Neuter/spay at four months

[Desley (booktigger)]

Glad you got them done, bet you were shocked to find you had unidentical twins!! Glad homes are going well.

[Hippykitty]

UPDATE: had the cats neutered and spayed successfully, but a bit of a shock  One of the ginger twins is female. This seems odd as they are identical.

The other two little ones were rehomed earlier, and I was happy to see them go as I'm 100% sure they have gone to a great home. Also have possible slaves for the gingers, pending a home check. They are a nice same sex female couple, one of whom is a police sargeant. They seem well versed in cat care and reacted well when they met the cats. Even Polly, my own old lady feral, liked them.

So all going well at Hippykitty homeless kitties! 

[Desley (booktigger)]

My vet likes to do it at 4/5 months, but sadly the receptionist told me 6, so Shadow wasn't done until 6months (it was at the post-op check i found out my vets views) - and CP are recommending either 3 or 4 months now. I do know of vets and rescues in my area that do them at 8-10 weeks old, and I think it should be done more often, there could never be any accidental pregnancies then. If some vets can do it at 10 weeks, then there is no excuse for waiting till 6 to find their 'bits'.

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

When I had Jaffa done it was a case of taking him in for them to see if he was well developed enough.  He's a big boy (talking general size here  ) so they were happy to do him at 5 months.  With Mosi, I told them I wanted him doing at 5 months and that was that!  When I rang about what time I could take him in and actually spoke to the vet who was doing it (from elsewhere in Europe) she did ask if I didn't want to wait until he was 7-8 months old and I responded that no I didn't, I wanted him doing then!  He was quite well developed enough for a neuter at that point and unless she was a really bad vet, I knew there wouldn't be a problem.

[Bazsmum]

My vet is quite straight forward....basically if there is enough to hold then he see's no problem doing a neuter early!

I took my Baz in at 5 months as he was a big cat....but not in the manly dept so had to take him back when they had grown more! 

[blackcat]

shadow was neutered at 3 months - his stitches were already gone when I adopted him at four months. His manly bits have never developed to quite the size they may otherwise have assumed, but frankly that is a good thing ... Mind you, dogs are a little more 'accessible' if you get my drift.

[Liz]

Raven and Panther our latest ferals were done at 4 months and no problems - someone kindly did the deed then put them in a cardboard box on our track

Both are well and full of life, love cat milk and are happy wee souls just got to worm Raven at some point today!

[Hippykitty]

I did fib about the age and said they were five months, as I knew from ringing the vet the previous week that they will not consider it before then. I'm hoping everything will be okay and that the vet will go ahead. The two females, Newbie and Smudge, are going to a new home next week and it'll save the new owners a lot of money, as I've got vouchers to cover the full cost.

Thanks for the link.

[Gillian Harvey]

A lot of breeders now have the kittens neutered before going to their new homes at 3 months old, which I think is a good thing.

[Susanne (urbantigers)]

Paediatric spay and neuter is done in some places over here (rspca sometimes do it - I remember ringing up about some kittens before I got Jaffa and being told they were already neutered).  Doesn't seem to cause any problems, but 4 months isn't really paediatric neuter.  They're definitely old enough imo, and if the vet thinks they're big enough I can't see any problems. 

http://www.ivis.org/advances/Concannon/olson/IVIS.pdf#search=%22Early%20spay-neuter%3A%20clinical%20considerations.%22

[Millys Mum]

You kits will be much bigger earlier, would they still not consider it?

[Team Svartalfheims]

I know of some people in the UK who's vets will neuter around 10 weeks old so they neuter their kittens before they leave home and they haven't had any problems so far. Sadly my vets are one of the ones who insist on the cat being at least 5-6 months old 
I haven't heard of any disadvantages of early neutering but there are lots of advantages. I think some sort of memo on the benefits of early neutering needs to be sent out to all UK vets.

[Millys Mum]

UK vets are just stuck on the 6 month thing, they can find everything in a tiny kitten so 4 months shouldnt pose a problem.
I reckon the 6 month age was decided years back when GAs were more risky

[Hippykitty]

I'm taking my four younger rescues to the vet tomorrow for their ops. I have two male and two female (I think). They are only four months old, though I fibbed when I booked them in, and told the vet receptionist they were five months. They are all litter mates (I think: they are trapped ferals), the ginger males are much bigger than the tortie and white females. The vet is going to inspect them before the op, apparently it's more important that the females are big enough, so that the uterus can be located etc.

I've read on Purrs that it's common practise to neuter before 6mths in the USA, but then they do lots of weird and undesirable things, like declawing. Does anyone know of any disadvantage to the cat of neutering before 6mths?