question about neutering your cat

My cat just turned six months and I am considering getting him neutered. I would like to find out more about the after effects of the surgery. ie what should I expect? Will there be much discomfort since he is a boy? Do I have to keep him in a cage for two weeks so he won't jump on things and pull out stitches? Will there be much of a change in his behaviour after the surgery? How long is recovery?

Thanks much.
Cindy

Hi there! My kitten is almost 6 months and getting 'the op' on Thursday this week. I don't know too much about it, but what I have been told by my vet is that the stitches dissolve so that it doesnt draw his attention to them as much and he wont be lickin and scratchin them.
I don't know if this is something that every vet does though.
I will be interested to see what everyone else replies to this as it will probably but my mind at ease for thursday...
All in all though Ive been assured its a fairly pain free procedure and they don't really know much about whats happened to them. Fingers crossed this goes for all cats including ours!

Having had many male cats fixed. I have only seen good benifits from doing this. They usually won't spray in the house, there urine won't take on that horrid smelly male cat oder. If they do go out they won't be roaming tom cats who come back hurt and bitten from being in fights.
Recovery is pretty easy. I have never had to cage them up. I just try to keep there activety level down some the first week. And of course if they are inside outside cats do not let them out till they are completely healed. Its been awhile since I have had to have any males fixed. But off hand I can't really think off anything negative that resulted from this procedure. The 1st day home they slept more and walked abit funny. None of mine ever tried to lap at the area. Its in you and your cats best interest to have this done. There are too many unwanted cats in this world.

Willow is approximately 6 months old and he was neutered last Wednesday!

My vet gave dissolvable internal stitches and glued the external skin together. He was pretty much normal when he came home! I think your kitty will let you know how they are feeling! Sometimes they might want to be alone for the first 24 hours of so, but you will be able to guage if this is the case!

Also, if there is any risk of other cats licking the area, then I would keep them separate for some time until there is no chance of infection! (also watch for kitty licking it himself!)

Generally the only change in behaviour will be that he'll be calmer! However, i'm yet to see these results! Again it really depends on your cat!

All in all though, it's a simple procedure and rarely problematic, just keep an eye on the licking (and progression of healing) and things should be fine!

My two were neutered 2 weeks ago and had no problems whatsoever with that surgery. They had internal stiches and glue so didn't need to go back to the vet to have them removed. Both surgeries were complicated for my two due to a retained testicle and umbilical hernias, but even so they were running around as normal the second they got home. Neither even seemed to notice they were missing anything, and didn't try to lick the wound either.

My Dad had a cat that wasn't neutered until he was about 8, and he's the grumpiest cat I've ever met (but he's pedigree persian so it could just be in his nature!) He sprayed everywhere - beds, shoes, bags, clothes, carpets, walls, people - and it smelled awful! As soon as he was neutered it stopped

This is a relatively simple operation. Bijou didn't have any stitches and no glue. The vet just pulled the incision together and it healed nicely by itself.

The only thing they said to watch was "excessive" licking, i.e., more than usual. He was a bit quiet the first night but back to his old self by the next day.

My Bailey was also neutered last week, and he was his old self right away, just slept a bit more the first few days. What seemed to bug him was the spot on his leg where the IV went in, he was licking that for awhile, but I was really worried about the surgery, and it ended up being not a big deal. Good luck to your kitty!

He'll be up to his old tricks by that evening. You won't need to do anything special for him unless he licks his incision excessively or something like that, which would be unusual.

His behavior won't change much after surgery but you can expect drastic behavior changes over the next few months if you *don't* get him neutered. He will start to spray urine, want to go outside and find females (meaning a greater chance of doing things he would otherwise not do, like crossing busy highways), and get in nasty fights with other male cats (meaning abscesses and a strong chance of disease transmission). His urine will also develop an extremely strong odor.

Neutering is very necessary for his long term health and welfare. I would recommend doing it soon, within a month or less.

I'm with everyone else on this. Boy kitties recover really, really fast and many act like nothing even happened. If you don't get him neutered soon he will definitely start spraying your house with an especially foul smelling urine. He will be charging out the door to find girl kitties and that will result in more kittens without homes. He will fight with other boy kitties. His injuries will result in pain for him and more vet bills for you.

Trust me, you and your baby boy will be a lot happier if he gets neutered soon.

I've never had a boy kitty, but both of my girls recovered from thier spays very quickly. Just slept more for a couple days. And Gizmo insisted on licking her incision all the time, so the vet gave me some Bitter Apple spray to put on it and she didn't touch it after that. I've had two dogs neutered fairly recently, and neither of them seemed overly bothered by it. Or even barely bothered.

Amber

My boy had the op about a week ago. He went in to the vet in the morning, came home at 5pm that afternoon. Got out of his carrier a little wobbly, licked his "balls" for a while and then slept. Next day you would never have known he had surgery. Jumping around like normal and eating fine.

The surgery is so quick and easy that they are barely under the anaesthetic.

I would get it done asap and then you don't have to worry about him spraying in the house or getting other females pregnant!