Spaying and Castrating Cats

Neutering queens is known ’spaying’, the procedure usually involves the surgical removal of the uterus and ovaries or ‘ovario-hysterectomy’

Cat Spaying

Advantages

• Prevents the queen from breeding and producing unwanted kittens.
• Dramatically reduces the risk of mammary cancer.
• Prevents seasons and the behaviour changes, roaming and attractiveness to males that accompanies them.
• Prevents pyometra, this is a condition where the womb becomes infected and full of pus – it is life threatening.
• Dramatically reduces the risk of uterine and ovarian cancer.

Disadvantages

• Spaying is a surgical procedure, as with all surgical procedures there is a very small risk from the anaesthetic and the surgery. This risk is far smaller than it used to be with the advent of new anaesthetics and surgical techniques.
• The queen will need to be confined to the house for 10 days after the operation.
• There may be some pain for a few days afterwards, this can be controlled very effectively with painkillers available from your vets.
• Some evidence that it may increase the risk of urinary problems.

In a young, healthy queen these drawbacks are vastly outweighed by the advantages to your queen’s health of having her spayed, if you are not planning to breed from her.

Cat Castration

When a cat is castrated the testicles are removed surgically, the scrotum is usually left intact.

Advantages

• Prevents cats from breeding and producing unwanted kittens.
• Prevents a lot of unwanted breeding related behaviour eg. Escaping, fighting, spraying.
• Prevents testicular cancer.
• Reduces the risk of a cat contracting Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) and other infectious diseases.
  • Castration is a surgical procedure, as with all surgical procedures there is a very small risk from the anaesthetic and the surgery. This risk is far smaller than it used to be with the advent of new anaesthetics.
  • There is some evidence that castrated cats are at higher risk of urinary problems.

Disadvantages

In a young, healthy cat these drawbacks are vastly outweighed by the advantages to your cat’s health of having him spayed, if you are not planning to breed from him.