Here when our ferals were fixed they kept them for about 3-5 days. After that they just released them and asked us to keep an eye on them. If we saw any signs of distress or infection to call them so they could recatch them. I don't know about there but here they clip their ears. It's so they know who's been fixed and who hasn't. I wasn't too happy about them having their ears clipped because I would think it would hurt but it's part of the process. I'm sorry it's so expensive there. You'd think they would have a universal program with a fixed fee for this sort of thing. Too bad pet overpopulation isn't taken as seriously as it should be.