vet mistaking sex of cat?

bigkitty · Apr 22, 2007

Hi I recently adopted a stray, and had her fully checked out by the vet who said she was healthy. However, today when she was cleaning herself I saw a red tipped "thing" sticking out about an inch below her anus. This looks a lot like a penis to me. Is it likely the vet made a mistake and the cat is male? I have a picture that I just took but I can't figure out how to post it on the message board.

Or is this something else I need to take the cat back to the vet tomorrow?

Thank you!

wildflower79 · Apr 22, 2007

Ohh yes that definitely sound like it's a male cat. How old is you kitty? When they're really young it's easy to make a mistake on the sex.

strange_wings · Apr 22, 2007

Unless your cat is very fluffy, I do not understand how a vet can mistake the sex.

Even in very little kittens it's not too hard to tell, if you know what you're looking at.
And for an older kitten or cat there's usually other factors such as body shape and face shape that make it even easier to tell.

If anyone wants confusing try box turtles that may not show psychical signs of their sex until they're a few years old.

Or birds and snakes that have to be...er checked by other methods.

bigkitty · Apr 22, 2007

the cat is about 6 years old, and I also can't find a scar from spaying.

abigail · Apr 22, 2007

i'd consider another vet

ping · Apr 22, 2007

Since you have had the cat has it been spayed or neutered? Because my thinking is if its an intact male that should be kinda obvious unless the cat is fluffy. And even then I would think a vet can tell the difference between having testicles and never having testicles. And if the vet can not tell the difference on a 6 yr old cat I would be switching vets.

BTW I would love to see pictires of your kitty.

strange_wings · Apr 22, 2007

Originally Posted by Abigail

i'd consider another vet

That's what my DH husband said when I read the OP out loud to him.

It is possible that the vet just really isn't a cat vet.

beandip · Apr 22, 2007

Just about the only good excuse for that mistake might be if the boy is calico ...and the vet didn't even LOOK. First, that would be rare, and second - it's still not really a good excuse.

bigkitty · Apr 22, 2007

I will be switching vets. This was our first visit to this one.
I am trying to upload the picture I took but I can't make it work. maybe it won't work since I am a new user?

alice_curiouser · Apr 22, 2007

It does happen... My grandmother once took her male cat to the vet to be neutered, and they shaved his belly for a spay! In the vet/tech's defense, the cat was named "Mandy", but still.

jcat · Apr 22, 2007

In my experience, it's quite possible that the vet made a mistake. We took in a supposedly female cat, spayed by a local vet, after her family moved, and she kept coming "home", traveling along some very busy streets. Much to our wonder, she also had a deformed penis and an underdeveloped scrotum, so we had to have her castrated, too (cryptoorchid). In short, hermaphrodites do exist (I've encountered three, to date). My sister has a dilute calico male cat, very rare, and her vet also didn't take a look at his reproductive organs when he was kitten.

qhgirl1 · Apr 22, 2007

jcat;1735268 said:
In short, hermaphrodites do exist.QUOTE]

I just want to second this. At a humane society I used to work at the ACO brought in a cat and said it was a female. We thought the guy was crazy because he/she very obviously had testicles. Well, a few days later Mr. Momma delivered a litter of kittens

. It is very possible that your cat could be a hermaphrodite.

goldenkitty45 · Apr 22, 2007

I would not critized the vet just cause he might have not checked to closely. Everyone makes mistakes. Perhaps he just didn't really look at the cat well. Even the best of breeders with tons of experience, make mistakes on sex!

Anyway, next time you go in, let them take another look at the cat to be sure

Strange wings - I had 7 box turtles. Its easy to tell the difference - males have a concave (or shallow dip) in the middle of the bottom shell. The females have a perfectly straight bottom shell.

Also males will have red/orange eyes - females brown eyes

Just for future reference.

strange_wings · Apr 22, 2007

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

Strange wings - I had 7 box turtles. Its easy to tell the difference - males have a concave (or shallow dip) in the middle of the bottom shell. The females have a perfectly straight bottom shell.

Also males will have red/orange eyes - females brown eyes

Just for future reference.

Adults are easy

Hatchlings-babies do not have fully developed shells, mine can't even fully close their hinges yet. And eye color isn't a 100% perfect way to tell. Reptiles are tricky, until they get closer to maturing it's not that easy to tell.

I agree, people make mistakes. But if you're paying the vet to look closely, and I assume that's what the office visit charges are for

then it's a little annoying and worrisome that they'd miss something such as that.
Either way, if the OP doesn't feel comfortable with or confident of the vet for any reason then they should consider another.

goldenkitty45 · Apr 22, 2007

On the turtles - try checking the tail base (if you can) - I think the males would have skinnier tails at the base. I've never seen the baby box turtles - only adults - will look into it on the net after supper and see if I find anything to help you.

strange_wings · Apr 22, 2007

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

On the turtles - try checking the tail base (if you can) - I think the males would have skinnier tails at the base. I've never seen the baby box turtles - only adults - will look into it on the net after supper and see if I find anything to help you.

All their tails are skinny (no sexual organs developed yet if there's males), all their shells are flat on the bottom, and all of them have dull brown or gold eyes.

That said I think I have 2 males and 6 females.

I have some pictures from a couple months ago of a few of them in the Pet Pics section under the title Baby Boxies.

goldenkitty45 · Apr 22, 2007

If you can find your thread with the pics - I'd love to take a look

kalikat · Apr 22, 2007

I had a male persian my husband bought me 25 yrs ago. When the time came to have him neutered (6mths)I wasn't sure he was male as there was no visible scrotum. I had a friend look at him, who bred lots of moggies & he thought he looked like a male already neutered. When making the appointment for the op I mentioned this to the vet & he said he'd make sure when I brought him in. While at vets & moving his fur away so vet could have a look the tip of his penis popped out.

He was then neutered, he was just underdeveloped.
Mind you I had never seen an entire male cat before because as a child all our cats were done. I only ever new the difference with dogs, obviously.

dizzymslizzy · Apr 25, 2007

I rescued a cat a year ago, and EVERYONE mis-sexed him! The rescue I got her from sexed her as a male. I brought "him" in for the first vet visit, and they were baffled by "him". It took 3 Vets, and 4 vet techs to final come to a consensis that Zeke was infact Female!

We kept the name Zekie, and SHE had all of her female organs removed

.

howtoholdacat · Apr 25, 2007

Originally Posted by Abigail

i'd consider another vet

Lol. Me too! You'd think that by 6 years of age a vet could identify that a bit better. Still one of my cats is sooooo fluffy it might be easy to miss on him.

vet mistaking sex of cat?

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