Did I Get My Cat Spayed Too Early?

[DeepSpaceCats]

My vet recommended I get my kitten spayed at 4 months, so I did. 'Earlier the better', she said, and she had lots of reasons to back up her recommendation. Jadzia just came home from the surgery today, she's totally fine, just sleepy. Meanwhile, in this raw-food facebook group I belong to, someone posted a spay/heat-related question and I answered telling them "it's fine to get your cat spayed before their first heat, my vet told me it prevents certain kinds of cancers actually" and now people are destroying me in the comments! People are insisting that my vet is wrong, that my kitten is now at risk of other types of cancers because I didn't wait until she was 'mature' to spay her. Is this true?? I seriously don't know what to believe, I feel like every vet has a different opinion about everything and no matter what I do I'm going to kill my cat!

I can quote a few of the comments (without names of course) if it would help the discussion.

 

[Yanaka]

Me again! Ignore them. Do they have literature to back up their claims?

 

[DeepSpaceCats]

No, just a video from Dr. Karen Becker talking about why she thinks it's bad to spay before a cat is fully matured, and lots of comments with the words 'studies show' lol.

 

[Yanaka]

Lol. Especially for females, it's good to get rid of every hormone-related (or almost) really soon. We're not blessed by nature in that area, unfortunately. And if it's feasible early, why not? Mine were done at 8 weeks, and it's pretty popular to do it that young, now!

 

[denice]

Ignore them. As soon as a kitten is okay for anesthetic they can be spayed which is a healthy kitten that weighs two pounds and is two months old. Most vets will wait a bit if a kitten is in their forever home but rescues routinely have it done as soon as possible so the kitten can go up for adoption.

I am going to say this and I know some people won't like it but I ignore anything that Dr Karen Becker says. She used to be reasonable but I think she has went off the deep end with the holistic natural treatments and rejecting traditional medicine. I know I am biased here, she is one of my touchy hot buttons. Her studies are often done by people who believe the way she does.

 

[Pixxelated]

I am going to say this and I know some people won't like it but I ignore anything that Dr Karen Becker says. She used to be reasonable but I think she has went off the deep end with the holistic natural treatments and rejecting traditional medicine. I know I am biased here, she is one of my touchy hot buttons. Her studies are often done by people who believe the way she does.

I'm going to be honest here, I have no idea who she is - but Google is a wonderful thing, and yeah... I agree with the above. I found a few sources quickly denouncing her and Dr. Joseph Mercola as errr... a little bit out of it. So far I've learned they believe in "healing energy" and "over-vaccination". So I wouldn't exactly trust her opinion on neutering / spaying.

In fact, the animal-welfare publisher "The Dodo" consistently ranks their website as "one of the most dangerous sites on the Internet in terms of the level of misinformation and potential to cause real harm, and as such any links to it should be considered with deep suspicion." (sic) Seven Dog Pages You Need To Stop Linking To

 

[di and bob]

First of all, I'm happy your little one is through all this I know the anxiety that comes with someone you love having surgery. She'll be back to her old self quickly!
I think there has to be facts presented here, not emotions or a belief. Since there have been SO many kittens spayed and neutered over the years, what are the statistics? Don't you really think that if there was a huge upswing in mortality rates , complications, or cancers it wouldn't have been in every newspaper in the world? Almost all sites state that uterine and mammary cancers are hormone driven, so the earlier the better. Juvenile reproductive systems are not as vascular, so less blood loss and less time under anesthesia. EVERYTHING I read pointed to it being better to neuter early. So the next time someone bashes you, ask them for a site that supports their beliefs, not one, by one so called expert but a national, many vet backed one.
The internet is NOT a place to look at health related issues for either animals or humans, there are too many dire predictions and people stating opinions, not facts. By the way, this site doesn't allow bashing like that, stay here amongst friends! PS if those people believe what they are saying, they must believe all those old wive's tales about cats too! Watch yourself!

 

[abyeb]

You’re right about the health benefits of early spay. In addition to reducing the risk of mammary neoplasia, behavioral benefits are seen as well. Younger cats also recover faster from the surgery.

I’ll link you to a scholarly article discussing this. The people in the comments section should see this as more trustworthy than some random YouTube video.

An overview of pediatric spay and neuter benefits and techniques

 

[kristenann]

People can be crazy about things they know nothing about. You picked a great time! My 16 week old kitten is scheduled for his snip bits on Tuesday.

 

[Willowy]

There is some evidence that it's best to let large dogs mature before spay/neuter. But cats have an entirely different reproductive system and there has never been any study that showed that spay/neuter before maturity is at all harmful for cats. Raw feeders tend to be dog owners. . .maybe they haven't looked into cat studies. Plus, at 4 months a female cat is just about sexually mature; she could have gone into heat at any time.

Anyway. I say, for dogs, sure, let them mature first if there's little risk of an unwanted litter. Dogs are usually kept under control anyway. For cats. . .well, I won't say "as early as possible" because it does make me nervous to have surgery done on 2-pound kittens, but 3 or 4 months is just fine.

 

[Merlin77]

If cats had reproductive systems like humans, and developed in the same way, then spaying later would be better. However, cats have their own reproductive build and are designed to live for a short time, have as many kittens as possible, and die an early death. So, pet cats are therefore better off being 'fixed' (I hate that term) at an earlier point in time.

I think 2 months is too early... I remember how small my cats were at that age.... 4-5 months is better, I would be most comfortable at any age past 6 months. But that's just my opinion on it.

Anyways, 4 months is definately fine and I wouldn't pay too much attention to anyone on the internet... no one knows your cat exactly, the situation, the environment.

 

[Willowy]

Go ahead and ask them which cancers are related to early spay/neuter. . .they will probably say hemangiosarcoma, osteosarcoma, and mast cell tumors. These are all fairly common in dogs (and the increase related to early spay/neuter isn't a large increase even in large dogs but that's a whole different topic, lol), but I have never heard of cats getting any of those types of cancer. Whereas the chances of a cat sneaking out while in heat and getting ripped up by an FIV+ tom are not that low :/.

 

[orange&white]

I agree with Willowy. Most of the studies have been on dogs. I waited to neuter my Corgi until he was one year old. Lack of studies for cats means no one knows if there are the same potential negatives with early spay/neuter. Even Dr. Becker says that there don't appear to be negative consequences yet. She recommends that responsible cat owners wait until the cat is mature, but she still advocates for shelter animals to be spayed/neutered at intake, regardless of age.

The kitten I adopted in February was a 4-month old feral. I took her for TNR because I originally thought she'd be released back to her colony. She and most of the cats I've owned were spayed/neutered as kittens, and I've generally had healthy, long-lived cats.

You enjoy your kitten and don't worry about things you can't predict.

 

[maggiedemi]

Well I know 9 months is too late. When I was a kid my parents waited until 9 months to bring the cats in for spay/neuter, and oops, the cat was already pregnant!

 

[kittens mom]

This is not bashing raw but it does attract a certain element that thinks everything should be natural. If you're not feeding raw you're abusing your cat. I can see how easy it would be for a fanatic to transfer that thinking to S/N. It becomes abnormal thinking that makes pet guardianship seem like it's only possible for someone rich to maintain their pets in a proper way. So now we come to when to S/N your pet. As soon as possible because we have endless threads on this site of my female cat got out before I got her spayed and now I have kittens. S/N was not developed to the level it is for health benefits of the cat it was to stop them from breeding the fact that it has absolute health benefits and makes the more content to be house cats is a bonus for your cat and yourself. A female cat in heat is a miserable creature and staying in heat can be detrimental to their health and probably your sanity. There is a reason most strays(dumped pets)are not altered. Their guardians failed to provide them necessary relief from the urge to breed, mark and spray then blamed the cat for having behavior issues.
In my humble opinion failing to get your cat spayed or neutered in a timely manner is as degenerate as declawing.
Find nicer people to play with on the internet.
Find a better FB group or post here where sanity usually rules the day.

 

[DeepSpaceCats]

Thank you everyone for your awesome replies! I feel a lot better now, and I agree, I would NEVER want my cat to have to experience a heat cycle if she didn't have to. I've also looked up more info on Karen Becker, and yeah she sounds like kind of a nut.

Since I posted this thread, the facebook comments have died down a bit. A few people actually chimed in to point out that the OP was asking about cats and not dogs, and went on to say a few of the things you guys mentioned, like how most of the research done has been about dogs and not cats.

 

[Blakeney Green]

Spaying a healthy female kitten at 4 months is safe. Your cat doesn't even fall into the pediatric/"early" range at this point, which is defined as 14 weeks or younger.

A lot of times people only realize their female cat has become "mature" by the fact that she is suddenly expecting kittens. You made a better choice by preventing all that by an early spay.

(It honestly makes me rather nervous that Toad isn't spayed even though she hasn't shown any puberty signs yet, so I envy your peace of mind. )

 

[kittens mom]

Spaying a healthy female kitten at 4 months is safe. Your cat doesn't even fall into the pediatric/"early" range at this point, which is defined as 14 weeks or younger.

A lot of times people only realize their female cat has become "mature" by the fact that she is suddenly expecting kittens. You made a better choice by preventing all that by an early spay.

(It honestly makes me rather nervous that Toad isn't spayed even though she hasn't shown any puberty signs yet, so I envy your peace of mind. )

You have a Toad too!

 

[kittens mom]

No, just a video from Dr. Karen Becker talking about why she thinks it's bad to spay before a cat is fully matured, and lots of comments with the words 'studies show' lol.

'Studies' like polls are easy to manipulate to prove the facts or get the response you want. Hard science and real medical research often debunks itself on a regular basis.

There are no reliable studies for this inane idea because there is not a control group of known cats and any other mitigating circumstances that might support the idea that early S/N is bad for your cat.

 

[Willowy]

There are no reliable studies for this inane idea because there is not a control group of known cats and any other mitigating circumstances that might support the idea that early S/N is bad for your cat.

While cats are somewhat underepresented in clinical studies, there have been studies done. They did say it's hard to find older unneutered males as a control though . They don't show any ill effects in cats.

These links have references to the studies they reference. I haven't checked them so some may have a paywall:
New Advice on Sterilizing Kittens: Earlier Is Better
Early Spay/Neuter