Many pet owners still consider that sterilizing an animal is an "unnatural" act. Nevertheless, it should be noted that the ovariectomy of the cat is not only useful in removing heat behaviors that are sometimes difficult to bear but also has inestimable advantages in terms of the future health of the cat Your pussy.
I. BENEFITS OF STERILIZATION
The ovariectomy of the cat (removal of the two ovaries) has many advantages.
- It makes disappear the behaviors of heat sometimes painful (unlike the bitch, the cat does not have blood loss during the heat but it rubs everywhere, constantly asks for caresses, emits repetitive meow, insistent, ...)
- It reduces the risk of contamination by sexually transmitted diseases
- It is often indispensable for balancing diabetes (in fact, hormonal variations affect blood glucose and make the balancing of a diabetes by a treatment with insulin very difficult)
- It can treat ovarian and uterine tumors (in the latter case, the ovaries and the uterus are removed during the procedure).
- Some cats may have edema and sudden swelling of one or more breasts. This condition, known as mastosis or fibroadenomatosis, is hormone-dependent and usually occurs in young animals (2 to 3 weeks after the first heat) or in cats under contraception (contraception by injection or by taking a pill). Sterilization will prevent the appearance of this disease if it is practiced even before the first heat and limit the risk of recurrence if the cat has already presented this pathology.
- Finally, the ovariectomy limits the risk of the appearance of mammary tumors (cancer of often hormonal origin in the cat). Knowing that mammary tumors are very common in the cat (14% of all cancers) and that these tumors are mostly malignant (in 80% of cases), sterilization is very strongly recommended.
The age at which the operation is carried out affects the subsequent risk of developing breast masses. Thus, sterilization before the first heat (around 6 months) decreases by 91% the risk of the appearance of breast tumors. This decrease is 86% for a sterilized cat between first and second heat (between 7 and 12 months), only 11% between 13 and 24 months and sterilization after the two years of the animal is no longer No effect on the risk of developing breast cancer.
The ideal age of sterilization of the cat is therefore just before the first heat (around 6 months).
II. DISADVANTAGES OF STERILIZATION
The sterilization of the cat can have some disadvantages:
- It makes, of course, any subsequent reproduction impossible and it is therefore very important, before the intervention, to make sure not to wish to have a scope of its animal.
(On the other hand, the fact of never having small ones has, contrary to certain preconceptions, no repercussions on the well-being and balance of a cat)
- Sterilization can also be followed by a weight gain from your pet.
The introduction, just after the operation, of a feeding which takes account of the fact that the animal is sterilized (and therefore more subject to overweight) will make it possible to avoid this disadvantage.
III. INTERVENTION
The cat is taken to the vet in the morning on an empty stomach. The operation consists in removing her two ovaries, located in the abdomen. To do this, the veterinarian will perform an anesthesia and then access the ovaries either by opening a single opening just below the animal's navel or by making two small incisions on the flanks of the cat. These incisions of the muscles and the skin are then sutured and the animal is returned to the owner when it is well awake.
A pain-relieving injection or an anti-inflammatory treatment of a few days can be prescribed to the pussy to make sure she feels no pain.
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The sterilization of the cat has many advantages.
The benefits of the intervention are maximized when the sterilization is carried out shortly before the first heat of the animal (around 6 months). Nevertheless even late intervention (after 2 years) may still be advantageous: it will avoid the development of an ovarian tumor, limit the risk of the appearance of a fibroadenomatosis mammary or a uterine infection.
