Kotor Kitties is a brilliant non-profit spaying and neutering cats in Montenegro

Luka

This is an article about Kotor Kitties. They have a nice website which tells you how they started. How they grew into an international organisation. The start is always interesting and vitally important. What motivated April Lynn King, a volunteer, board member and a co-founder of Kotor Kitties? She lives in Seattle which, I …

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Unneutered male cats have a more masculine facial appearance compared to neutered male cats

Tomcat jowls created by the presence of testosterone

This is a discussion about whether the neutering of male cats (castration) changes their facial appearance. It can also have an impact on their overall appearance indirectly i.e. lower metabolism leading to putting on weight. But I’m focusing on the face. My argument is that it feminises the male cat face by making it …

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Castration of male domestic cats increases hair length from short to medium

Does neutering male cats make then less strong?

In a study by A.G. Searle, University College, London, entitled Gene frequencies in London’s cats, which was carried out in the summer of 1947, it was concluded that “There is a significant tendency for male castration to increase hair length from short to medium… It is well established that castration inhibits baldness in Man.”

Castration cause hair to grow
Castration cause hair to grow. Extract from the report mentioned.

My research does confirm that castration of a man will stop the balding process. You can’t reverse baldness with castration but you can stop it getting worse. Mr Searle uses that information, which appears to be accepted by the experts, to support the notion that castration of male domestic cats leads to an increase in hair length from short to medium.

My research on the Internet produced nothing which supports that assessment. That does not mean that it is incorrect. It just means that it has not been discussed and/or any discussions have not been reported on the Internet.

Male cat neutering
Male cat neutering. Photo: O’Dwyer and Jones vets.

It is a very interesting thought nonetheless. This is partly because a very high percentage of male domestic cats are castrated i.e. sterilised or neutered to use another word. And nobody has ever told me that it might increase the hair length of a cat. And I would be confident in saying that a veterinarian has hardly ever if ever told their customer that their shorthaired cat is going to have medium length hair after the neutering operation 😉. And nobody has reported that effect on my website. And indeed, my cat’s hair length did not change after he was neutered. Or that, at least, is my impression.

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Why are there so many cats on Cyprus?

Community cat of Cyprus

The key reason why are there so many community cats on Cyprus is because not enough are being sterilized. The question is not about domestic cats but semi-feral community cats. Although there needs to be an education program to improve domestic cat ownership to ensure that all owned cats are sterilized. This would tackle …

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Why do veterinarians sterilize cats with a gonadectomy rather than a tubal ligation or a vasectomy?

First cat brought in to the clinic for spaying

Vets in American nearly always sterilize female and male cats with a procedure called a gonadectomy. This operation is more commonly called spaying (female) and neutering (male). Veterinarians rarely if ever consider an alternative which is for females the tubal ligation (closing a cat’s fallopian tubes) and for males the vasectomy (blocking sperm from …

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Do private practice veterinarians desex cats later than shelters and if so why?

Feral or Stray Cat Being Spayed

I have just been informed by the authors of a study on the impacts of pet cats on Australian wildlife that animal shelters desex cats when they are younger than four months of age because the focus is on preventing cats breeding and creating more cats, whereas in private practice, where the making a …

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Feline And Canine Pyometra

This article was originally published on October 12, 2012. The information is timeless and shows the importance of having your cat or dog spayed. Pyometra is completely preventable. Abby, the dog I used as an example in 2012, is still alive and in her forever home. Pyometra is an infection of the uterus. If …

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