Animal Welfare Professionals

I'd like an opinion on something.  If a cat is trapped and brought to a local animal shelter with the intent to spay/neuter and return it to the area where it was trapped, do you recommend or advocate keeping the cat in the trap while awaiting its surgery, or keeping it in the trap?  The situation has arisen in a few instances where the cat can't receive its surgery the same day it arrives at the shelter, and some have been kept in the trap for 2-3 days - providing food and water of course.  But it has to pee and poop in the trap, causing the waste to fall onto the floor or onto pads under the trap.  Would it not be a better choice in these instances (where surgery can't be done the same day) to put the cat into a cage where it can have food, water and a small litter pan?

Having a trap divider and traps with a back door (e.g., the Tomahawk feral cat series traps) allows for changing the trap lining and putting a small litter tray into the trap. In the past, I have kept cats in traps for several days in our basement - it is not ideal, and very time-consuming, but can be worked out. If the shelter has cages with portals and has feral dens (e.g.,  from ACES or Tomahawk), it is quite easy, stress-free and safe to hold unsocialized cats and then get them to surgery. When the shelter has only small cages without portals and feral dens, cats tend to escape during cage cleaning. 

Here are photos of a cat in a freshly cleaned trap, and during trap cleaning, with the divider in the trap. 

We have kennels for the ferals so they don't stay in the trap. The kennels have a litterbox and food of course, and it also has a feral cat den, making it easy to close them up and go to surgery when needed. They recover the same way after surgery and are released the following day. We actually use these in all of our cat kennels so they have a hiding place. Also makes it easy to clean the kennel.

The dens are great—better for the cats and better for the folks cleaning!

A lot depends on how many cats you're handling.  If you have a lot of them coming in regularly, then transferring them into adequate cages with dens may be impractical.  We often do trappings involving 10 to 20 cats, so cages aren't realistic.  However, cats can be safely and comfortably kept in traps for even a week as long as the traps are at least 30 inches in length, have a rear door and are cleaned twice daily.  And if you have trap dividers. A video of this method, along with detailed instructions, can be found here:  https://www.neighborhoodcats.org/how-to-tnr/trapping/caring-for-cats-in-traps

You've already had some great responses, but I wanted to chime in as well. When we work with shelters that are implementing a SNR/RTF program we advise that the most ideal situation is that the cat enters the shelter day 1, has surgery day 2 and is released on day 3. If that process is able to be followed, keeping the cat in the humane trap is fine. You can easily feed in the trap and the cat can be moved into a fresh trap as needed. We advise that the traps should be elevated over newspaper to allow waste to fall through the trap (we cut PVC pipes in half to use as risers). Do not line the trap with newspaper or pads that will trap the urine and feces because you do not want the cat forced to sit on wet paper getting urine soaked. 

If you know there is going to be a delay in the surgery process we would advise transferring the cat from a trap to a den (shown in cprice's comments) and set up in a cage with access to food/water & litter box. The cat can easily be transferred back from the den to a trap on the day of surgery. If you're purchasing the dens we would recommend not getting the one with the molded handle because then the cat can't comfortably lay on the top (the other can be used multi purpose as both a hiding spot and perch). 

If you have traps with a guillotine door, you can even clean it without a trap divider (although I would strongly recommend to have one at hand!). All you need is potty pads and a long stick. With the stick you can move food bowls or bedding around from outside, and unroll a fresh pad. I fold the pad to the width of the trap, roll it, lift the door just enough to slide the roll in, close the door while holding on to the edge of the pad, and use the stick to unroll. Sometimes the cat needs a little poke to walk over the roll. The last photo shows a rare occasion when I need a divider. Also it is a good idea to use the divider horizontally, so it anchors on both sides.

#CommunityCatManagement

Thanks everyone for your responses.  I've gotten some good information on this; it's great to get the feedback from some who have good knowledge about the matter!  Thank you all!