Besides Inactivity and not being able to reproduce, what is the other reasons for not spaying and are they true?
Male cats are much more likely to get feline urological syndrome if they are neutered too early.
Spaying and neutering does NOT cause inactivity. That’s an old wives’ tale, and it’s bullshit.
There is absolutely no medical reason not to spay or neuter at an appropriate age. There’s a finite risk of anesthetic problems, but those are greatly outweighed by the risk of pyometra, unwanted pups or kittens, mammary tumors, testicular tumors, prostate problems, and injuries incurred while hunting for mates.
After vaccinatint, getting a pet spayed or neutered is the single most important step you can take to safeguard its health.
From experence (not that I was a cat ;)) I find this to be untrue. Cats will not travel as far from home and become more content not being as active. It’s really not a big deal and moch prefable to having wondering cas which disappear for 3-4 days, but I don’t think distorting the truth does anyone one any good. At least from my limiyted experence
All my sled dogs are neutered and I have not noticed any drop in activity or energy level. Just because an animal is not wandering does not mean the energy level is less (just that he isn’t looking for nookie).
If you’re a cat lover you won’t get all the toms in the neighbourhood paying your house a visit at 1am and singing/fighting in the back yard looking to serenade your little lady.
Spay em. If you want a kitten there are thousands upon thousands of them out there looking for a good home.
You think fixing will stop that? All of the cats which have cohabited with my mom have had the habit of occasionally wandering off for a few days at a time. All of them are/were fixed within the first year (before we get any “surprises”), and most of them are/were female, if that makes a difference. Mom’s never worried about them, because they invariably show up again within a few days.
Now, obviously, their reasons for wandering are different than those of intact kitties, but they do it anyway. I think that they just like exploring, and maybe eating fresh food every now and then (“fresh”, by cat standards, meaning that it’s still chirping/squeaking when you bite its head off).
I would like to echo Crazy Cat Lady’s advice except to say if given a choice between spaying or neutering my animals and vaccination I would choose altering. There is no reason not to alter your animals and no defensible reason to choose otherwise.
Sorry for my ignorance. I do understand the benefits of neutering and I certainly hate the fact that there are millions of unwanted animals. I just thought that inactivity was one of the side affects. So is it a myth that altering affects the personality?
Distortion, my ass. Spaying/neutering reduces the tendency to roam, yes. However, that is not the same thing as inactivity. Inactivity is, well, just that. People are afraid that getting their pets sterilized will make them do nothing but lay around the house all the time, and that is simply untrue. Removing the reproductive organs has absolutely no effect on how much energy the animal has past the recovery stage. It just keeps them from expending that energy on hunting for mates.
If you’d like to argue this point in greater detail, I’d suggest you do some reading on the subject. The AVMA puts out pamphlets on the subject, or you can check out their website. You can also ask your veterinarian. Or you can become a veterinary technician yourself, and argue from your less-limited experience with spayed and neutered animals.
No, Dalchini, it doesn’t affect the personality at all, any more than having a hysterectomy affects a human’s personality.
Often animals are a little sluggish for a day or two post-operatively, but that’s due to the anesthesia and having an abdominal incision, not the lack of gonads. After that wears off and the incision heals, your pet should be perfectly normal. As it ages, some of that puppy/kitten energy will start to wind down, but that’s true in unaltered animals, too.
No, it can indeed alter the personality, but I assure you it’s for the better. An overly aggressive, macho dog will generally become a nicer, more cooperative dog when the testosterone leaves his system. But inactivity is not a side effect of neutering–ask my terrier.
My spayed female dog has developed a couple of minor problems. She started “dribbling” and had to be put on hormones, and she’s developed a fatty growth on her chest, which the vet says isn’t a serious issue unless it starts causing her pain. Again, though, these complaints are easily dealt with and don’t outweigh the benefits of spaying her.
There is one major disadvantage of neutering male pets: you have to listen to the B.S. from ignorant owners who believe all the myths about neutering, or who just think that it’s “wrong” (mostly guys who shrink from the idea of “losing their manhood” and think that it’s somehow the same for dogs). You may also have to drag their hormone-driven savages off of your pets.
You guys are all complaining about alteration of personality and responsibility, but, my biggest problem with spaying my cat, she didn’t get done until she was almost 2 years old, is that, I’m afraid I will never have another cat like her. I honestly agree with the spaying neutering thing (obvously), however I also feel it is a shame to put an end to her gentics, especially since she is one of those cats, that when people come over, you have to check their coats to make sure they aren’t smuggling her out.
Yeah, I’ve got one of those, too. She’s like a dog in a little cat suit, and she’s gorgeous to boot. Everyone loves her, even people who don’t care for cats. There’s no reason to think that her personality would pass on to kittens, though, any more than a human’s personality is particularly like his or her parents’.
Let’s make a new rule that CrazyCatLady is a special topics moderator for all pet issues.
When I got my female PWD as a puppy, the contract from the breeder stated that I had to have her spayed; I had no choice Bailey was considered “pet quality,” and the fact that her dam paraded around in the spotlight of the Westminster Kennel Club dog show didn’t necessarily mean that she was breeding material. She was spayed at six months, and after a few groggy days, it was back to normal. Her personality seemed no different, except that she was a bit less needy for attention.
I’ve heard that if you have two dogs, the best combination is spayed female/neutered male. There is supposedly less fighting for dominance than any other 15 combinations of spayed and neutered male and female pairings.
I can vouch for this point of view. A year ago, I rescued Guinness, a four year old neutered male PWD, and he beacame a part of the elmwood pack. After a couple of days of very rough play and dominance humping (Bailey, the bitch, won), Guinness and Bailey got along like littermates. They share toys, they’ll both eat out of the same food bowl if they’re inclined, and they have absolutely no space or territory issues.
Guinness, despite being snipped, definitely has the personality of a boy; he’s a bit goofy, he has a deep voice (PWDs are similar to Basenjis in that they don’t bark much; they tend to chortle and “talk”), he has an in-your-face lovey-dovey disposition, and he’s always willing to play. I don’t know what his personality was like pre-neutering, but he’s always been a wonderful dog under my watch. Bailey is gentle, sweet, empathetic, careful, extremely intelligent, and she has a higher pitched voice. Despite their different personalities, it’s nearly impossible to separate them.
Gawd, my last post sounded pretentious. Sorry.
Having been in the Animal Care and Control profession for 28 years (gosh, I AM old!!), I felt compelled to reply. So many of you have stated excellent reasons as to yes, “neuter is neater”.
The #1 reason I have encountered over these years (followed by macho reason #2) has to do with unrealistic concerns of weight gain…which is related to the unaltered animals NOT straying away for 3-4 days at a time catting around (no pun intended). According to many veterinarians I have worked with over the years, altered animals generally require about 1/4th less food than they did while they were out running around all the time. Same with people.
FOOD makes animals fat; lack of exercise makes animals fat…not altering. Same with people.
I certainly understand the posts regarding the great animals that their friends would like to have one just like them. However I, too, found that cat…at the local Animal Shelter!
In my career, I and my staff have had to kill tens of thousands of animals (no, I am not proud of that fact) that could not find a home because there were/are too many from the ignorant people that felt they should breed their animals and get mixed breeds, which are a dime a dozen. Yes, I know a few found homes for all the litters, but we got all the litters everyone else could not find homes for…
Sorry to get gory on you…
YES!!! Neuter your animals! All of them. They will be healthier, happier, you will be happeir with your pet…and those unwanted animals in our shelters across the country will stand a better chance of getting adopted. Neutering is a WIN-WIN situation!!!