Ear Tipping & Tattoing????????

prncss89

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I had my kittens Neutered today well they also trimmed their nails and they got their rabies shot. As I was leaving the vet tech. asked me if I wanted their ears tipped. I was clueless she said thats incase they get out and a animal shelter picks them up they know their neutered. Well my kitten will be indoor only cats so I said no. When I picked them up today they have blue tattoos by their lower tummys to show they been neutered. Is this a normal practice?
 

natalie_ca

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I've never heard of tattooing a cat's tummy before.

Both of my cats are female and they are both spayed. They each have a tattoo inside their right ear that when cross referenced with the Humane Society will show me as the owner along with my address and phone number. It's also in the right ear to indicate that they are spayed. If they weren't spayed the tattoo would have been in the left ear according to the spay and neuter clinic that fixed my oldest cat. My youngest was done at my regular vets office and her tattoo is also in the right ear.
 

urbantigers

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Originally Posted by prncss89

I had my kittens Neutered today well they also trimmed their nails and they got their rabies shot. As I was leaving the vet tech. asked me if I wanted their ears tipped. I was clueless she said thats incase they get out and a animal shelter picks them up they know their neutered. Well my kitten will be indoor only cats so I said no. When I picked them up today they have blue tattoos by their lower tummys to show they been neutered. Is this a normal practice?
I can't say whether it's normal practice where you are, but I'm surprised they have put a tattoo on your cat without your consent - I would be very annoyed about that.
 

natalie_ca

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Originally Posted by urbantigers

I can't say whether it's normal practice where you are, but I'm surprised they have put a tattoo on your cat without your consent - I would be very annoyed about that.
The spay and neuter clinic where I live put the one on my Chynna without asking me. She was a stray that I took there to get fixed. And they didn't do a very good job on the tattoo either. Chynna is pure white with a pink nose, pink eye rims, and pink inside her ears. The tattoo is so garishly large and smack in the middle of the inside of her ear that you can see it when you look at her, and it even shows through the back of her ear when she's sitting in the light. Not only that, but I can't even make out what the numbers are supposed to be as they are poorly done.

Abby on the other hand, I did ask to have a tattoo and the vet did a very nice job on it. It's small and deep inside her ear and you have to fold her ear back to see it.

I'm wondering the purpose of the stomach though. It's not like it's going to be visible once the hair grows back, and I doubt anyone would think to look on the stomach for a tattoo when most are done inside the ear where it's visible and easy to see.

Now that your cat is has a tattoo, make sure you contact the Humane Society in your area if you move so you can change your contact information. The information that goes with that tattoo is linked to you and if your kitty does happen to get out and lost and is taken to the Human Society, they'll be able to reconnect you and your kitty.
 

cearbhaill

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All three of my Humane Society kitties have tummy tattoos- it is standard practice around here.

They notch the ears on neuter and release ferals, but I never heard of it being done on a pet before.
 
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prncss89

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I have got to get yall a picture of this tattoo then! It looks like a glob of Blueish/greenish stuff. If it is supose to say anything there is NOWAY this one does. Plus one of the kittens is all black! and the other is black and white and now the white coat has this coloring!
 

renovia

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i've heard of tattooing, but not tipping. i think i'm going to stick to chips and tags
 

krissie

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My kitty also has a tummy tattoo to show that she has been spayed. This was done in Maryland, but every vet I've ever come into contact with (Virginia and North Carolina) sees it during her exam and immediately recongnizes it. It's just a little blue oval with some indistinguishable mark in the middle. It kind of amuses me--like she's been rubber stamped, "DONE"!

I imagine this is in case something happens to her. I've never found any other evidence that my cat has been operated on, no scars or anything. If she got lost and someone found her, or something happened to you, it'd let them know that she's already been spayed, so there is no need to go back in there.

Don't worry about the white cat. Miss Arizona also has a white-furred belly and her hair is just fine.
 

zissou'smom

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I know many places put a tattoo line along the spay scar so if another vet shaves them to do one they know she's been spayed even if the scar heals well. I've never heard of the ear ones, and putting a tattoo on a boy cat's stomach doesn't make sense because nobody would shave a boy cat's stomach to do a neuter... People also do identification tats but that is a totally different thing.

This thread is very interesting!

I also have never heard of anybody tipping a pet cat's ear. It's supposed to be an easily identified mark of a feral/stray that's been fixed. I would never have wanted that done either!
 

buzbyjlc10

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I've only ever heard of ear tatting... we used to do it at the shelter when pets got fixed - I dont recall it being numbers though, just a mark to signify they'd been fixed... ours was a circle with an X through it... Oliver has a chunk out of his left ear, but that was from a fight when he was a stray as it was still healing when he was rescued (and he wasn't fixed when he was picked up) - it's the cutest thing in the world, I love it haha
 

solaritybengals

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Originally Posted by Zissou'sMom

I know many places put a tattoo line along the spay scar so if another vet shaves them to do one they know she's been spayed even if the scar heals well. I've never heard of the ear ones, and putting a tattoo on a boy cat's stomach doesn't make sense because nobody would shave a boy cat's stomach to do a neuter... People also do identification tats but that is a totally different thing.
Unless they think the cat is a female instead of a neutered male? It happens sometimes.

Is the tipping when they take a small chunk of the ear off? I've only heard of that being done on mass spay/neuter attempts of ferals/strays.
 
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prncss89

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Ok the tattoos... Like I said I never had this done before so I have another question. Where they did the tattoos its clumpy and the hair is sticky like gum will that go away? Also if the gummy spot does go away how will they see it in my black kitty?
 

bab-ush-niik

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Unless they think the cat is a female instead of a neutered male? It happens sometimes.
I think even then, a good vet can tell. We brought Puppy in as a stray female. The vet felt Puppy's stomach to feel for ovaries to determine whether or not to spay. Apparently something didn't feel right, so she informed us that we had a neutered boy.


I would be very upset if my vet tatooed without my permission. None of my cats had that. I can understand the ear tipping for TNR programs.
 

beckiboo

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I LOVE the idea of tattooing! None of mine are tattooed, but it makes sense. Just in case kitty gets lost, whoever finds him/her will know they have been speutered.

I've never had a vet offer tattooing, but the ferals and barn cats by me get ear-tipped. That is so that even from a distance you can see that the kitty has been speutered. I see no reason to tip a pet.
 

tru

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Most of my cats have tipped ears as they were ferals and that's how the program works. Great for not capturing already fixed cats and taking them in.
I also had a very sick, (FIP), cat show up here once with an already tipped ear and it helped me to get hold of the person in charge of the TNR program here to let any other feral keepers near me know their colony may have been compromised.

I agree with others that I would be annoyed if someone took it upon themselves to tattoo a pet without consent. I consider that stepping a bit out of bounds. I do think the tattoo is a good idea, but some things should still require consent.

I didn't realize that there wasn't a standard way of tipping a cats ear till I had one of the ferals done at a different vet here. Where one vet cropped the whole end of the cats ear off, the other used something like an oval punch to tip Lippys' ear and his way seemed less traumatic to me.

The vet with the punch has been kind of my backup vet, but I've been considering making him my regular vet for everything and that little ear tipping was one of the things that impressed me. There, of course are other reasons, but I have to take it all under consideration.
 

naturestee

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My Humane Society microchips instead of tattooing. I like that a lot better because they don't have to shave the cat to see it. They just need a chip reader which seem to be very common now.

I think I'd be upset if my vet tattooed my animals without telling me. Especially if it was someplace visible, like on the ear.
 

jaycee

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when i adopted my previous cats from the local humane society (over 12 years ago) it was standard to tattoo the female on the their tummies,near the inner thigh. it was just a mark, not numbers, just to show they had been spayed. they didnt do anything to mark the males, maybe because you can tell on them by feeling. ive never heard of tattooing ears. i would be a bit upset if a vet did that without my permission but if it was done at a humane society then you would have to go along with their normal practices. i dont see any reason why a vet would even want to tip a pet cats ear.
 

commonoddity042

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The tattooing is normal, and I feel it is a great idea. If one of them ever get out and are taken to a vet's office to be fixed, they won't have to go through that again. (not all vet's offices have microchip readers)It is far better than having a stray cat cut open for surgery just to find that it's been performed already.

I can see putting it on a male's belly, as many people will mistake a testicle-less cat as a female if they are unfamiliar with cats.
 

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I Think from a rescue point of view that tattoing cats ears when they are spayed is a good idea, so you immediately know if the female cat you have just picked up is already spayed or not. Never heard of doing it on their bellies though, and it wouldnt work at my vet, unless you can see it without shaving them.
 

jaycee

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i think the ear thing is a good idea too, if its discreet. i would really hate for it to be blaring at me every time i looked at my cat.
 
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