Neutering cats before breeding is an important part of being a responsible cat owner.
The population of cats in the world can quickly get out of control if neutering doesn’t take place. This increases the chances of feline infectious diseases, stress-related diseases, feline conflict and compromises their welfare.
What is neutering?
This is a surgical procedure to stop female (Queen) and male (Tom) cats from reproducing. This procedure stops unwanted pregnancies, prevents some cancers and infection, reduces wandering, confrontation & scent marking.
- Females cats are spayed; removal of ovaries & uterus
- Males cats are castrated; removal of testicles
When to neuter?
Neutering can be carried out from 4 months of age as that is when cats become sexually mature.
Why neuter?
It has many benefits to health, as well as reducing the amount of unwanted cats in rehoming centres or left to stray.
Entire Males (Tomcat):
- Increased risk of becoming injured, catching diseases from confrontation.
- Regularly travel miles to find a queen, therefore increasing the risk of road traffic accidents/injury.
- Territorial scent marking.
- Risk of testicular tumours.
- Increased stress/frustration if unable to find a mate.
Neutered Males:
- Reduced risk of roaming, preventing injuries, etc.
- Reduced risk of fighting, therefore reduced risk of injury or contracting diseases like Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) or Feline Leukaemia Virus (FeLV).
- Less likely to scent mark.
- No testicular tumours.
Entire Females (Queen):
- Often become pregnant from 4 months of age.
- Can have kittens 3 x yearly.
- Risk of complications during pregnancy/birth.
- During the breeding season they can call/wail every 3 weeks (Jan-Aug).
- Increased chance of catching diseases.
- Ovary, uterus & mammary gland cancers.
- Pyometra (uterus infection).
Neutered Females:
- No pregnancies
- No calling/wailing
- Reduced risk of contracting diseases, e.g. FIV, FeLV, spread by mating & fighting.
- Unable to develop cancer of ovaries & uterus.
- Greatly reduced risk of mammary cancer, particularly if spayed early.
Operation Day!
We admit our day patients, ideally, between 8.30am-9am, they need to be starved overnight and can have access to water through to the morning. A nurse will then get a weight and will go through the consent form to ensure your cat is fit for a general anaesthetic. Read more about what to do before the operation.
*PROCEDURE*
After the procedure, females will have a shaved patch on their left flank (very occasionally the procedure is done via the midline). She will have sutures placed under the skin that will dissolve, occasionally there are skin sutures put in place that will need to be removed after 10-14days.
They stay with us for the day and can be discharged, usually, between 2pm-5pm, this is where a nurse will go over the procedure with you and explain any home care that is needed. They are seen back in 2-3days post-op and the females are seen back again a week later for a final post-op check & remove sutures (if needed).
