How does a male neutered cat look?

jen

TCS Member
Thread starter
Top Cat
Joined
Dec 27, 2001
Messages
8,501
Purraise
3,009
Location
Hudson, OH
Are the testicles of a male neutered cat still intact, are they not there or are they kind of deflated looking? The reason i ask is because one of the strays i have been feeding turns out that he belongs to someone, who informed me that he is neutered but he doesn't appear to be. What would it look like down there if he was. Is it different if he has been neutered at an older age? My 7 year old cat was just neutered and his are kind of deflated, heh, but still there. Thanks.
 

nern

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
Sep 29, 2001
Messages
408
Purraise
1
Location
New York
My neutered males still have sacs but they are a little smaller than they originally were. If I did'nt know for sure that they had been neutered I don't think I'd be able to tell that they were by looking.
 

jcat

Mo(w)gli's can opener
Veteran
Joined
Feb 13, 2003
Messages
73,213
Purraise
9,851
Location
Mo(w)gli Monster's Lair
This is a funny subject. Castrations of males seem to be less radical than they used to be. Our male cat was castrated in October 1999, and I was rather surprised that I got him back with a seemingly intact scrotum. Pets we had prior to him had, at most, a few folds of skin. I hate to admit it, but I "felt him up", and he still has some tissue there, and looks more or less intact. When I asked my vet, she told me that she sliced his scrotum open, removed his testicles, but not the vas deferens (sp ?), and sewed him back up. He's basically an "indoor" cat. He has access to a screened balcony at all times, and since he's leash-trained, I take him for a walk outside every day. Last January he started to mark the perimeters of our property. He is very conscious of his "duty" to do this, but his urine is not at all smelly to my human nose, and he doesn't do this in the house. Quite simply, he looks like he's intact, but doesn't behave that way.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #4

jen

TCS Member
Thread starter
Top Cat
Joined
Dec 27, 2001
Messages
8,501
Purraise
3,009
Location
Hudson, OH
hey thanks for your replies i really appreciate it. I had a feeling it would have just depended on the age of the cat. If he was neutered when just a few months old, then they wouldn't have had as much time to develop. But an older cat, you might not be able to tell the difference. Some males I have seen look almost like females from a distance, and some look like they haven't been altered at all.
 

spotz

TCS Member
Super Cat
Joined
Apr 8, 2004
Messages
1,164
Purraise
3
Location
Florida
From my experiences, it depends more on what age they were neutered at rather than the surgical technique.

The younger the cat is neutered the smaller the testes are and also the less skin that is developed into the scrotal sac.

Spotz
 

jcat

Mo(w)gli's can opener
Veteran
Joined
Feb 13, 2003
Messages
73,213
Purraise
9,851
Location
Mo(w)gli Monster's Lair
Originally Posted by Spotz

From my experiences, it depends more on what age they were neutered at rather than the surgical technique.

The younger the cat is neutered the smaller the testes are and also the less skin that is developed into the scrotal sac.

Spotz
That's what I originally thought, but JC was neutered at 6 months, and his predecessor, and "archrival" for three years, a former feral, at about 8 years of age (his operation was in the mid-nineties), and I couldn't detect any difference in their appearance. They both had medium-sized scrotums left, whereas male cats that we'd had castrated earlier appeared more like females. Ditto dogs.
 

spotz

TCS Member
Super Cat
Joined
Apr 8, 2004
Messages
1,164
Purraise
3
Location
Florida
Puberty generally sets in somewhere around 5-7 months in domestics, for the males. With full maturity hitting closer to 1 year or so.

Very few breeders, at least not ones who can honestly claim a solid history of good breeding ever start breeding animals as soon as they are sexually capable. The animal is still undergoing physical changes. Most breeders will wait a few years to ensure that the animal is truely a healthy, and capable specimen.

So....I'd still stick to the age/physical maturity of the animal vs the surgical technique.

Spotz
 

aussie_dog

TCS Member
Super Cat
Joined
Feb 23, 2004
Messages
1,121
Purraise
28
Location
Alberta, Canada
Jake was neutered when he was a pup, in 1998. Its hard to see down there, since he has so much fur, but from what I can see, its flat. Sure, his "pee-pee" is there, but its flat behind it. So he must be one of those "folds of skin" kind of dogs, lol
 
Top