Hermaphrodite Kitten?

lightblue

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To start, I live in a remote place in west Africa, so expert vets are not around.  Thus I consult the Internet.

We got a baby around 5 weeks, and while I'm pretty good at determining sex in a kitten, this one I wasn't sure about.  Now she is 7 months and, while we call her a 'she', she is clearly showing signs of little kitty testicles, while her other parts looks female.  I've done some googling and it looks like she is a hermaphrodite, having the organs of both sexes.  She seems to be dominantly female but honestly I might think that just because I've been calling her my little princess her whole life.

First, does anyone have experience with a hermaphroditic cat?  Any health problems?

She's now seven months and hasn't seen a vet and thus has not been spayed or neutered.  I saw one gal online with a cat like this who her vet advised for neither spaying or neutering, cat was now 12 years and without any health problems; while others seem to have had both operations.  Obviously that's advice that is needed from an expert vet, but as she's 7 months now and has never gone into heat (or the kind of annoying behavior that males go into when they start maturing sexually) I'm hoping I have a miracle-kitten that is essentially neuter due to hermaphroditism.  Because any surgery with the vet I can get here is potentially life-threatening, and frankly I'd rather have a cat that cries and bleeds on a heat cycle than risk putting my baby under the knife, it would be great to have a naturally-neuter kitten.

Any experience out there?  Any references for more information?  Much appreciated!
 

foxxycat

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Welcome to our site, I am in USA and never heard of a cat with both sexes.

We have several members in other countries who like you don't have clean hygienic operating rooms available. My only concern is does the cat go outside and mingle with other cats? Is it possible to keep the cat at least in your yard and not allow it to roam? We already have a severe pet overpopulation. If you were able to build some kind of fencing around your property that would at least keep wild animals away from your cat as well as other cats who may not be vaccinated.

I hope others chime in! Do you have any pictures of your baby? We love kitten tails and cat photos!
 

denice

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You can do a search in the search box at the top of this forum with the term hermaphrodite cat and it will bring up a few threads with other people's experience.  It's too bad you don't have access to quality vet care.  From what I can see from people's experience things vary from kitty to kitty.  Some cats don't mature and never display behaviors for either gender.  Others seem to gravitate more towards one gender and mature as that gender.  There is one post in there of a pair of kittens that they thought were both female..  That was when only males were neutered and females were left intact.  One year one cat began filling out and looking more masculine, they got a litter of kittens out of that.
 
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lightblue

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She never goes outside.  We live in a 4th floor apartment and she's barely ever been out the door in her lifetime, so no worries about interacting with wild/feral animals.  We have two adult cats that are neutered and a piglet so some kind of sexual interaction is not gonna happen.

Here's a picture: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1...?key=S051Q2FvMnFKRVVOT0tEbGc3NUo2WVlJb0xvajF3

And a quick video of her playing with the piglet: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1...?key=S051Q2FvMnFKRVVOT0tEbGc3NUo2WVlJb0xvajF3
 

artiemom

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She sure is cute....

and the piglet!! OMGosh!! 

What country are you in?  and what are you pet's names.

I have not had a hermaphodite cat or any other pet that was like that. I know it does occur, as it does very rarely in humans. 

I am sure there are members here who have dealt with this. I hope someone can come on line and help out.

Good Luck...
 

Willowy

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There are some females who have bits of skin back there. . .it can kind of look like testicles. Can you post a pic of her back end?
 

kittensncoffee

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Can you post a pic of her parts?

I can't even handle the cuteness of that piglet. Of course your kitty is beautiful too but omggggg the piglettttt
 
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lightblue

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The kitten, whose name is Pani Puri, is coming up on a year old now and her growth is definitely stunted.  Seems like she won't really be reaching adulthood anytime soon.  She still looks like a kitten and very much acts like a kitten.  She is our 7th cat and we are very intimate with our cats but I have never seen one this affectionate.  She constantly headbutts, rubs her face on me, follows me from room to room to room, sleeps on my chest, kneads my chest/arms, plops onto her back and rolls side to side to get me to play with her, and is always trying to get as close to my face as possible, which she sometimes does (on a daily basis) by climbing up my body like a tree.  She's so precious it's ridiculous.

Funny that you guys liked the piglet so much.  We have several videos from when she was tiny like that and they are all hilarious and super cute.  Since this post about 6 months ago, she has exploded in size and is now about 65 pounds.  But little Pani Puri (who isn't growing any more and is less than 5 pounds) doesn't seem to have noticed that the pig got any bigger, and is always harassing the pig to play.  The pig will be laying peacefully on the couch with my wife, and the kitten will come out of no where and start smacking the pig in the face and chewing on her ears.  The pig doesn't seem to mind.

I don't have a picture of her parts, but the little testes are definitely not just skin from her girl parts.  They are tiny furry balls lol.  Anyway, the development since my OP is that she occasionally does show some signs of heat.  No bleeding, but she will flatten her body/belly to the floor and stick her butt up in the air, and crawl around like that crying, clearly desperate for some attention.  She usually follows around her pig-sister, which is a mixture of sweet and odd.

We'll move back to the States in the next 6-9 months so we'll get her to a vet then, but mostly I'm not worried.  We seem to have scored a permanent kitten :D
 
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lightblue

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For the record, I do regularly get nervous about her interactions with the pig, because the pig is SO STRONG (you wouldn't believe how damn strong, she recently broke both doors off a wardrobe, one of which she snapped in half, all just by nudging with her nose, and she's only 6 months old) but the pig makes a clear effort to be careful with Pani Puri, more so than she does with the other cats or with us (not stepping on them is the most important, and she will continue to grow to about 150 pounds and has hard hooves).  Anyway, we still stay cautious about it so our little baby kitten doesn't get hurt.
 
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