and can be difficult to re-home, which often leads to the kittens being left at the local pound.

Doctors Madeleine Brady and Lydia Herbert have a lovely young cat who has found herself in this scenario. She is still a kitten herself at six months old, and already has a litter of three, one-week-old kittens.

Doctors Brady and Herbert are hoping to re-home the family when they are old enough.

To assist with the stress of silly season, Central Vet Services is offering a 10 per cent discount on all desexing procedures for the month of December.

Desexing your pet offers many long term benefits, not just eliminating the risk of unwanted litters.

For Females, desexing significantly reduces or eliminates the risk of many types of cancer, including mammary, uterine and ovarian cancers.

In addition, desexing  eliminates the risk of pyometra, which is a severe uterine infection that commonly occurs in older bitches. If left untreated pyometra is often fatal.

For male dogs, desexing completely eliminates the risk of testicular disease, reduces the risk of prostatic disease and may reduce aggression and wandering behaviours. Male cats may also benefit from less behavioural spraying.

“We are huge advocates of desexing all pets that are not being bred,” Dr Herbert said, “The health benefits are too large to ignore, let alone alleviating the stress of unwanted litters.”

“We want to assist members of the community, especially heading into Christmas. We hope that offering a special on such an important procedure will facilitate this,” Dr Brady said.

The 10 per cent off all pet desexing offer runs for the entirety of December.

Call us on 0447 963 714 and mention this article to receive the special offer.