My cat is between 5 and 6 months old. The last two days she has been very vocal. Meowing loudly and yowling. She is less interested in food and is quite often cleaning her neather regions. She is also sticking her bum in the air and her tail is kind of bent. She is sniffing around a lot and seems keen to go outside. She is an indoor cat at the moment

She is booked in for spaying in 3 weeks time as I have just found out that she had not had any injections. So I have to wait 3 weeks between them according to the vet and the spaying will have to wait until then.

Will she be like this for a long time or will she return to normal in a few days.

yes she is in heat this will go on for approx 15 days my female did this until she finished and i got her done it will drive you mad

definitely sounds in heat to me...make sure you keep her inside and watch out for tom cats, they will try to get in to her, if shes anything like my cat was with her first season it will be a long 2 weeks for you...good luck!

My cat was the same. She drove me mad and kept me up all night and there's nothing you can do but get them spayed Their heat cycles last longer as they get older aswell.

Check with the vet if she can be done when you planned, some won't do it straight after a heat and you have to wait a few weeks.

Yes she is definetley in heat. She should be able too be SPEYED the day after her heat has finished. But if the vets would do it before you must get it done soonest you can after her injections have been done. If not she could go back into heat straight away and then you will have too wait agin for at least 2wks. If possible before Xmas,

Be very vigilant. She will do anything to get out while she is like this and if she does you can bet your boots the local stud will find her and hey presto, kittens!
Many years ago, when I wasn't as cat-savvy as I am now, one of mine got out briefly when she was like this, in spite of my best efforts, and came home looking very smug. I didn't realise why, but got her to the vet for spaying. It was only when I queried the abnormally high spay fee that the vet told me she was pregnant, so it had been a termination. I was furious that they hadn't told me, because I would've had her zipped up and let her go through with the pregnancy.
It might not be related, but she developed a real nasty side to her character after that.

BIB - why??

I think I'd be the same - its one thing to prevent a pregnancy, quite another to abort one. I'd certainly have wanted the option - I could feed another couple of cats quite happily - though admittedly 5 or 6 would be another matter

Exactly - and how often is a litter just a 'couple'? Sorry, but you need to think realistically about stuff like this. It's just more unwanted cats in a world already full to the rafters of unwanted cats.

Moral grounds. Simple as.

I wanted them.

Thankfully she has now calmed down and her op is booked for next Saturday. Hopefully we are now in between Heats.

That's good news. Hope all goes well for her. They usually amaze you with how quickly they bounce back from something that would have us off work for weeks!

But you were getting her spayed so clearly breeding was not on your list of things to do....

Quite right. But once they had been conceived I would take responsibility for them. After all, it was my fault for not getting the cat spayed earlier, or for being careless in letting her escape once she was calling.
And if I keep 5 cats instead of 1, and look after them, I don't see what the problem is.