No sex today

Press, 25 October 1985, Page 15

No sex today

Neutering and spaying of cats is a common operation. In the female, spaying prevents her from having kittens, and from coming into heat and attracting the tomcats around. In the male, neutering lessens his habit of spraying urine around his property, and takes the evil “tomcat” smell from his urine. Desexed cats also tend to live longer. Neutering of the male cat consists of the removal of both testes. Fortunately, the law now requires this to be done under anaesthetic, so the days of the head in the gumboot and a cut with a razor blade are over. It is usually a fairly simple operation: the cat is given a general anaesthetic, the scrotum is incised, the testes are pulled free from the body, the vessels are then severed, and the testes can be removed. The wounds are not usually sutured, and heal in a few days. Sometimes a male cat will be found in whom one or both testes have not descended into the scrotum, but remain in the abdomen.

In this case, the teste(s) has to be removed from the abdomen in a similar fashion to a spay. Spaying of the female is a more intricate operation, also done under general anaesthetic. Both ovaries are removed, as are varying amounts of the uterus. The amount depends on the vet performing the operation: some will remove the whole uterus and ovaries, while some will just remove the ovaries. Although there are arguments for and against both these methods, both are satisfactory. On the other hand, merely tying off or removing a cat’s fallopian tubes, without removing the ovaries, is unsatisfactory, as the cat will continue to come into heat regularly, even though it will not become pregnant. The site of the incision is also something that varies between vets. Some prefer to make the incision on the flank, others prefer the midline of the belly. Once the cat has been anaesthetised, the operation site is clipped and sterilised.

The incision is then made through the skin and abdominal muscles. A hook is passed through the incision and is used to hook up the uterus and ovaries from the abdomen. The blood vessels and uterine stump are tied off or cauterised and the ovaries (and possibly the uterus) are removed. The skin and muscle layers are then stitched separately: the muscle with dissolving stitches, and the skin with either dissolving or removable stiches which need to be removed about ten days later. The age at which kittens should be desexed is another field in which opinions differ. For most domestic cats three to six months is the average age. By this stage they are reasonably mature, but we hope not mature enough to breed. If the owner wants the cat to have a litter of kittens first, this is fine. The cat can be spayed as soon as its kittens are weaned. But I don’t think a cat should be allowed to have a litter in the belief that it “makes a better cat.”