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When did your boy start to become hormonal?

post #1 of 15
10/20/10 at 9:13pm
Thread Starter 
I have always neutered/spayed our cats right around 5-6 months. Keebler was neutered right at 6 months.

Louie, is supposed to be 6 months (according to his foster family) though I have always felt that he is older.. I was unable to make his neuter appointment until December 1st at which point he will be 7 & 1/2 months old. It makes me nervous as I don't want him to start spraying as I know it's a very hard thing to stop once it starts. We only have one other cat, Keebler, who is neutered and they get along wonderfully. We do sometimes have cats wandering through our yard and my best friend who lives in the house that is connected behind us has a 16 year old unspayed female, but she does not come into the room that is connected to our house.

I know every cat is different, but when did your boy start to show signs of needing to be neutered ASAP? What signs did he give off?
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post #2 of 15
10/20/10 at 9:27pm
some spray , some start to smell funny.. and they can impregnant a female as young as 4 months
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post #3 of 15
10/21/10 at 11:36am
Only boys that I ever had with hormones are Kille and Ossi. I got them from shelter when they were judged to be between 7-8 months old. I had gone with the idea of getting girls and had no idea what non-neutered boys at that age could be like because I had always had just girls. Honestly, if I knew I would have insisted that I will come collect them after their neuter (they had a neuter agreement and had to come back anyway).

They both stank, as in I can't believe how much, from first pee they took! (I thought I was experienced but that was some FREEESH boy pee right there). They never sprayed but geesh Ossi was one wildo boy with those hormones. He would try to hump his brother and was both nutty bold and scared about things at the same time. We could not get neither of them in for a neuter right away because they got horrible shelter sniffles. So for couple of weeks they were like worst teenage boys time to time (excuse me - but getting woodies from petting etc, totally over-stimulated), and stinking up half the house when they went potty.

Two days after the neuter the stink was gone. Ossi quit his aggressive/sexual play and all we had left was all their charm that was there under this hormone craze. I have no idea how long they had had this but, I do think that it most likely had a role in why they ended up in the shelter.
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post #4 of 15
10/21/10 at 11:42am
he won't spray. His pee will start to smell REALLY strongly, however. I'd move up that date if I could!!!!!!

Just FYI, it is safe to have them neutered as young as 7 weeks. The actual guideline is two pounds. Many vets are not familiar with the study, or won't do it anyway because they're not used to working on such small animals, but most clinics will do it. Our vet neuters at 4 months - as soon as they start teething.
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post #5 of 15
10/21/10 at 12:10pm
My cousin (who was living with my parents at the time) had a cryptorchid male. . .the vet wanted us to wait until he started being "tom-ish" just to be SURE he hadn't been neutered before she got him. He didn't really start acting/smelling like a tom until he was 10 months old, but he may have been a bit behind due to the cryptorchidism. And I didn't have Scrappy neutered until he was 7 months old, and he never showed any hormonal behaviors. Same with Scotty, he was 8 months old when neutered. Tugger, on the other hand, developed a real tomcat swagger and started "fake spraying" at 4 months. Little punk. I had him done at 6 months and he has never really sprayed, but he was obviously feeling his oats that young. Every cat develops differently. . .here's hoping Louie is a late bloomer!
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post #6 of 15
10/21/10 at 1:12pm
Thread Starter 
If I could move the date up, I would! I was planning to get him neutered this month but then he started to feel badly and we've had several trips to the vet, antibiotics and everything.

I know that they can get a female pregnant very young. Fortunately we don't have any females, so we're good.

We didn't adopt Louie until he was about 4 months old. He hasn't shown any hormonal signs... He has peed on the rug a few times but I think that is more related to him not feeling 100% the last week. Him and our other cat play constantly, so I don't worry that he'd feel "threatened" by Keebler at all. We get a good laugh when Keebler (neutered at 6 months, with no hormonal signs) pounces on Louie and holds him by his neck and sits on top of him. We kindly remind them that they are both boys.
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post #7 of 15
10/21/10 at 2:46pm
I've never really worried about hormonal, just followed the advice of almost every vet I have used - when they are both down, out they come.The in and out hide and seek game of testes usually ends between 6 and 10 months.
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post #8 of 15
10/21/10 at 2:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by sk_pacer View Post
I've never really worried about hormonal, just followed the advice of almost every vet I have used - when they are both down, out they come.The in and out hide and seek game of testes usually ends between 6 and 10 months.
Huh, I've never seen the "in and out" thing. They just show up one day when the kitten is 8-12 weeks old and that's that. My vet said if they haven't dropped by then they aren't going to. I think it's different with dogs though.
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post #9 of 15
10/21/10 at 3:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Willowy View Post
Huh, I've never seen the "in and out" thing. They just show up one day when the kitten is 8-12 weeks old and that's that. My vet said if they haven't dropped by then they aren't going to. I think it's different with dogs though.
I've seen it happen with cats.... actually had one with two down and one disappeared just before the scheduled neutering. We took off the one, the second one appeared briefly and is gone again.
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post #10 of 15
10/21/10 at 5:26pm
Reading this thread I grew more interested in "the signs". What are the 'tom signs'? I am not very tom-smart because of my limited non-neutered experience - and very limited interested in getting non-neutered males in future either! This piqued my interest though, as it would be interesting to know if there are certain behaviours in cats that can present very early that come with very 'manly' or testosterone-driven characters. Maybe in some cases little guys who were early bloomers. Maybe some of those behaviours are more likely to stick too even after neuter?

For me it's funny that Ossi who was the nuttier one with his hormones is otherwise the wimpier one of the brothers. He's the nurse and worrywort and mommy to everyone. When someone mentioned the 'sitting on you' I smiled though. Ossi does this still when he plays. He will attempt to sit on his brothers, and it has obvious "I'LL SIT ON YOU MAAAN" type of message but no real aggression or sexual tone to it. It happens half-heartedly in a middle of ruffle as if he has a flash-back then moves on quickly. That's pretty much all he has left of his submission behaviors, and it's just plain silly and lasts a second. He never seemed to latch on any of those hormone-behaviors that he 'suffered' so strongly. (Thank gawd!)
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post #11 of 15
10/21/10 at 8:09pm
Thread Starter 
I have never heard of the "in and out" of the testicals either. I've always seen them start to appear at about 12 weeks and of course, they gradually grow. Though I have heard of one not descending. Odd! Both of Louie's have descended and are very much noticeable, if that accounts for anything.

Piikki, when Keebler sits on Louie, he'll grab him by the neck and just sort of lay on top of him. It's always during romping around and chasing each other, so it's not aggressive or anything of the sort... Just something that seems to "happen" during play time... It's pretty funny though since Louie looks around like "Hey Man... they're looking! And this looks just WRONG!"

I don't have a clue who is the more submissive of the two. They get along so well and do everything together. So I don't really know? lol.

You have peeked a very good question though, Piikki! It makes me very curious too.
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post #12 of 15
10/25/10 at 11:30am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bex__ View Post
Piikki, when Keebler sits on Louie, he'll grab him by the neck and just sort of lay on top of him. It's always during romping around and chasing each other, so it's not aggressive or anything of the sort... .
At least that sounds more 'normal' than Ossi's sitting. He might sit sideways on any body part or head towards Kille's tail, and initiates no 'holding down' behavior to go with it Sometimes we tell him not to wipe his butt on his brother! (Maybe that is some form of kitty behaviour too that I do not know of!)

Anyway, too bad tom-savvy people aren't sharing more about this. I am nearly tempted starting a new thread about how to detect from adult male cat if he was a possible late neuter (when adopting). Like are there some definite signs.... And when would it matter.

For example, when I have adopted to 'male household' I have been given advice to possibly avoid late neuters. Is there reason to be particularly worried or should one worry more about just the personality of a cat more? What things will maturing do to a cat than not hormonally maturing would never do?

And then back to the question... when adopting and having a shelter/rescue person telling you "this cat came in neutered, we have no idea when he was neutered because he was picked from streets", would there be any way of telling anything either physically or from the behaviour of the cat?
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post #13 of 15
10/25/10 at 10:12pm
I've never been able to tell a late neuter from an early neuter. Some say a late neuter will retain his "boofy" head/neck. . .some will, some won't, and I've seen early neuters with boofy heads, too. I just can't find any reliable way to determine how old a cat was when he was neutered.

My only late neuter boy sprays. . .of course that's the main reason to neuter early; late neuters are much more likely to spray. But even then, some early neuters do spray, some toms never spray, and some full toms who do spray will stop entirely after being neutered.

So really it's an individual thing. The personality of the cat matters more than when he was neutered.
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post #14 of 15
10/26/10 at 9:11am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Willowy View Post
"boofy" head/neck

So really it's an individual thing. The personality of the cat matters more than when he was neutered.
boofy - that's a new word to me. Does that also refer to the to cheeks that I heard mentioned sometimes?

Also, someone said about a cat we had that his muscular body was probably a sign that he was a late neuter. I took it to mean that he had had some extra testosterone to 'build up' a very manly body but I really did not understand the msg. Like would intact male automatically be more strappy than fixed male who roamed the streets and had to stay in shape? Would hormones make such a difference that two cats picked from street would most likely look so different?

I was more inclined to think that the musculature was a sign that the (young) cat was active, aggressively pursuing pray (extra aggression of course could be from hormones) and result from his personality that was very playful, and bold - also after he was neutered.
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post #15 of 15
10/26/10 at 9:48am
I've always neutered boys at 6 months, or whenever I first smell tomcat pee, which ever comes first. Hope you get lucky and no spraying before Dec 1st.

Ask to be put on a cancellation list, or better yet, call the vet daily and ask if there has been an opening come up..

Boy, I sure feel sorry for your friend's cat though. 16 years of endless heat cycles. What on earth is wrong with your friend? I'd be kidnapping that cat and getting her spayed.
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