Many owners question whether or not to sterilize their cat.
While castration has some drawbacks such as an increased risk of obesity for the sterilized animal, it nevertheless has very serious advantages.
I. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF CASTRATION OF THE CAT
The benefits of castration are many:
- For cats with access to the outside:
It avoids, of course, any reproduction and limits the risk of contamination by a sexually transmitted disease.
The operation will reduce fights and attacks between male cats. It will thus limit the injuries inflicted to the cat by bites and scratches and the abscesses and sometimes serious infections that result.
A castrated cat will, moreover, tend to decrease its perimeter of walk. The risk of accidents on public roads will then be reduced.
- For cats living indoors:
In the natural environment, the cat performs urine marking. This marking has various meanings. He took part:
In all situations of strong emotional excitement
When the cat feels a threat of intrusion into its territory
In communication, including sexual communication
The cat, standing, holds up its hind legs, raises its tail, makes it vibrate, and emits a stream of urine on a vertical support
In an apartment, the cat reproduces the same behavior. Urine jets are emitted in particular near the exits (doors, windows ...)
This marking is hardly acceptable to the owners. Castration can, if carried out shortly after its appearance, make it disappear. On the other hand, if the urine marking has already been present for some time, this behavior may persist despite the operation ...
If castration has many advantages, it increases the risk of overweight, and it is therefore necessary to adapt the type of feed distributed to your cat by choosing a feed intended for sterilized animals (ask for advice To your veterinarian).
II. INTERVENTION
The castration of the cat consists in removing its two testicles. The animal is taken to the fasting clinic. It is anesthetized (the operation is performed under general anesthesia). The veterinarian will practice two small incisions on the scrotum in order to gain access to the testicles and extract them. These incisions are usually not sutured because they heal very quickly.
However, it is advisable to remove the particles from the litter box for 48 hours after the surgery (by replacing them, for example, with absorbent paper) to ensure that the cat does not enter these particles into the surgical wounds during The time of wound healing.
Postoperative recovery is usually very fast (the cat regains normal behavior in less than 24 hours)
III CASE OF CRYPTORCHIDE CAT
Like the dog, the testes of the kitten migrate from the abdominal cavity to the bursa. This migration begins while the kitten is still in her mother's womb and normally ends at about 6 to 8 weeks of age. Sometimes one or both of the testes do not reach the bursa and remain blocked, either in the abdomen of the kitten or in the groin area. These animals are called cryptorchid cats.
As in dogs, a testicle that has not reached the scrotum (ectopic testicle) has a much higher risk of becoming tumors than a testicle in the usual position. It is therefore strongly advised to castrate these animals. The veterinarian then takes care to remove the ectopic testicle (by looking for it in the abdomen or groin area) as well as the well positioned testicle thus preventing any subsequent onset of testicular cancer.
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The castration of the cat has several advantages. It greatly limits the risk of injury and abscess resulting from fighting between whole male cats. It also makes it possible to eliminate the urinary marking behavior if it is performed early. Finally, it is indispensable in the presence of certain anatomical abnormalities such as cryptorchidism
