Consider waiting to 6 mths to neuter tom cats...

[wheresmymojo]

I have another thread about my poor boy cat's health at the moment however in researching his current issues I've found out that new research has shown that you should wait until 6 months to neuter tom cats.

Vets will often do from 4 months now and that's what we did with ours; we had a brother and sister together so didn't want any 'accidents'.

However boy cat is now in a life or death situation over a blocked urethra. This can be very, very dangerous for cats and can lead to death within 24-48 hours.

The research I found says that incidences have risen in recent years since younger neutering. It's thought that Tom cat's urethras haven't finished growing and neutering them at that age causes it to stop growing any further. This leaves them with a much narrower urethra and higher chance of blockage.

(It doesn't have the same impact on female cats who have wider urethras and who don't tend to suffer from blockages).

I wish I'd known as we'd have had his sister done at 4mths and waited another 2mths for him.

We now might lose our beautiful, soppy boy so I just wanted to warn others

I'm not at all sure about that. Research I've seen is that urinary crystals, and therefore blocked bladders, are linked to cheap dry food. I will certainly ask our vets their opinion on this though

I'll see if I can dig out the link to the research.

Mine had repeated cystitis and was castrated at 20 weeks, not the same I know but male cats do seem prone to issues there.

I really hope he pulls through. This isn’t your fault though and I really think the rcvs would be advising late neutering if they thought there was concrete evidence behind it.

Dry food consumption is so much higher these days and I don’t think that helps.

Thank you for sharing, I hope your lovely boy is okay x

I had both my boys done at 4 months and they have had no issues.
I truly believe early neutering helps so much behaviourally. My boys haven't sprayed once, since I got them at 9 weeks. They have also had no urinary issues.

I think diet is often linked to these issues? I think the recommendation is that boys especially have a mostly wet diet.

I am so sorry to hear about your little guy though and your experience has promoted me to do some reading.
Sending best wishes!

Can I just say that if people do decide to wait to neuter they keep the cats secure. I have had to take my neutered female to the vets twice due to an unneutered tom cat attacking her. I'm sorry about your cat.

I've just re read my response and it came across very insensitive.
I lost my boy early last year and it broke my heart. I am so sorry for the fear that you must be feeling right now. Please don't blame yourself, as it's so hard to know what the right thing to do is with timings of things etc.
I hope you're okay xx

Our old cat had this and it nearly killed him.

It was, unfortunately, down to diet. I had no idea how bad food like GoCat was for them we switched his food and we went on to live a very healthy life.

I have not heard of new research to say later is better. Can you link to it?

Everything I've looked at suggests neutering at 4 months does not cause these issues and its more related to diet

13 years ago, my vet advised me to wait till my male kitten was 8-9 months old to have him neutered as it made it easier to treat a urinary blockage if he had developed further (more penis to get a hold of??). I got two kittens at the same time, the female was neutered at 5 months, the male at 8 months - as soon as his urine started to smell Tom-catty.

There was no question of him being allowed out before neutering and I watched him with his sister like a hawk. I appreciate not everyone would be able to do this though.

This is exactly why I waited till my male was 6 mths to get him neutered. My friend had a young male that she rehomed from a charity & was neutered at approximately 4 mths. Unfortunately he ended up being eventually pts at 2 years due to recurring uretha/uti issues. She spent thousands on treatment including a catheter & manually having to empty his bladder.

The local vet that we both use, advised my friend that he was against neutering males before 6 mths as he was concerned by the numbers of males neutered before 6 mths with urinary issues. He also stated he thought it unwise to neuter underdeveloped cats.

Honestly there has been no change in the number of blocked cats I see in busy small animal practice since the advice changed to neuter from 4 months old. What has dramatically fallen is the number of cats with FIV as entire make cats fight and pass on the disease.
Urinary blockage in the vast majority of cases treatable disease.
FIV untreatable life limiting disease.