Castration age - urinary problems

**Catlady711** · 10-15-2007, 12:26 PM

Where I work at they won't spay/neuter any animal until 5-6 months old. The theory is (at least with cats anyways) is that they have a naturally higher crystal content in their urine anyways and having the surgery done when they are a few months older allows the urethra (the part the urine passes through) to grow a bit more which should decrease incidents of being blocked up when they are older. In male dogs waiting seems to allow them to look more masculine than younger neutering. I honestly can't say for sure on the female dogs young vs older spaying as I've never actually asked before, I just know it's better to get them done BEFORE their first heat cycle which is around 6 months old.

For my own cats:

Jack was neutered at 8 months old when he got his second set of shots and has only had one minor UTI several years ago which caused no blockage and was treated with Amoxi-drops for a week. He has not had that problem since then and he's now almost 8 years old.

Pooky & Bear were neutered at 5 1/2 months old because they had started acting like tom cats. Neither one has had any kind of urinary problem and they are now 5 1/2 years old.

Cami was spayed when she was 1 year old (when she showed up) and has not had any urinary problems. She is 3 years old.

Sabrina, Sassy & Josh were spayed/neutered at 6 months old and have not had any problems but they are only just now 1 year old.

**DrKym** · 10-15-2007, 12:43 PM

Being that we do mostly rescue our guys are done as soon as we take them in, some are 8 weeks some over a yr.
Other than my RB siamese Solomon we never had issues, he however had contracted an infection so he did urinate in less than desirable places when stressed.( the stove ,the laundry, the couch

)

**krazyaboutkatz** · 10-15-2007, 12:48 PM

When I adopted Storm he was already neutered and he was around 1 year old so I don't know how old he was when he was neutered. He became blocked 2 times and had to have the PU surgery when he was almost 9 years old and he's had a few UTI's since then.

I was told that Sunny was neutered at 6 months of age and so far no problems. Sky was adopted when he was about 1 year old and he was neutered sometime before his first birthday. So far so good with him too. Starr was neutered when he was between 6-7 months and he's had a couple of UTI's but he's always been a sickly cat.

The surgeon told me that Storm's urethra was very small so it was only a matter of time before he would become blocked. He was on Royal Canin Urinary S/O wet and dry food but now he's on a grain free diet which was approved by both his regular vet and his holistic vet and he's doing very well.

I sure hope that Pichu will be okay and that he won't need to have surgery. I'll keep him in my thoughts and prayers.

**lvpets2002** · 10-15-2007, 01:38 PM

Well I have always had Girls & they all were spayed at 5-6 months of age.. I just within the last few months have 4 wittle boys.. Bump is 7 months & just had his surgury & is doing great.. Skid is 7 months & get his surgury done at the end of this week.. Rastus will be 7 months as of Nov 1 & then he will be scheduled.. Scrapster is only 5 wks & has a long while before we think about it.. My Vet & I had a long discussion about ages & surgery & she (vet) will not do males before 7 months of age due to could be problems with the uninary track in which could lead to UTI..

**catmandu** · 10-15-2007, 06:35 PM

None Of The Lucky Found Paradise Males Have Had Any Problems What So Ever, But None Of Then Were Neutered At A Young Age.
We Are Sending Prayers For Pichu , And Hope That Hes All Right Soon.

**Vio&Juni** · 10-16-2007, 02:56 PM

Thank you everyone for input.

Thankfully, Pichu is much better now, we're still giving him injections and pills and we're watching him every time he goes into the bathroom (poor guy).

He does it just in the litter box even when he is sick and I think that is very nice of him.

The vet that castrated him kept telling us that he is older than we were thinking, and I should have listened to myself, I knew that he was just a big boy. I was sure he was under 6 months when we castrated him. Well, we'll wait a little longer for Milo and here we know more about his age, when we got him, there was no way he was older than one month.

On a happier note, Juni and Pichu are adjusting pretty well here, Milo is being a pest, but P&J are not complaining much. As for Milo, finally he found other tails to play with besides his own

.

I am taking pictures, but still cannot upload them to the desktop, so, I'll try to get Internet on my laptop and then I will post a lot of them.

The house feels so much more like home with them around

**Barbara** · 10-16-2007, 03:27 PM

Tigris was neutered at about 6 months. He came up with this iFLUTD (idiopathic Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease) at the age of 9 years and he has been fine since. I cannot imagine that there is a connection.
Filou was about 9 months ( it was later when he started singing his coming-of-age songs in the staircase) and he has no peeing problems.
I must say Pichu's problems do sound to me similar to Tigris. If he is fine until next year and if he wants to emigrate to Germany we'll be happy to have him checked by our vet. I think I would want a second opinion.
When Tigris takes a bath you can see his little penis

and it looks quite ok

**Vio&Juni** · 10-16-2007, 05:41 PM

Pichu couldn't pee again tonight, so tomorrow we'll call the vet again

.

I will lock him in a separate bathroom tomorrow to check how much he eats, drinks and pees.

Barbara, Pichu very much wants to emigrate to Germany next year, so I hope we'll see Tigris' vet.

The emergency vet we saw on Sunday told us that they do a certain surgery that removes the penis and then they don't have problems at all, sounds kind of scary...