Neutering my F1 kitten

[Xcellmusic]

Hello everybody, I have a question for our experienced and lovely breeders around.

Does neutering a male early slows down, stops or interferes with his growth?

I'm planning on taking my baby to get neutered around 5month, (He's 4 month old right now) should I wait until 6month?

(I definitely don't wanna deal with stinky spaying and sudden changes of mood due to obsessive thoughts of getting females haha)

Thanks you !

 

[Patti]

Neutering can alter the natural pattern of growth of a kitten in that some studies suggest that early neutering promotes growth - since it is the hormones that are produced with maturity that triggers the bones to stop growing, with early neutering those hormones are never produced so the kitten continues to grow for a longer period of time thus promoting a larger sized cat.

 

[Xcellmusic]

Neutering can alter the natural pattern of growth of a kitten in that some studies suggest that early neutering promotes growth - since it is the hormones that are produced with maturity that triggers the bones to stop growing, with early neutering those hormones are never produced so the kitten continues to grow for a longer period of time thus promoting a larger sized cat.

Very Interesting Patti, thanks for the reply.
Do you think 5 months old is a good age?

 

[John Popp]

Brigitte really nailed this one. You definitely don't want any animal stirrings or urges to begin and then decide you want to neuter them. Once the spraying starts, it's difficult to stop and an after the fact neuter isn't going to flip it off like a switch. There are also a pretty fair amount of medical issues associated with an intact male that isn't sexually active.

For our boy, there was zero change in personality, energy or even the slightest bit of recovery time. He came home and was as crazy as ever and we did our best to slow him down as the vet prescribed.

As for when, I prefer to let weight be a guide. Find out from your vet the weight they feel comfortable with and then make sure the kitten is a minimum of 16 weeks old. For us, our vet will neuter kittens at 3lbs although we waited until Chongo weighed in at over 5lbs, and by the time he was scheduled and at the vet he was actually over 6 lbs.

With anesthesia, there really isn't anything more than anecdotal information floating around out there. Ketamine is something to stay away from, not based on any real evidence but you don't want to second guess yourself if something were to go wrong and there are plenty of alternatives.

The absolute best advice on this subject again came from Brigitte who identified where the true risks come from when anesthetizing a Savannah, percentage of body fat. What this means is a typical domestic cat carries a body fat percentage nearly double that of a Savannah. So you have a fat soluble anesthetic, the amount used is determined by the weight of the cat not by the weight of the body fat.

The best part is this makes your conversation with your vet a lot easier. They don't need to listen to Dr Google myths about certain types of anesthesias with no backing in science, and you can present them with something which will make total sense to them. Quite simply, "My Savannah kitten only carries about 50-75% percentage of body fat of a domestic short hair, and the amount anesthesia used should correspond to it". Then you can suggest not to use Ketamine to help your comfort level, although it's really not that widely used anymore.

Hope that helps, and again Kudos to Brigitte because she was the one that finally gave me clarity on this as I was really beating myself up with all the anecdotal stuff I was finding on the interwebs.

 

[Patti]

Very Interesting Patti, thanks for the reply.
Do you think 5 months old is a good age?

I would never wait five months to neuter a boy unless he had an underlying health problem, but that's just my preference. I think as long as he is neutered before he starts spraying it is a good age

 

[Xcellmusic]

Hey guys I just wanted to give you a head up, I just came back from the Vet where I had a pre-neuter visit early this morning.

The Dr I picked works in a fancy and very clean, brand new vet clinic in West Hollywood I was really happy with my overall experience overthere.

She was very nice, (all the team was from the girl at the desk to the techs) and she seemed very caring about Ayrad asking me a millions questions about his health, behavior, diet etc., she made me feel very comfortable which is good especially considering I don't really have experience with Vets.

Of course Ayrad wasn't pleased to be in there (nor he liked the trip) but he stayed nice, just meowing more than usual and looking forward to get outta there but he let the doc and he techs do their job easily.

So as of this morning Ayrad weights 6,14 pounds at 19 weeks.

To get back to the right topic, I was really willing to get him neutered today after the visit but after a long and interesting conversation with the doc I decided to wait and postpone it.

She told me that very recent studies show that en early neutering, is most likely to cause bones problems and deficiencies, especially in big dogs and big cats, and that it could cause easier fractures, especially if the pet is very active (Well we know how SVs are) and that it would be taking a risk.

She told me that it was up to me to take the decision today but she strongly recommend me to wait at least 5/6month age before to do it.
She seemed to be very up to date with the recent researches and studies, and seemed very confident so I decided to trust her.

Just wanted to share my experience with you guys, I'm glad I found a Dr I feel comfortable with, I visited about half a dozen Vet facilities before to pick this one.

 

[WitchyWoman]

She told me that very recent studies show that en early neutering, is most likely to cause bones problems and deficiencies, especially in big dogs and big cats, and that it could cause easier fractures, especially if the pet is very active (Well we know how SVs are) and that it would be taking a risk.

Interesting. Is it possible for you to find out from her where the studies are published? I think it would be good for the board to include these recent studies for other members and because we should have a balanced view available. And I have to admit I'm skeptical until I see the research myself. Was the study conducted using domestic cats or captive large exotics such as lions & tigers. Was it a longitudinal study and for how long and with how many cats. How was the control group handled. Who sponsored the research? These are questions I always ask my vet when she quotes "new" information because the answers can have an impact on the veracity of the research results.

As as example: pet food companies always tell us that they do tons of research on their food to prove it's healthy for our pets. In reality, the research consists of feeding cats the food for 30 days and if the majority don't die or come down with health issues, the company considers that sufficient. We've learned the hard way that it is not sufficient.

Not trying to talk you out of anything or disrespect your vet. I'm a doubting Thomasina until I read the stuff myself.

Thanks in advance for anything you can do to find out where we can access the studies.

 

[Xcellmusic]

Interesting. Is it possible for you to find out from her where the studies are published? I think it would be good for the board to include these recent studies for other members and because we should have a balanced view available. And I have to admit I'm skeptical until I see the research myself. Was the study conducted using domestic cats or captive large exotics such as lions & tigers. Was it a longitudinal study and for how long and with how many cats. How was the control group handled. Who sponsored the research? These are questions I always ask my vet when she quotes "new" information because the answers can have an impact on the veracity of the research results.

As as example: pet food companies always tell us that they do tons of research on their food to prove it's healthy for our pets. In reality, the research consists of feeding cats the food for 30 days and if the majority don't die or come down with health issues, the company considers that sufficient. We've learned the hard way that it is not sufficient.

Not trying to talk you out of anything or disrespect your vet. I'm a doubting Thomasina until I read the stuff myself.

Thanks in advance for anything you can do to find out where we can access the studies.

Don't apologize for being like that Deborah I'm quite the same, I love to see by myself to believe something and I'm usually very doubtful until I analyze all the data.

To be honest I decided to go with my guts, I don't have enough knowledge in this field to have had these spontaneous questions to ask but I'll see her in a few weeks to do the procedure and I will definitely ask her these questions so I can share them with you all and you can make you own opinion.

I just wanted to share a review of my visit and give this "raw" informations as I got them and once again when I lack knowledge in something I usually let my instinct lead me and go with my guts and in this precise case that's what I did case.

And I really appreciated how she was, she could have just take my money and do the procedure but instead she told me to wait for the reasons I've described and he even waved the exam visit fees ($63) after she checked Ayrad's general condition and also swabbed his ears for ear mites (Because they get dirty quickly I've posted something in a thread few weeks ago), He's fine no ear mites nor infection phewww just dark ear wax ewww

I hope we'll learn more about what she told me.

PS : And also I didn't think 5 to 6 month was too late since it was what most people including my breeder recommended that's why I sent with her suggestion.

 

[WitchyWoman]

The prevailing research states that cats tend to be larger when neutered early because the production of testosterone causes the growth plates to close so when you get rid of the testosterone, you tend to get a bigger cat. There may be a cause and effect between growth plates open longer and bone issues. I am looking forward to learning more. Thanks Xcellmusic.

 

[Xcellmusic]

The prevailing research states that cats tend to be larger when neutered early because the production of testosterone causes the growth plates to close so when you get rid of the testosterone, you tend to get a bigger cat. There may be a cause and effect between growth plates open longer and bone issues. I am looking forward to learning more. Thanks Xcellmusic.

Thank you! Maybe the two have a relation, I'll tell you what the Dr says next time I see her.
But all I know is that I take healthy over size anytime