Hermaphroditic cats?

I got a rather interesting email this evening. When I was in high school, I took an anatomy course where we dissected lizards, sharks and cats. We worked in pairs, with two pairs to a lab table. The pair sharing our table had a cat whose gender was not readily identifiable. Since the teacher was also quite uncertain, he sent the cat to the University of Pennsylvania, which replied that the cat was a hermaphrodite. One of my students has a 16-week-old kitten, that she thought was a male. When she took him to the vet's for his first shots a few weeks ago, the vet thought the kitten (a white, blue-eyed domestic shorthair) was female, but wasn't certain. This afternoon my student took him/her to a feline clinic, where they did ultrasounds, etc.. Her kitten apparently has "incomplete" male and female reproductive organs, i.e., is a hermaphrodite. They also determined that he/she is deaf. Has anybody else ever encountered this? I find it odd that I've come across this twice in less than 30 years. I think this calls for some serious online research this weekend. My student is now looking for some "gender-neutral" names, since "Kevin" no longer seems appropriate.

My college roomate had a Hermaphroditic cat. IT was a funny cat, was always a bit off (just like her!) Very funky personality.

Marge, did your roommate's cat ever exhibit any marking or signs of being in heat? Moni was wondering if her cat would have to be neutered, and the answer was that she'd have to wait and see, but that her cat would probably never sexually mature.

No he/she didn't go into heat. She (we kind of decided she was a she in our minds) was always having problems though. All kinds of health stuff and died early.

Uh oh. I think I'll refrain from passing that information along. I haven't researched hermaphrodisim yet - if I find good information about what to watch out for, I'll send Moni the links. Otherwise I think I should just keep my mouth shut. She has her own apartment now, and is totally thrilled with having her own pet. I haven't actually met "Kevin" yet, but she has shown me several pictures of "him". This kitten is absolutely adorable - a little ball of white fluff with big blue eyes. We've come up with "Whitey", "Snowball", "Winter", "Foggy" and "Mist" (which means dung in German, so it isn't acceptable). Names like "Bianca" or "Blanca" are too gender-specific.

I wouldn't tell her that, I mean every cat is different. This cat just was always odd. I can't put it into words even. Loveable though and we loved her. But had all these health things.

I just found out my cat is a hermaphrodite! also has a funky personality, fits right in with our misfit family! Nobody was surprised I ended up with it!May I suggest Shimmy for a name??(she/him)

Our local Humane Society currently has a hermaphrodite cat up for adoption, so it can't be that rare. They gave it a gender-neutral name. 

http://www.napervilleareahumanesociety.org/adoptions/adopt-a-cat/Item?Key=pat

DreamerRose said:

 
Our local Humane Society currently has a hermaphrodite cat up for adoption, so it can't be that rare. They gave it a gender-neutral name. 

http://www.napervilleareahumanesociety.org/adoptions/adopt-a-cat/Item?Key=pat

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I don't think male calicos are that rare either.  I know its not the same thing but it would need to be some kind of male/female thing at the genetic level.  I used to thing it was a very rare thing, something I would only hear about once in a lifetime, but I have actually heard of several.

My family had a hermaphrodite cat before I was born. They had what they thought was a pair of sisters, named Peaches and Cream. They didn't spay the females back then (I don't think the female problems were well known for unspayed females), they just neutered boys. So these two unspayed females lived together for a few years. Then one year, Peaches suddenly started getting bigger and filling out in a way that made her look more... masculine. Cream started growing shortly after that - her belly was full of kittens! So, this hermaphrodite cat apparently had male sexual organs that matured at some point and was able to impregnate Cream. They got Peaches neutered right after that, which is when they found out there were actually both female and male sexual organs.