Help...is this normal?

[4 feline house]

Avajoy, in the "olden days" males were castrated, so there would be nothing left. Nowadays, the seminiferous tubes are removed but the scrotum remains intact, so the cotton balls are simply ballettes. It's safer as no stitches are required (in cats and small dogs) and the bleeding is minimal. If he were still intact, you would know it by his behavior!

[thelmalu99]

Avajoy, with my first two cats, Sydney and Charlie, I took them to be neutered and I thought their "cotton balls" (lol!) looked smaller after the procedure.
Elvis and Danny were both already neutered when I adopted them, so I don't know what they looked like before. I guess they look kind of small, like with the first cats, but again, I wasn't sure so I decided to contact the lady from the shelter and ask her if she was sure that Elvis had been neutered.

[Edwina's Secretary]

Saturday I was at the hairdresser and this woman and her mother were there. The had a cat in a carrier (daughter had found the cat and he was on his way to get snipped.)

Anyway, I got into a cat conversation with the mom who told me she had brother and sister cats.

Only problem is the brother will get on her lap and after a bit of kneading he gets aroused. OMG...I told her there had been just such a conversation thread on Pet Talk! She was relieved to know her cat's behavior was not totally weird.

[Logan]

The mirror image comment is hilarious! Thank goodness, neither of mine show any inclination towards that now. But when I had ShrimpBoat, she started going into heat often, and there I was with a cat I wasn't supposed to have in my apartment, and she would HOWL and when my fiance (and later husband) was there, she would climb on him and put her rear end right in his face!! It was horrible!!! But she LOVED him, only when she was in heat!!! LOL! I just knew I would come home to find every male cat in the city lined up on my balcony because of those mournful howls. We took care of that problem quickly, believe me!!!!

[wolflady]

My Marius has those "cotton balls" too. I was thinking the same thing about having them completely removed because you can't see any remnants on my parent's male cat Socks, but I guess that's because my Marius got a different neuter procedure??
Ok, I have to add to these silly stories. My family's family dog, Misty (rainbow bridge) had a tendency to 'mount' the neutered male cat Socks every now and then, and my parents would get all disturbed and discourage that behavior. I just thought it wierd because Misty was FEMALE!!???!!! LOL LOL It was especially embarassing when guests were over...poor Socks would just try to slink away!

[AvaJoy]

Originally posted by Leah S:
<STRONG>Avajoy, in the "olden days" males were castrated, so there would be nothing left. Nowadays, the seminiferous tubes are removed but the scrotum remains intact, so the cotton balls are simply ballettes. It's safer as no stitches are required (in cats and small dogs) and the bleeding is minimal. If he were still intact, you would know it by his behavior!</STRONG>

Thanks for bringing me up to speed, Leah!
This poses another question: suppose a male rescue cat is presented to a vet, history unknown. Can the vet visually determine if he has already been neutered? Probably a silly question, but I am just curious. When I rescued Meeshe, I noticed his "package" and immediately assumed he was in need of neutering, but . . . I could have been wrong . . . his behavior has always been docile. Hmmmmm.

[yorkster]

thanks avajoy.......I was wondering about that too. I rescued a male kitty over the weekend and he definately had the equipment, so I assumed he was not neutered. Now maybe I'm not sure.

[Edwina's Secretary]

My brother is a vet. Many years ago...when he was still in vet school... my mother wanted him to neuter her new male kitty. Albert was a little young for the surgery but my brother was heading back so it needed to be done. Fortunately I am not too sensitive as my brother began to neuter the cat on the kitchen table and I had not yet finished my breakfast.
The point of the story is to the question of whether parts are removed or just the vas cut. At least I can say how it was done 20 years ago. After he was done I noticed a couple of VERY small white balls in alcohol in one of my mother's salad dishes His explanation ...which I remember to this day... was "doctors don't clean up after themselves!"

[catwoman]

Did you know you can actually PURCHASE little white gel balls (in different sizes) to implant into your cats and dogs who have been altered?!!!

I guess it was developed for show cats and dogs, whose owners did not want them to breed ... but I found it hilarious!

[ November 20, 2001: Message edited by: catwoman ]

[AvaJoy]

Oh, great. Now they have implants for cat and dog testicles??

I will have LOTS of questions for my vet next time I visit.

I need to add a here because I really DO trust my vet, and surely Meeshe WAS neutered, but . . . DARN! . . . he sure doesn't appear to be.

[gini]

These posts are hysterical!! When Rascal popped into my backyard - there was no mistake that he was an unneutered male!!

We are talking golf balls.

He was reduced to cotton balls in one short visit.

He used to bite my hair all of the time and then one day - he just stopped doing it.
I was relieved because I never knew what he was up to.

These Orange guys - ya gotta watch them!!

[yorkster]

yeah Gini, my orange boy had the golf balls too- you could tell he was a boy kitty from WAY across the room (and he has long hair)!
Now he does not even have cotton balls, they are more like.....grape sized. Poor kitty.

[zippy-kat]

LOL LOL LOL
That's all I can say right now...LOL

[NoahsMommy]

hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee

This thread is so funny!!

If you think cats are bad, you should live with a house bunny!! Faith has two "boyfriends" (stuffed-animal balls) that she frequently mates with....she has just recently taken to...um...using BOTH of them at the same time!! Jeesh!

[4 feline house]

Faith! A menage a trois ! Oh, you bad, bad girl!