Neuter/Spay = bad?

roimata

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My husband doesnt understand why its best to neuter/spay cats.
He says its just "convinience at the expense of a lost part of their maturing experience", is that true? do they mature oddly from being desexed?

I really need to know some pro's and con's to this.
 

valanhb

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There aren't any cons, really. They don't mature oddly because of being desexed. They don't suffer any emotional trauma from not being able to mate or have kittens. That's a human perspective placed on cats unnaturally.

The pros are that you won't have a cat that calls or sprays or tries desperately to get outside to mate. The cat won't come home with a disease like FeLV or FIV from mating indiscriminately. The cat also won't be aggressive with other cats due to mating issues, and thus won't require vet visits for fighting wounds. Spaying also negates the risk of mammary and uterine cancer, pyometria and other medical issues that can all be fatal.

In addition, considering there are literally MILLIONS of healthy cats and kittens killed in shelters each year due to overpopulation, spaying and neutering is the only responsible option for pet owners.
 
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roimata

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He says its bad to take away a cats hormones because it would make the cat act differently :\\
 
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roimata

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I just read:

As with any surgical procedure, immediate complications of neutering include the usual anesthetic and surgical complications, such as bleeding and infection. These risks are relatively low in routine spaying and neutering; however, they may be increased for some animals due to pre-existing other health factors.

In the long run, dogs of both genders have an increased risk of obesity due to the fact that pet owners continue to feed as if the animal was still intact, which can be prevented by modifying the diet. Stump pyometra may still occur in females. Spayed female dogs sometimes develop urinary incontinence, and castrated males display a somewhat increased incidence of prostate cancer over intact males. Neutered dogs have also been known to develop hormone-responsive alopecia (hair loss). Neutered dogs of both genders are at a twofold excess risk to develop osteosarcoma as compared to intact dogs.

Male neutered cats are at an increased risk for certain problems associated with feline lower urinary tract disease, including the presence of stones or a plug in the urethra and urethral blockage.

Obviously, most animals lose their libido due to the hormonal changes involved with both genders, and females no longer experience heat cycles, which may be a major nuisance factor, especially in female cats. Minor personality changes may occur in the animal. Neutering is often recommended in cases of undesirable behavior in dogs, although studies suggest that while roaming, urine marking, and mounting are reduced in neutered males, it has little effect on aggression and other important behavioral issues. Intact male cats are more prone to urine spraying, while many common behavioral causes of urine marking remain in castrated cats.
 

wookie130

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Ummm...my response to your husband is pretty simple. Rather than trying to intellectualize this, and look at as depriving an animal of the experiencing of maturing "naturally", you can look at it from the standpoint that what the animal never experiences, the animal will never miss. They simply don't apply philosophy or conceptualization like this to their every day lives...they can't. They're animals. One of the dumbest things we do as humans, is give human characteristics to our pets...it's not fair, and it places intellectual and emotional expectations on the animal that simply cannot exist. It's silly!!!

And, it has nothing to do with convenience. What a load of hoo-ha!!!!!!!!!!
If convenience means protecting your pet from reproductive-related health problems down the road, such as mammory, testicular, uterine, or ovarian cancers, than I guess, yes, I'd say the "convenience" is definitely worth it. If you DON'T love the idea of your pet incessantly reproducing litter after litter, having to find GOOD homes for unwanted puppies and kittens, cleaning up and neutralizing territorial markings, listening to your adult female caterwauling in the middle of the night for a mate, searching for your escape-artist kitty that will do anything and everything in his/her power to make a mad dash outdoors to find a girlfriend/boyfriend, and having the knowledge that for every new kitten and puppy born, another adult shelter animal misses the opportunity to find a loving forever home, then, I'd say the "convenience" of spaying and neutering is worth it. Count me in, folks!!!!


Cats and kittens do NOT mature oddly from being de-sexed. I'd say they mature far more peacefully, as you're removing the turmoil that all of those raging territorial and reproductive hormones throw into the mix. You end up with a calmer, more family-oriented companion, and with a lot less behavior and territorial problems, not to mention you'll be completely eliminating the potential for several reproductive cancers down the road.


Oh, and BTW, the surgical procedures for spaying and neutering are very safe, and relatively low-risk in most cases. Very few animals experience any difficulties during the recovery...it's the anethesia that most vet professionals are concerned with. And NOT spaying and neutering will often mean that the animal will have to be anesthetized in the future to remove a malignant ovarian or testicular tumor, so either way, it's a MINISCULE risk worth taking.
 

babyharley

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I don't know if you have a male or female, but when we had Harley as a kitten, before he was fixed- he started to spray/pee on everything. After we had him fixed (2 days after the behaviour started) it stopped. I know un-fixed males will spray when not fixed, and its NOT a pleasant scent either!

I don't know if your cat is indoors or outdoors, or both- but if he/she were to get out, there are plenty of strays out there, and the last thing the world needs is more pregnant strays. Keeping your cat fixed will keep the population of strays down. Every neuter/spay helps!

Besides, if you want to get anohter cat someday, and you get a male unfixed and a female unfixed together- your gonna end up with kittens!

My boys didn't change at all after their neuter. They were a little calmer, but the same personality and everything.
 

twstychik

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The bit about neutered pets getting fat IMO has nothing to do with t e surgery and everything to do w/ lazy ownership. If you feed your cat all the time and don't keep it active of course it's going to get fat.

I've also alwasy thought that male cats in general (neutered or not) are prone to UTI's and FLUTD.

Does your husband have any resources to back his ideas about de-sexing cats? Or is he just projecting his own feeling onto the cats?
 
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roimata

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Ummm...my response to your husband is pretty simple. Rather than trying to intellectualize this, and look at as depriving an animal of the experiencing of maturing "naturally", you can look at it from the standpoint that what the animal never experiences, the animal will never miss. They simply don't apply philosophy or conceptualization like this to their every day lives...they can't. They're animals. One of the dumbest things we do as humans, is give human characteristics to our pets...it's not fair, and it places intellectual and emotional expectations on the animal that simply cannot exist. It's silly!!!
He doesnt work that way, "what the animal never experiences, the animal will never miss", thats a horrible way to look at things and I agree too, I think neutering and spaying is a good thing, but he wants our animals to grow up naturally, I cant seem to get through to him.
 

babyharley

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Originally Posted by Roimata

He doesnt work that way, "what the animal never experiences, the animal will never miss", thats a horrible way to look at things and I agree too, I think neutering and spaying is a good thing, but he wants our animals to grow up naturally, I cant seem to get through to him.
Naturally? Well... if your cat is a male, I hope he enjoys the 'natural' smell of cat urine/spray in your home- and if she's a female, I hope he likes the sound of howling female when she's in heat! Heaven knows those are both things I'd rahter not experience in my house, my boys are happy AND healthy from their neuter!
 

sarahp

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I would talk to a vet and take their word, not your husband's
Does he have any veterinary experience?

There are soooooo many more pros of desexing than there are cons.

Can you imagine if everyone let their cat breed?? There's already an overabundance of cats and kittens in the world, you don't need more. If you don't spay and neuter, you end up with aggressive male cats who spray everywhere, females who go through constant heat cycles and produce constant litters which affects their health horribly. A female cat can have a couple of litters a year - imagine letting a cat go through that year after year. She would be so weak, and wouldn't be strong enough to raise kittens before too long. And those kittens can start reproducing from 4 months old. So you start with 1 female cat, and say she has an average of 6 kittens, with 3 female cats per litter, who then breed and have more kittens. Start to add up the amount of cats you'd have running around.

And as was said before, the male cats will roam and fight looking for mates, and pass on all sorts of diseases to the males they fight with and the females they breed with.

It's irresponsible to not spay and neuter your pets. They don't know it's better for them to limit their breeding like humans do. They rely on us to keep them safe. I have always spayed and neutered my pets from as early as possible and NEVER had any problems with them healthwise because of it. BUT I do see a heap of cats come into the shelter dumped because they're spraying, or aggressive, or unhealthy because the owner doesn't bother to look after them properly.

Tell your husband to do some research and talk to some vets before he goes spouting off such irresponsible information! Just because he wouldn't like to be neutered, doesn't mean it's the same for a cat!
 
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roimata

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Does your husband have any resources to back his ideas about de-sexing cats? Or is he just projecting his own feeling onto the cats?
Its just from random websites, were bothing learning things.
 

wookie130

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Well, marriage is a two-way street. Since you disagree with his logic, what would be the harm in just scheduling their spay and neuter appointments, and just doing it? Do you think anything really icky would result from just going ahead and doing it, or do you feel it would be better to wait until you both reach some kind of agreement? I dunno...I know what I would do, though.

I know that if my husband tried to over-intellectualize this whole thing with me, I'd simply say, "There's more reasons any day to do this, then there are reasons not to, no matter what way you try to look at it. We NEED to go ahead and make appointments to get these cats fixed. If you disagree, let's visit our local animal shelter...and I guarantee that staring behind 60 enclosures, you'll see 60 reasons why we SHOULD be spaying and neutering."

See where that gets you...
 
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roimata

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Lol well of course we would like to come to an agreement before going ahead and making that big decision, but we dont even have cats yet! LOL we are just randomly discussing for the future.
 

wookie130

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Oh!!! I thought you HAD the kitties!!!


Well, I do suggest you absolutely persuade him to spay/neuter before you get the kitties. I wouldn't bring kitties into the home unless you both agree to have them altered...it really is that important, for so many reasons.
 

wildflower79

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Gizmo was recently neuter and I've yet to see any cons, only pros. He's much calmer and he's back to spending his nights in my room. In fact he spent almost the entire night last night sleeping on my bed, something he has done since was a kitten.
 
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roimata

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Yeah....it makes them calmer......so it DOES affect their natural personality and such..sigh, I cant persuade him lol he is too much into the best interest of the cat. He thinks its inhumane to remove a cats testicals and uterus.
 

siggav

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Ok first of all spaying and neutering, while completely routine for vets and experienced cat owners is rather scary. Especially spaying for women and neutering for men because we can't help but identify with our cats.

However the way I see it, first of all our cats are pets, not wild animals out in nature. Yes their unaltered natural behaviour is to go out and mate and really in all animal species on a wider scale it doesn't matter what happens after offspring has been born. I.e the genes are passed on. Later cancers and or STD etc. fights and illness doesn't matter. So their "natural" behaviour doesn't take any of that into account.

What spaying and neutering does is that it doesn't just treat the symptoms so to speak it removes the urge to breed entirely from the animal. That's why declawing is completely different for example. First of all there are no health advantages to declawing and it doesn't remove the urge to scratch or climb from cats.

Anyway the urge to breed being gone means a much happier pet and human owner. Because the cat doesn't now deal with the stress of constantly thwarted attempts to get out and attract mates (or repeated pregancies for the female cats or fights and infections for male cats).

So yeah the natural life of most wild creatures are nasty, dangerious, brutish and short. We don't want that for our cats and neutering and spaying is a part of making their lives as pets better.
 

epona

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What is natural for cats?

To mate and mate and breed and breed, and fight over mates and territory, litter after litter robbing a female's body of strength, and fighting causing injury, infection, and disease...

....And to be dead before the age of 3.

THAT is what is natural. Is it what is best though?
 

bonnie1965

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Originally Posted by Roimata

Yeah....it makes them calmer......so it DOES affect their natural personality and such..sigh, I cant persuade him lol he is too much into the best interest of the cat. He thinks its inhumane to remove a cats testicals and uterus.
I typed a long reply to your original question but the TCS system messed up. I will type it again later when I am at home


For this though, ask him if it is inhumane to remove a woman's overies or a man's testicles when they have health issues? It happens often to many, many human beings. With pets, we have the opportunity to make sure they never get the cancers like humans do. Sebastian's neuter left him with his "package" so if he ever runs into another male cat who looks at his rump, he won't have to be emabarrassed.
 
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