by Lynn Broom
Longmead Veterinary Practice
It is important to consider all the associated factors when considering whether to neuter your cat.
Neutering means to remove the sexual organs from an animal to prevent reproduction. Males are castrated and females are spayed. When males and females are un-neutered they are classed as entire.
It can be appealing to think of having a litter of kittens from your cat but it is important that you first consider where those kittens will live once they are ready to go to their new homes. People may show interest in getting a kitten but it is important that they can provide a stable life-long home, including the financial responsibilities owning a cat entails. A cat which has a litter before she is fully grown will often remain stunted due to the extra stress on her still developing body.
Sexually mature entire male cats will roam and fight. This makes them more at risk of being hit by a car as they travel further. They are much more prone to recurrent cat bite injuries, often leading to recurrent abscesses. Entire male cats frequently scent mark and urinate indoors, and their hormones give this a really potent smell. Neutering removes both the desire to do this and the smell associated with it.
Fighting and having sex puts entire male and entire female cats at increased risk of becoming infected with viruses such as FIV – the cat version of HIV – and FeLV, which can cause leukaemia and lymphoma.
Female cats reach sexual maturity at five to six months of age and will come into season every three weeks throughout the spring and summer. A female in season will be very vocal, which can be quite challenging to live with. They will go looking for a mate, which may include crossing roads. You may think there are no entire males around but they can travel long distances to find a fertile female.
Brothers and sisters and parents and offspring will mate each other, and it is important that you ensure that they are neutered before reaching sexual maturity because a close family mating is likely to cause abnormalities in the kittens.
Every year Cats Protection and other rescue centres are inundated with unwanted cats because they have been abandoned or their family’s circumstances have changed. If we keep allowing our cats to breed, this adds to the problem.
It is important to know that there is no benefit to allowing a female cat to have ‘just one litter’. As humans we have the perception that there is a psychological benefit to having a baby, but cats’ brains do not work the same way and they are purely driven by the biological drive to reproduce. Once neutered that drive is eliminated.
There are no known disadvantages to neutering cats. Cats Protection regularly neuters cats from 16 weeks of age or younger and no associated issues have been noted by doing this.
We are very lucky that our local Cats Protection branch is currently providing a low cost neutering scheme for people who are on restricted income or receive certain benefits so that financial restrictions do not prevent cats from being neutered.
There are many health benefits to neutering and, as Cats Protection says, ‘a neutered cat is a safer, happier cat’.