Early neutering

[SamMewl]

We haven't done continued follow up throughout the lifes of all cats. We have since I've been here had a couple of people who have come back to us for cats after the cats they took of us when we first started early neutering have died. In both instances these cats were 15+ years old and had died from problems associated with old age. I do realise this is not comprehensive at all, we have only been keeping easily accessable records of cats and adopters since 2009, in the future I hope to have more comprehensive follow up on the long term health of neutered kittens. Although we always encourage feedback from new owners and have had no reports of problems that could be associated with early neutering.

By poor males I assume you are referring to possible increase in urinary tract infection? To quote The Cat Group's report on early neutering "Uretheral diameter worries unfounded - studies show similar diameter to post-puberty neutering." http://www.thecatgroup.org.uk/ It is this and FAB advice that we have used to inform our practices.

I have also (hopefully) attached the cat groups pdf on cat neutering.

We are very concerned about welfare it is a first prority always, if we thought we were causing harm we would change our policy. I have not heard of liver shunt associated with early neutering and therefore I am interested in your experiences of it.

I also agree that education is of high inportance and we wish we had more financal and time resources to get the message of responsible pet ownership to the wider public.

[Teresa Pawcats]

Strangely enough we took 2 of our rescues for vaccination last night, both aged 4 months plus so whilst there vet was asked about neutering them,his advice wait another month.
Our vet has a few years experience behind him yet he is also young enough to be up to date with latest treatments etc; I am pleased to say he has cats welfare at heart.
I stand by my original post.

Sam you say you have been doing this for 18 years and imply you have followed up on kittens growing up etc, perhaps you could tell me how long each has been followed up and how many did have problems esp the poor males, if follow up was done you will know how many survived beyond 5 years.

Sorry I said you have, I mean your rescue.

[Yvonne]

I agree I do not agree with early neutering – my Vet would not do it anyway so it is not really an issue

[madkittyrescue]

I have to say this still doesn't change my mind about early neutering and having seen first hand kittens suffering with liver shunt with early neutering and watching them die we will maintain our recommendation to neuter at 4- 6 mths and continue follow up and stamped letters from vets when the op is done.  I would rather a little more follow up.

Aside from this hormones constitute part of the growth process and neutering early will affect this.  I think it is better to educate and support new owners on the why it is important and being responsible in today's climate where cats are readily bred for profit and treated like objects.

[Teresa Pawcats]

I'd always vote for an early human neutering campaign...

particularly castration 

[Angiew]

I am disgusted, I clicked link for my area and feral kittens neutered from weaning. Why in the name of God is a tiny animal (weaning at 4weeks) put through this? presumbably because the rescue cant be bothered with a bit of socialisation.
I have done rescue for over 20 years now and Never have one of my rescues gone on to breed-WHY because I do it properly,homechecks, follow up the lot. Maybe humans should be neutered at a year old to stop them growing into yobs.

I doubt it's "can't be bothered" as you well know T.

Its a question of throughput.

Like you, I'd prefer to spend weeks socializing. Then of course you are in a dilemma as to what to do for the ones that are inbetween feral and pet. Do you spend months trying to find someone who is prepared to cope with it or do you send it off from a life of pampering to that of a farm cat.

CP will also spay/abort until 7/8 weeks. Again very controversial but again it means that a cat can be homed in a week as opposed to 10 weeks (and reduces the numbers of kittens ).

It's that old debate of do we do whats best for the individual cat or the cat popuation overall.

Us smaller rescues go by individual animal but its a luxury I don't think the larger rescues always have with so much demand.

I'd always vote for an early human neutering campaign...

[SamMewl]

I'm of the opinion that any feral kitten caught below 10 weeks should go to foster and not be released as they have every chance of becoming a happy house cat - a much easier and better life than living rough. Although there is obviously going to be a problem with that if Mum is feral and if feral rescues only have the resources for TNR then at least if everything is neutered the colony wont grow larger than the resources available to it. 4 weeks does seem very early to me too but regarding our kittens, the ones we neuter at 11 weeks really do find it much easier to get over than the adults. When they come back from the vets they are lively and playful as soon as they are back here, even females whereas adults are usually a bit groggy for a day or two. We have found no increase in problems associated with neutering with kittens compared to adults.

The is some debate on the possible positive and negative health risks but so far the only difference studies have found is that early neutering can actually slightly reduce the possibility of mammarian cancer in females and there has been no difference in behaviour found between late and early neutered cats.

We re-home a lot of kittens and we rely mainly on volunteers so we don't have a lot of resources for following up cats. If you are able to as you do Teresa then I can understand why it would not be a priority.

..and i would probaby neuter humans too!! - theres too many of us   

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

I think 4 months is a good time to neuter and 6 months is far too late, ealier than 4 months seems too early.

From everything I read on Purrs female cats are coming into season about 4 months and the boys are out to get them and all of this doesnt just apply to rescues but owners too.

[Teresa Pawcats]

I am disgusted, I clicked link for my area and feral kittens neutered from weaning. Why in the name of God is a tiny animal (weaning at 4weeks) put through this? presumbably because the rescue cant be bothered with a bit of socialisation.
I have done rescue for over 20 years now and Never have one of my rescues gone on to breed-WHY because I do it properly,homechecks, follow up the lot. Maybe humans should be neutered at a year old to stop them growing into yobs.

[SamMewl]

Haworth Cat Rescue has have been neutering kittens at about 11 weeks for roughly 18 years now. The benefit for us is that we know all the kittens that we put up for adoption are not going to become contributers to the overpopulation problem.
The reason cats have been traditionally neutered at 6 months is actually just because this was the norm for dogs! Kittens do need to be carefully monitored during the operation (which might be why some vets still don't offer early neutering) but they actually recover from the operation quicker than adults and there have been no long term (or short term) heath risks found. The kittens we had neutered all those years ago have developed into heathy adults.

For a long time Cats Protection were against early neutering but they have recently completely turned round and willl now even neuter at 9 weeks. The are also encoraging others who work with cats to do the same by realeasing a map of vets who will perform this operation

http://www.cats.org.uk/early-neutering


ps sorry for all the serious posts  ....I did said it was slow on the homing front