Thursday 16 April 2020

Neutering is Necessary




Getting your cat neutered before it can breed is an essential part of responsible cat ownership. Cats are very effective breeders and the number of kittens they produce increases in line with the amount of food and shelter available. Without neutering, the cat population can quickly get out of control.
Overpopulation increases feline infectious disease, stress-related disease, feline conflict and compromises cats’ welfare.
What is neutering?
• A female cat is spayed – her ovaries and uterus (womb) – are removed
• A male cat is castrated – his testicles are removed
Kittens should be neutered at around four months or younger – although your cat can be neutered at any age. Neutering also prevents some cancers and infections, reduces straying, fighting and spraying.
Why neuter?
Neutering has many health benefits, as well as helping to reduce the number of unwanted cats.
Unneutered male cats are more likely to end up injured or catch diseases from fighting. They travel many miles in search of unneutered females, risking road accidents and injury. They will spray smelly urine to mark territory and attract females.
As neutered male cats are less likely to roam it reduces the risk of them contracting serious diseases such as Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) or Feline Leukaemia Virus (FeLV)
Unneutered female cats frequently become pregnant from the age of four months and will often have litters of kittens three times a year. This adds to the overpopulation problem and increases costs for the owner, especially if there are complications during pregnancy or birth. They will call and wail every three weeks during the breeding season to attract a mate, until they become pregnant. They are more likely to contract diseases spread through sexual contact and mating behaviour
If they are neutered they are unable to develop cancer of the ovaries or uterus. They are also at greatly reduced risk of developing mammary cancer – especially if neutered early.
Cats are very resilient and stoical and usually recover very quickly from the operation. Your vet will advise on the best care for your cat as he or she recovers.
Your cat will require much less food after neutering, as his or her body has less work to do, so you will probably need to monitor your cat’s weight and reduce the amount of food provided to prevent your cat from becoming too fat.







Bookmark and Share

6 comments:

  1. Excellent advice....we always have our kitties neutered. Better for them, they live longer and healthier lives and most importantly we need to not have unwanted kitties in shelters. Thanks !

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very important information! There is nothing quite as nasty as an unneutered teenage house cat! Before one of mine was neutered (we found him) he would leave sticky oily stinky "pee" on the dresser at night! I guess that's what "spraying" means? Fortunately, he stopped after the surgery.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great message! After losing our sweet cat Luna to honest to goodness breast cancer (!), we learned she might never have gotten it if she hadn't birthed a litter of kittens before finding us. Nature can be so cruel. ~sigh~ In addition, if I'd known my asthma would soon be controlled by meds, allowing us to keep Luna, we would have also kept her three cuties. Oh, well. Luna 'opened the door' for two later adoptions, one geriatric kitty (Jezebel) still hanging in there after Tilly passed away last autumn. So we've been blessed overall. Take care!

    ReplyDelete
  4. this is sooooo important and I always thought that everyone naturally did this but many people don't which is a shame. Funny, some oversexed people could use this..i'm just saying:)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Bob Barker used to push for neutering pets. It's so easy for this to get away from people. So important.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I think all kitties should be spayed and neutered. :)

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for your commenting, Purrfect.