Getting your cats spayed/neutered - help available

BizzyBek

I thought I'd write a quick post about the pros of getting your cat spayed/neutered.

I am a cats protection welfare volunteer and specialise in the hand rearing of kittens, nursing pregnant queens, ill, injured and abused cats. I also do field work, trapping feral cats and having them spayed/neutered. I thought if I wrote a bit about my experiences it may be something I could give back to this great site.

Firstly the cost of spaying and neutering. There are schemes available to help with the cost of spaying and neutering your cats. At our branch we regularly hold neutering awareness days and ask people to bring proof of their benefits (housing benefit book etc) in exchange for an assitance voucher - the amount you pay dependent on area and vet used. On some occassions entirely free neutering is available to those on benefit. Ask at your local vets and check local charity branches and listings to see if they offer low cost neutering solutions.

Even if you cannot get assistance it is well worth looking to budget for your animals neutering as it is cheaper in the long run than the many problems associated with not neutering!

Spaying a female cat:
- stops unwanted pregnancy. Pregnancy can have complications and lead to large vet bills if a caesarean etc. An litter of kittens will also bring extra costs and you can not guarentee they will be successfully homed. If the mother rejects the kittens you will need to purchase specialist milk and equipment not to mention the cost of time - 2hourly feeds for the first fortnight are not cute after day 1 - trust me!!
- an unspayed female cat is at risk of being bothered by randy males - this increases the risk of her being chased off her terriortary and getting lost
- if a female is 'caught' by a tom as well as the risk of pregnancy she risks catching disease including FIV which is terminal and which you cannot vaccincate against at present.

Neutering a male cat
- an unneutered male likes to follow his groin!! With a keen sense of smell and a rush of hormones they are more likely to wander to look for a mate and can get carried away, ending up off their terriortary and lost
- like a female, if unneutered a male cat has a greater chance of catching sexually transferred diseases
- it lessens the tomcats smell in their wee, helps temper mood and lessen (but not eradicate) spraying.

Unneatuered animals help raise the number of strays and ultimately feral cats, which is a hard life for these animals.

I do sometimes in the course of this type of work come across people who sell kittens and argue it makes them an income. My personnal opinion is that anyone who breeds an animal must show a high level of care to that animal, that includes shelter, diet and vet care including fleaing and worming, ensuring the animal is not passing on diseases such as FIV or FLV. By the time you add in all these costs they are GREATER than the average £10 you get for a 'moggy' kitten so in terms of money it doesn't weigh up! But that's my personal rant. If you already have been cught out and have a litter of kittens I would strongly recommend you only home to friends and family you can guarentee will follow through long term care or get in touch with your local animal rescue centre and ask to rehome the kittens via them to people who have had home checks. IMHO all that!