Can you tell if a cats been spayed?

catloverin_ks

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I am guessing you probly cant, but I am wondering if Miss Kitty is spayed. I just called the vet and they said you really cant tell. I wanna know if shes been fixed or not.....I thought maybe she was pregnant when she first showed up here, but no babies and she should of had them by now(that was back in Nov/Dec when she appeared)
 

sibohan2005

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I can't tell with either of mine. Duke still had the twins and Sibohan I can't see a scar under her fur. But I do have a recrd for each of them so they are spayed and Nutered.
I'm thinking it would be pretty hard to tell unless you took them to the vet yourself or shaved you cat to check
 

luckygirl

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Originally Posted by Crystal211

We were able to tell with ours - they shaved their bellies and you could see the scar. Sometimes it's harder to tell, though.
that's a great idea....instead of putting them through uneccasary surgery.
 

proudkittiemom

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Originally Posted by Crystal211

We were able to tell with ours - they shaved their bellies and you could see the scar. Sometimes it's harder to tell, though.
when we took bella after they shaved her they showed us the scars and i can still find them today...but Stormie has tooo much fur to look for a scar ! And tessa i havent looked really and same with blue...they arent belly kitties i guess
 

lisasha3

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Originally Posted by catloverin_ks

I am guessing you probly cant, but I am wondering if Miss Kitty is spayed. I just called the vet and they said you really cant tell. I wanna know if shes been fixed or not.....I thought maybe she was pregnant when she first showed up here, but no babies and she should of had them by now(that was back in Nov/Dec when she appeared)
That's a great questions because with all the shelter kitties we have coming in, it's tough to tell with some. Wish I knew how. I've got enough trouble still trying to figure out gender.
 

valanhb

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They shaved Mojo's belly to see if there was a spay scar. They thought she was a boy!
I don't know how they missed that - I looked at her backside and said, "Yeah, she's definitely a GIRL..."

Ginger is easy to tell because she has a tattoo on her ear NS for Neuter Scooter.
 

twstychik

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Wickett has the NS tattoo too...but I think it's actually supposed to stand for Neuter/spay. And of course, he's a boy so it's easy to tell. The same day I took Wickett to the NS they had a female that someone found stray that they discovered had already been spayed but not until they had already cut her open. I guess they didn't see any scars or didn't look when they shaved her.
 

beandip

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Originally Posted by Sibohan2005

Does your not have his little friends anymore? Duke still has his I think he must have just had a vasectomy cuz they didn't remove his stuff.
Yeah, my boys still have their "twins", they are just significantly smaller than they used to be.
In intact males, they're each about the size of a quarter (or bigger LOL), and after they're neutered they're more like dimes.


Poor Beandip only has one little white cottonball on his rear end. The other one was inside...never descended.
 

miagi's_mommy

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when we get female cats in at the shelter where I volunteer, we shave their bellies and see if there is a scar. you can also take the cat to the vet and they will shave the cat's belly to see if there is a spay scar.
 

twstychik

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Originally Posted by beandip

Yeah, my boys still have their "twins", they are just significantly smaller than they used to be.
In intact males, they're each about the size of a quarter (or bigger LOL), and after they're neutered they're more like dimes.


Poor Beandip only has one little white cottonball on his rear end. The other one was inside...never descended.
Ya, if he's still got 'em they are too tiny to tell. Poor boy... I think thats why he freaks out when I have to do a tail check for poo.... he's a little ashamed.
 

catsarebetter

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My vet was able to tell by rubbing where the scar should be. I'm pretty sure he could feel the scar tissue, which I think might be discernible even if there isn't a visible scar.
 

ping

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Spay scars are not 100% though. Someone on another board kinds went through this. They rescued a dog (i think it was) and took the dog to the vet to check for a spay scar so that they would not have to open her up to check. Well they saw what they believed to be a spay scar so they concluded she had been spayed. Well guess what.....it was not a spay scar and she was or became pregnant. So the moral is a spay scar is not 100%.
 

leto86

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Sometimes it's hard to find a scar.
our vet is really good, a perfectionist. By the time it's healed, there is barely a scar.

We shave their bellies to tell. Just cuz you don't see a cat go into heat, doesn't mean it's not spayed. I know plenty of cats that have silent heats, that come and go and you don't notice.
 

beandip

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Our vet shaves to look for a scar. I can agree, though - that wouldn't be a 100% guarantee of anything.

The last time I took a cat to my vet to shave and look for a spay scar...she didn't find a scar, but she found testicles (well what was left of them, he was neutered already). LOL. I felt like such a dork. It was a completely black cat, with long hair...I hadn't looked close enough. Thankfully she looked before she shaved him.
 

starryeyedtiger

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The only real way to tell is to have their bellies shaved and check for an incision scar.Yesterday was our spay/neuter day at our shelter.
Keep in mind though- an incision scare in that area does NOT always mean that they've been spayed- they could have had a surgery in that area previously unrelated to a spay. (the majority of the time- the scar in that area indicats a spay.) when i doubt, a vet can do an x-ray of the area to be 100% sure.
Also- if they have been spayed and had a geriactric spay as a kiten- it can be very difficult to find an incision scar once the site heals because the incision should be tiny.
 

starryeyedtiger

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I just thought of something else that might be of help to you - sometimes when shelters or vets spay/netuer a kitty they will very gently make a small clip in their ear (like the equivelant of us having an ear pierced- but not as bad) to show that the kitty has been spayed
My Velvet has one of her ears tipped like that - the shelter did that before we adopted her so if she ever got loose- other people/vets/shelters would know she had been altared. Also- you can request that when you have your kitty spayed - the vet open up the kity in an X shape fashion (many still do a straight line- so it makes it harder to tell if they've been altared- but around here they've started to make tiny little x-shaped incisions and close them up that way so that others will know if it's ever questioned that the kitty has definitely been spayed
/ And also one other suggestion for you- when purchasing an ID tag for your pet ....you can have (spayed) or (neutered) engraved on it when you get it
 

dixie_darlin

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I don't know what to say on this subject.
The Cat Brats came from a "Spayed" cat.... She had the stitches, the scar, everything.... but was NOT spayed.

But with males, you can tell almost immediatly.... their cotton balls aren't as fluffy
 

starryeyedtiger

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Originally Posted by Dixie_Darlin

I don't know what to say on this subject.
The Cat Brats came from a "Spayed" cat.... She had the stitches, the scar, everything.... but was NOT spayed.

But with males, you can tell almost immediatly.... their cotton balls aren't as fluffy
I remember when that happened
That "vet" deserves to be shot!
 
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