Why Spay or Neuter Your Cat?If you don't plan to be a breeder it is very important to spay or neuter your pet cat. Let me illustrate with what happened to me. One morning, a friend almost squashed a day old kitten in my parent’s backyard. I moved the poor fellow to a nearby shady place in hope that her mother will find her. To my horror, later that night I heard frantic voice of that same kitten squealing for her mother. I hate rescuing very small baby animals because they usually won't survive. But I end up spending the entire night trying to feed the already dehydrated kitten. Warming her, stimulating her bowels, etc. to my surprise, she came through. This kitten sure has a strong will power to live. Fortunately for me, a friend's cat unexpectedly gave birth to a litter of kittens a few days earlier(yeah, she didn't spay her cat soon enough). Bless the tiny kitten, the queen accepted to foster her readily. Moral of the story? Spay or neuter your pet! If
my neighbor is a responsible owner, she wouldn't let anyone go through
all the hassle of trying to save her cats' baby kitten! I don't think
she even knows her cat had a kitten! how irresponsible is that?
Spay Your Female Cats Spaying is a surgery which removes
the ovaries and uterus by an incision in their abdomens. Aside from the very real feline overpopulation problem, there are some important health reasons for spaying female cats such as: • Decreased Risk of Mammary Cancer To protect your female cat from mammary cancer, spay her before she her first estrus , which can occur as young as four months old. Each following heat brings a higher risk of mammary cancer in the future. • Zero Risk of Ovarian or Uterine Cancer Spaying a cat involves the removal of the uterus and ovaries. No organs, no cancer. • Zero Risk of Pyometritis Pyometra is a serious infection in the uterus lining by virulent bacteria (especially E.coli) that can be fatal if left untreated. A spayed cat obviously has no uterus to be infected. If you are curious as to how the procedure is done to spay your cat, you can watch this video.Neuter Your Male Cats
All my four boys don’t even know what hit them. Neutering will not only prevent unwanted pregnancies and some medical problem, it will also solve some 'stud' behavioral problem. Neutered male • are not so inclined to spray his strong 'au de parfum' • more civilized. Gents don't fight brawl • don't feel the need to roam so far and wide • will be spared the 'scar' and abscesses from fighting • have lower risk to contract diseases such as FeLV and FIV • have zero risk of testicular cancer • have cleaner tail. 'Stud tail' are greasy oily caused by the overactive sebaceous glands in the tail. Basically, you have every reason to neuter your male cat. He will be a much more pleasant companion, and will ultimately be happier and healthier. The following video shows you how the vet neuter a male cat. It is much simpler than spaying since the testicles are located outside of the body. Excuses and Objections to Spay or NeuterA lot of people would come up with a several common excuses or objections whenever I told them to spay or neuter their pet cat such as the following:• “I don’t want to deprive my cat from sex.” This is the most absurd excuse of them all. For cats, sex is purely hormonal. No emotional feelings involved. And for all cases, it is even a painful process. If you had witnessed any cats mating, you would see at the end of it the female will yowl, hiss, spat and hit the male with her claws. A male cat’s penis has tiny spines pointing backwards that makes it painful for the female when he draws out his penis when the mating is over. If you want your cat to be happier, spay or neuter your cat. spayed or neutered cats have no whatsoever desire to mate. Even if they wanted to, who’s stopping them? • “Altering makes them fat and lazy.” Nope. Overeating makes them fat and lack of stimulation and exercise makes them lazy. Period. • “I want my kids to experience the miracle of birth.” Most cats gave birth at night in a hidden away seclusion so there’s a very thin chance for your children to witness it anyway. If you want to educate your children about the miracle of birth, there are tons of videos and TV shows out there that they can watch instead. • “My cat is too old.” It is never too old to spay or neuter your cat. Unless if there’s some other health problem that your vet specify, it’s never too old to spay or neuter your cat. • “My religion won’t allow it.” Now this is a touchy issue. Mostly this objection comes from my Muslims brothers and sisters. Let me ask you a question. Would you send your 5 year old to the streets just because you can’t afford to feed him? Your pet cat cannot fend for itself because they are PETS. They are used to being FED and cared for. They are not trained like their wild cousins to survive in the wild. Thus they can’t pass down surviving skills required to their offspring. So sending them off to the streets is equivalent to subjecting them to a slow, painful and miserable death. You'll be more merciful if you simply chop off their head. You can still keep your pet cat whole if you plan to keep all the kittens. Or finding good homes for them. But what if the kittens are ready to breed? This is why breeding cats is a heavy responsibility. Not only you will have the responsibility of finding homes for them, you are also responsible to test your breeding cats to be sure that they are free of hereditary diseases like HCM or HD. For your info, cats if let loose can produce up to 4 litters a year. Just one litter of 6 can multiply in 6 years to over 420,000 cats!! Well, of course this is just calculated number. Most of them will die of diseases, starvation, road accidents etc. and will not survive into adulthood. So which one is more 'allowed' in
our religion? Let your cat breeds, and let their kittens die of
starvation or being hit by cars (or diseases), or kill them in shelters
because nobody can afford to feed them…? Or simply spay or neuter your
pet cat and avoid all the miseries their future kittens have to go
through? Go figure.
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