An Indelicate Question

tnrmakessense

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I have a recent male rescue that will be neutered in a couple of weeks. I thought he might be about 5 years old but his.....external visible man parts, are very low hanging. Does this mean that he's a senior citizen ? I ask because I know advanced age can mean that more testing should be done before surgery. And I've never had an intact male this age before so I don't really know what I'm looking at.
 

Heart For Cats

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I have a recent male rescue that will be neutered in a couple of weeks. I thought he might be about 5 years old but his.....external visible man parts, are very low hanging. Does this mean that he's a senior citizen? I ask because I know advanced age can mean that more testing should be done before surgery. And I've never had an intact male this age before so I don't really know what I'm looking at.
Can you post a picture of his butt?
 

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I have altered adult male cats and, to be honest, probably never took a good look as long as there did not appear to be an injury. Testicular swelling can happen, but I don't know that it means that they appear lower than usual. Can you ask the vet or are you going to a TNR facility? My vet offers standard blood tests before neutering which I don't always even do if the cat is healthy looking. Older should not necessarily be a problem if he is healthy. Does he seem debilitated or sick?
 
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tnrmakessense

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Can you post a picture of his butt?
Uhhhh, no I don't think so. I feel like I've already crossed a line just by asking the question. But I'll say that I've rescued intact younger males cats and geographically, the attachments were much more to the north.
 
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tnrmakessense

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I have altered adult male cats and, to be honest, probably never took a good look as long as there did not appear to be an injury. Testicular swelling can happen, but I don't know that it means that they appear lower than usual. Can you ask the vet or are you going to a TNR facility? My vet offers standard blood tests before neutering which I don't always even do if the cat is healthy looking. Older should not necessarily be a problem if he is healthy. Does he seem debilitated or sick?
No, knock wood, his health seems good and his appetite is good. He does have a runny eye and I've made the clinic aware of that. It's a TNR facility that's doing the surgery but I'm going to email them next week about his possibly being older.
 

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I once saw a male with. . .low-hanging fruit. Very strange to see on a cat! And he was under 2 years old (known, as he was born on that farm). So maybe it's just a natural variation? Not all humans are alike so it stands to reason that not all cats are alike, I suppose.
 
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tnrmakessense

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I once saw a male with. . .low-hanging fruit. Very strange to see on a cat! And he was under 2 years old (known, as he was born on that farm). So maybe it's just a natural variation? Not all humans are alike so it stands to reason that not all cats are alike, I suppose.
Very interesting. Makes sense (that not all cats would be the same in the posterior region.) Thanks for the info !
 

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It’s really a very natural question and medical observation. Great that you noticed. There is variation that I have noticed in cats too. From low to high. It stands to reason that gravity can affect us all as we age but also, there could be other things that cause things to hang heavier. I would hope that any vet would observe these things but to be safe, a note to the vet to check his genitals would be in order.
 
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