Breeders and neutering

Re: Breeders and neutering

Claire Cameron — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:53:44 GMT

http://www.thecatgroup.org.uk/ - (The Cat Group, launched in 2000, is a collection of professional organisations dedicated to feline welfare through the development and promotion of policies and recommendations on the care and keeping of all cats.) Think they are a member group of FAB, ESFM and GCCF.

They have links to the following pages re early neuters
http://www.fabcats.org/cat_group/anaes.html

Re: Breeders and neutering

Kim Buckley — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 21:58:53 GMT

One of our vets will only remove the ovaries if requested. My head nurse had it done to her JRT and one of the other members of staff did aswell. From what I understand it was because both dogs had incontinence problems. I asked the vet if they would still be prone to pyos and he said no because they are caused by hormonal changes from the ovaries.

Re: Breeders and neutering

Maisy — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 21:56:25 GMT

I think the problems with pyos in bitches who have undergone an ovariectomy is when ovarian tissue is left behind. As this procedure is more commonly performed laparascopically the chance of this happening should be minimal. I worked with a vet who loved her laparascopic surgery who badgered us all into thinking keyhole spays are best!

Re: Breeders and neutering

Sally Howe — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 21:49:00 GMT

There is a vet in Barnet that will just remove the ovaries. Not sure on if there was any complications as I only locumed there for a couple of weeks

Re: Breeders and neutering

Caro Laithwaite VN — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 20:39:12 GMT

As far as l know single removal or non total removal is illegal undder rcvs as it encourages pyo's. In tenerife the vets there often did them. It was so bad with pyos that all cats and dogs that Tony the uk vet that went over to do work for the rescue and finally relocated there. If an owner said their dog/cat had been neutred then unless he [Tony} had done it he opened it and did it again. I would say about +60% had some degree of pyo infection. It was downright scary.

Everything was neutred a young as possible. They came through the ops better and as often even owned animals had an uncertain future. people leaving the island and dumping them, lack of money that it was needed.

I know a vet in manchester who also does very young cat spays usually for CPL good on her a lot of vets are scared but she says it is the easies top she does. She will do pups if presented as well.

In LA the good think that has been done is the following:

Terrible for strays and the reason why it was enacted look at the volume of animal euthanised each year.

Re: Breeders and neutering

Cat Woman — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 19:39:02 GMT

We do lots of early neuters for the CP - especially ferals. I have only ever known one vet remove just the ovaries (he did it with bitches & queens) & it was an Italian guy.

Re: Breeders and neutering

Maisy — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 09:22:54 GMT

Early neutering is also carried out for ferals and many rescue cats as a way of stopping early breeding. The breeder is likely to have chosen this to prevent any accidents in case either cat escaped (or mated with each other!)

With regards to the spay, ovariectomies are carried out as standard when performing the surgery laparascopically. As pyometra is related to ovarian hormones, the bitch shouldn't be at any more risk of developing this with having her uterus remaining.

Re: Breeders and neutering

Phrin Vernon RVN — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 03:57:49 GMT

hmmm - food for thought with the breeding stuff - thank you for the reply!

re the surgery, i was thinking more bitches than queens - have seen more than one stump pyo in spayed bitches in my time - surely an ovariectomy would leave them way more open to that?

what are the overall benefits of an ovariectomy rather than a full 'spay'? And does anyone else see this in first opinion practice?

Re: Breeders and neutering

Anonymous — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 02:40:18 GMT

many breeders do it for different reasons. i personally do it for behavioral reasons because i don't trust the owners to have them done before they reach maturity which in turn can lead to urination in the house, then when they get fed up with that they send the cat back to me saying it's a bad cat! which i don't agree with. but also there are a lot of people out there that buy peds and think that anyone and everyone can breed and it doesn't take time and effort. just because one of the parents is a bengal then if they have bengal crossed with the neighborhood tom they can then sell them as 'bengals' or 'bengal crosses' for a silly amount of money. it's just not fair on the cat or the buyers.

not sure about the open pyo.. but i do know now days many queens do very well with just Alizin instead of surgery for pyo. I think many vets rush into surgery a little too often because they haven't done the CPD. but at the same time we can't expect them to follow every new thing that comes along! just takes time and open mindedness i guess. :)

Re: Breeders and neutering

Phrin Vernon RVN — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 02:09:08 GMT

thanks for your reply Steph

I was concerned not only at the age of the cat, but of the breeders' reason for getting him done so young. Is it just because they sold a male/female pair together? I guess I will never know. The lady I was speaking to tonight (new owner of kittens) comes across as very responsible - not the type you would be worried about, for breeding brothers and sisters together.

I have also come across the surgery with only the removal of the ovaries - I have my reservations - would that not leave them open to a pyo?

Re: Breeders and neutering

Anonymous — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 01:58:54 GMT

My boys were done just over 14 wks and i know of strays in european countries and in the US that are done as early as 9wks i think! I believe it's all in how the vet feels about it. I find the boys tend to do better as it's such a minor surgery and as long as they are over 2kg for medication dosing ease they do very well! they recover very well and tend to have less behavioral issues with spraying and aggression. this is a very touchy subject though with some and i completely respect others opinions and choices. but i personally and many others have had no problems. if you're really interested in it might be worth speaking to someone at Bristol or even contacting a rescue surgery in the US to get some more info on it! A lot of places in the US are also doing more of the key hole surgery with removal of only the ovaries too with cats and dogs. but i don't know very much about it yet still reading up. :)