AIBU to want veterinary advice?

[Almostalive]

Long story short.
Vet confirmed the female kitten I bought was indeed a female also not pedigree, Domestic shorthair. Cat was booked in today to be neutered as she is desperate to go outside and I didn't want her to get randomly pregnant and endanger her health at such a young age. Approx 5 months.
Receive a call from the vet today. Female cat is a boy, testicles removed and ovaries searched for? Cat is actually a different breed than they thought. Pedigree cat is not a Domestic Shorthair but a British Blue. Surely I should have been notified before my cat went through 2 operations (3 if you count the microchip I also requested). Can this really happen? My poor boy.

I’m finding it hard to tell from the lighting in the photo but your cat looks like a black moggy to me rather than a British Blue. The thing about male/female is really confusing..

i'd be more angry at the person who sold me the cat for getting it wrong / lying. neutering though is good, too many unwanted kittens around.
hope your lad feels better soon.

Two separate issues - the breed type is a matter of opinion unless you have pedigree paperwork - your cat looks black in the photo - so he could be a British Shorthair (flatter face and stockier build than a domestic shorthair otherwise known as a moggy) but is clearly not Blue.
Getting the sex wrong is a big mistake and the practice need to be looking at what went wrong on both occasions - unless the cat is intersex which is rare but not impossible. They should have checked the sex again today before anaesthetising the cat.
Did they offer any explanation?

They didn't check the sex before opening up for spay? Madness. It's so much easier to neuter a boy, the mind boggles.

Also unless the lightings terrible he's definitely not a british blue either.

Did they not phone you once they realised that he was a boy? Before castrating him?

Vets are not breed experts.

If you've been sold a cat as pedigree and have pedigree paperwork for it and you have reason to believe cat is NOT pedigree, the only way to check is to get DNA tests to show it is the offspring of the parents listed/of parents that are registered as that pedigree.

If you bought the cat without paperwork or the breeder will not provide DNA evidence... your next best bet is to show cat to a pedigree judge of that breed (probably several) and if they agree cat is pedigree it probably is, if they think it isn't it probably isnt... but this is less likely to stand up in small claims court.

As for the neutering - some cats are both, its not uncommon that a cat is both male and female and this is not determined until the vet opens the cat up and finds things are not quite as expected inside.

I am not quite sure where you are counting three operations for - microchipping is not an operation, its a needle to the scruff.

Your vet will have opened the cat up for a spay, and discovered testicles, removed those and gone looking for ovaries just in case - did you want her to not do that? That might have left your cat fertile or at least, able to come into season and call even if not actually reproduce.

Or did you want her to leave the testicles and let your cat risk cancer (internal testicles are a much higher testicular cancer risk) or going around spraying and mating?

I hope you didn't pay for a DNA test as they're completely unreliable.

My issue really isn't about pedigree. I sent a girl cat to be castrated. I've muddied the waters talking about breed. I got a different gender and breed home. This is a pic of 'her' when young.

Rather a lot of assumptions there, widdlin the Op does not say that the cat was found to be intersex or had abdominal testicles. It's more likely they didn't check the sex properly, opened up the flank for spay, couldn't find any girl bits then looked at perineum and found normal scrotum and testicles.
Which is it, OP?

I think what @Patchworksack has said is probably more accurate. It's a rookie mistake but I've seen it made in the past!

I’ve seen this happen twice.
Yes an error on the vets behalf but mistakes do happen.

What probably happened was cat in for spey, previously sexed female, During spey can’t find ovaries and find the cat is actually Male hence both ops. If they had checked first then they would have just castrated no need to check for ovaries too.

Our practice now has a protocol to ensure this never happens again thankfully but I’m sure the vet feels terrible and will treble check in future!

Thank you @Patchworksack. My issue is that surely I should have been consulted? It just seems so barbaric and unnecessary? Obvs I'm not a vet!

The op says the vet went on to look for ovaries after removing testicles... you wouldn't open up a cat to look for ovaries if you found external testicles, so they must have been internal if it is as the OP says.

In the kitten pic she looks very gray but facially doesn't match a true British blue as they are chunky. Think the mcvities biscuit advert.
She could be a Russian blue

Spay pic looks like a black moggie.

Thanks GSD20. I need to hear that it wasn't my fault IYSWIM? 😔

To consult, if they have made a mistake or found things not as expected, means stopping surgery on your cat, to phone and ask you what you want them to do?

Given you want a de-sexed cat, I would think it sensible to simply carry on and de-sex cat.

Yes @Patchworksack. The term hermaphrodite was only put out there post op! More of a cover up than in the best interest of the cat. Sorry, I'm a bit upset that this has happened.

To desex a female avoids death in early birth. Bit different if your cat is a boy?

I think they made a mistake not re-checking the sex at the time of the operation but that is human error.

I DO think that they should have stopped and phoned you before going ahead with the castration as presumably you had consented to a spay and not a castrate.

Yes you gould probably have had the castration done but you should have been informed first

So.. you'd have been happy to let an entire male wander outside, fighting, spraying, shagging his way around the neighbourhood, risking STD's and accidental injury due to fights/road crossing etc..

But you wanted a female spayed to prevent kittens?

This is actually quite common. If the testicles haven't descended then your cat probably did look like a girl. It probably happened the following way round: they tried to spay him, couldn't find ovaries, etc so stitched her up, then did the castration. If testicles hadn't descended then it would have been even more important to make sure they carried that out - it's dangerous to leave it! To be honest though they wouldn't even blink at the thought of doing a castration and it's not a good idea to leave the cat under g.a. for any longer than necessary and certainly not to chase up an owner when the castration is a 2 min job and speaking to you would take far longer! It's really not invasive at all and they bounce back so unbelievably quickly they wouldn't even know it's been done. They don't even need to go home with pain relief for a castration, it's such a tiny op! The microchip isn't a big deal either. It's just a needle in the scruff of their neck. I don't think anything untoward has happened OP from what you've said and I don't think there's much more they could have done.

In terms of breed vets are notoriously rubbish at recognising them. Hanging had them all of my life I can tell you your beautiful cat is not a British blue. Which is the more accurate colour photo? Grey is referred to as blue in cats. I do think there's probably a bit of British Shorthair in him somewhere bit that's about it. There seems to be a huge number of backyard breeders who advertise crosses as pedigrees and charge a small fortune for what are actually domestic shorthairs.

The thing to remember though is that you have a really beautiful cat, regardless of his breed or sex, and if you give him a lifetime of love and fuss I'm sure he'll return that affection ten fold. Enjoy him!

What paperwork did you sign? Did it say to neuter your kitten? If so, that is that they have done.

That’s not a British Blue. He’s very cute and lovely looking but he is not a British Shorthair. I say that as someone who currently has a British Blue sat on me and who has had many of the breed. Definitely possible to be a cross breed or a purebred but not a British Shorthair. He looks like he has lines around his eyes as well, which you don’t get with a British Blue (but could with a different coloured British Shorthair).

What breed did you buy him as?

Yeah, definitely no Russian Blue there at all. The density of the coat, markings and slight chunkiness of the body look quite clearly like a typical BS/DS cross (not necessarily 1st gen, poss 2nd?).

But you would want a Tom cat castrating before letting it out surely?

Appreciate you’re shocked but I do think YABU as you sent your cat to be neutered and castrating a male is actually a much less risky op. I assume the vet didn’t want to put your kitty at risk by phoning you mid surgery.
Gorgeous cat. :)