Strange dilemma with fixing...a "male" tortie..

kittylover618

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So my fiance and I believe it or not have a "male" tortie we found at a very young age. He is a one in a million cat for many, many reasons. My fiance owns an auto repair shop and a customer was driving around with him in his car for three whole days!! Drove hundreds of miles!! Any cat is lucky after an ordeal like that!!

My dilemma is whether or not to get him fixed. Many people have said not to for the reasons alone that he is a genetic freak of nature. He probably won't have a very long life I have been told and will probably come with a boat load of medical issues down the road. OR he may not since I really believe is s a special cat. He is non aggressive, looks like a boy believe it or not but is very small and runty. I would obviously not get him fixed for breeding reasons as they are 100$ sterile. So no worries there. I would do it for cancer reasons only. My question is...he most likely has girl parts under the hood also. These cats have an extra chromosome, that makes them male. So if I am fixing him so he does get testicular cancer...what about the potential lady parts? He could get cancer there also, but no vet is going to do exploratory surgery (well they actually might because it is a scientific miracle. I am sure then can do an xray or something. I am just worried it will be a lot for his little body to handle having both surgeries done. I would NEVER consider not doing it but this situation is a little weird, lol. I have asked around and a lot of people said don't touch him since it could actually cause him problems as the hormones might go out of whack and he could start producing more estrogen and get sick. Even rescue groups have told me I'm better off leaving him. I don't know however if that is for selfish reasons of displaying the fact he has boy parts.

opinions??
 

jcat

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Have you actually had him checked to see whether he's a hermaphrodite? We had one (tuxie, not calico/tortie), and it was determined by ultrasound that "she" was a cryptoorchid, and we had "her" castrated (she had already been spayed by her previous owner's vet). It was expensive, but no big deal.

Male torties/calicos actually aren't all that rare. My sister has a dilute male, castrated, no physical problems. A neighbor had a male calico who lived to a very old age. The extra X chromosome really doesn't mean too much.
 

denice

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I haven't had any personal experience with one but from what I have read here he should still be neutered. Even though they are sterile they will still often develop the behaviors often associated with whole males like the tendancy to spray and the strong scent. I seem to remember someone on this site and I think it was a former breeder who knew of a male calico that turned out to not be sterile.
 

goldenkitty45

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While male torties/calicos occur they only have ONE set of sex parts - male. There are no "girl parts" inside. It simply means the the 2 X's are color ones - not sex ones in this casej.

Male torties/calicos are rare and most all of them are sterile. Even if you choose to breed him (since he's not purebred he should be neutered anyway), he only would throw one of those colors - either the red or the black but not both like his sister calico would. I've known a few male calicos (2 of them are Cornish Rex breeding cats!) - they only throw the black color.

These cats were shown and top quality and that's the only reason they were bred.

Get him neutered now before he starts spraying.
 

rad65

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Are you basing your entire hermaphrodite theory on him being a tortie? You should have an x ray done since that is hardly conclusive evidence
 
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kittylover618

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No no way I would never breed him. I was just curious if anyone else had experiences with them. Obviously I want to do what is best for his health. Nothing wrong with getting ideas to help me out!
 

feralvr

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Hi !! wow, he sounds very special
, but I would still get him neutered and checked out at the vet. In the long run, he will be a more happy cat and you won't have the typical behaviors associated with an intact male cat. Good luck
 

kluchetta

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Originally Posted by kittylover618

No no way I would never breed him. I was just curious if anyone else had experiences with them. Obviously I want to do what is best for his health. Nothing wrong with getting ideas to help me out!
Wow, that's pretty interesting to have a male tortie. GoldenKitty is a breeder, and knows her stuff, so I would totally go with her advice on this. But I sure hope you put some photos up! Hint, hint!
 

cazlee

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The extra chromosome condition itself needed for a boy calico is pretty rare!

True hermaphroditism (as I suspect is the link you are making) is extremely rare and not related to extra or lacking chromosomes. Without getting super-detailed, there's XX and XY hermaphroditism, where you're genetically male or female, but have the "bits" of the other sex. True Gonadal Intersex (both sets of "bits") can be either XX, or XY. There's some interesting articles if you google the phenomena =)

Most likely boy bits are all the bits he has. I won't say it's impossible to have a boy calico and it have both, ahem, identities. I'm sure stranger things have happened. But the extra chromosome condition alone does not lend itself to hermaphroditism.
 

naps with cats

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There should be some kind of lotto win when you get a male Tortie or Calico, etc.

Anyways, I would definitely take the little guy (or guy/girl) to the vet, have him/her check out what's up "back there" and maybe they can fix him/her in 2 steps, like a couple of months apart, giving your guy/girl time to recover from the first surgery. The boy surgery is basically nothing (the anasthesia is always the most dangerous thing. People will still know he's a boy as there are still "parts" left there, lol. You can go for laser spaying if it ends up he has "she" parts (I did that for one of my fosters that my mom adopted). Laser-spaying heals faster.

Since there are other male torties throughout the U.S., I'd go ahead an get him fixed if he were my cat, and keep him indoors where he's safe from the elements (fleas, ticks, raccoons, Coyotes (where I live), skunks, other cats, etc.) Just a suggestion as a retired Animal Services Volunteer/Fosterer and Adopt-a-Pet-er. I had run across a couple of male torties at the kill shelter I worked at. Rare, but not impossible.

I always recommend spaying and neutering after working at the kill shelter for so long and seeing how many "go down" in a very ugly way because of overcrowding.

Have fun with the newest member of your familia!!!!!!


Warmly,

Julie O'
 

Willowy

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Most male torties are regular males, just with that extra chromosome that lets them have both black and red coloring. He should be normal in any other way besides that (and possibly being sterile, though that isn't 100% certain). If you don't have him neutered, he will almost certainly start spraying when he reaches sexual maturity (which might take him longer if he had a bad start in life, but will come eventually). It's best to prevent that, because it's hard to stop the habit once they've started. If he's small and sickly, your vet may want to get more condition on him before doing surgery, but I wouldn't wait past 9 months, and even that is a bit iffy.
 

booktigger

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I agree with the others, being a tortie doesn't mean he will have both sex organs. If you don't got him neutered he will be at risk of testicular cancer.
 
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