My Male Cat Was Accidentally Spayed

[Maxthelittletiger]

Hello,

I was wondering if I could get some advice please.

Took our nearly 6 month old kitten to the vet last week to register for care and to have her splayed. I know we should have gone earlier. We thought the cat was female. The vet examined and said that he had a ‘strong suspicion’ that she was pregnant and therefore she would need a laparotomy for splaying rather than the usual lateral incision by the hindquarters. Today HE was operated on. The vet called me during the procedure to ask if it was the same cat. We only have one cat. He then told me that the cat was actually male and would need to be neutered. When I went to collect him I found that they had made an incision in his flank. They had not told me this. I was shocked. The nurse said it’s not easy to differentiate the sex and that ‘these things happen’. No apology was offered. They’ve put a post op collar on - put on the wrong way - which he’s promptly ripped off twice already. I’m a little stunned by the care he’s received. I don’t want to make a fuss about it but to be honest I’m not sure how to respond to all of this. I’m saddened that our kitten has gone through all of this unnecessary trauma. I’m guessing he’s also been neutered. does this leave any scars? Any advice? Sorry about the rambling post. Still in a state of shock. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thank you

 

[verna davies]

Wow, I cant believe that a vet could not tell the difference between a male and female at six months old. In your position I would demand a meeting with the owner, senior partner or head of the practice and ask for a full explanation. Their response would lead me to the next stage of whether to take it further. Whatever happens I would not use them again.
I hope your poor little boy recovers quickly. Please keep us updated.

 

[Maxthelittletiger]

Thanks for the reply. I’m struggling to process all this. He told me a week ago that he had a strong suspicion that our cat was pregnant because the stomach felt full and there was sparse/no hair on the nipples but that when he examined today he found hair on the nipples and hence his confusion as to whether this was the same cat or not. Why would our male kitten have no hair on his nipples? And if they were absent, would they grow back in a week? I feel as if he blundered at the first consultation by not examining properly and then even moreso on op day by proceeding with the wrong operation. On discovering that our cat was actually male he then tried to query whether it was the same cat or not as a way to cover the initial incompetent assessment at the first consultation. Then of course today they tried to brush it all off as if it was nothing. If he had just acknowledged the errors and given a proper explanation I would accept that honest mistakes occur. Now the more I think about it the more upset I feel.

 

[verna davies]

Write everything down whilst it is fresh in your mind, time has a habit of messing with the memory. You may not need the details you write but equally you may. Even if they doubted the cat was different, they should have checked everything before starting the operation. Hopefully other members will respond and offer advice but in the meantime try not to be upset, just look after your little boy.

 

[Pjg8r]

I would think the vet could tell from the external “parts” but it is possible I suppose that the cat had undescended testicles and appeared female until beginning the surgery. However, there does seem to be confusion from the first consultation. Keep asking questions until you get answers. Ask for copies of your vet records.

 

[Maxthelittletiger]

The nurse today said his testicles were slightly small but nothing about them being undescended.

 

[verna davies]

Thats in your favour. Make a note of her name

 

[ArchyCat]

Change vets. If you can find a feline only practice, all the better. Check yelp, find no kill volunteer rescue groups and ask the members for a recommendation.

Hope he recovers ok.

 

[Maxthelittletiger]

Thank you everyone
Going to see them tomorrow for routine post op check

 

[verna davies]

Let us know how it goes.

 

[Willowy]

Just as a side note, it's spayed not splayed. Don't want to amuse the vet techs too much .

I have noticed some vets will take the owner's word for it instead of looking for themself. On the other hand, even if the vet had them listed as one sex or the other, they generally do confirm before surgery. I know of 2 males who went in to be "spayed" and the vet noticed before he cut them at least. So that's pretty sloppy of them. But maybe one or both testicles were undescended and that's why they cut him. It's worth asking about anyway.

 

[fionasmom]

Once this is over, never go back to this vet unless you live in some very rural place with no other veterinary care. He failed Gender 101 apparently in vet school and, sorry, but we pay vets to know what they are doing, just as we do our doctors. Undescended testicles? He needed to have checked for that. Calling you was unnecessary as he put the onus on you in order to cover up the fact that he was not going to do any more work than necessary. And everyone else in the room was stupid as well?

I have taken in generations worth of wild ferals to be TNRed, cats whom I have no idea of gender or if anyone else got to them before I did and no one was incorrectly treated. Biggest question on a couple of females was finding a scar which indicated that they were probably already spayed by someone else.

You cat will heal but will probably need to be cared for like a spayed female for a few days.

 

[She's a witch]

Out of curiosity, did they charge you for spaying or neutering, which is usually cheaper? I would stay away from this place and write some internet reviews if they won’t come up with some apologies and/or explanation.

 

[marmoset]

That's pretty weird. I could see it happening if they were doing multiple spay/ neuters like they do for low cost neutering days where the surgeries are carried out in assembly-line fashion. But for a vet to examine a cat and think a male is pregnant not noticing testicles- that's pretty far out.

Yeah it's easy to mistake them at 4 weeks old but not at 6 months.

 

[nurseangel]

We took our neighbor's former cat, (my now RB girl Blackberry) to be spayed, because she was spending a lot of time at our house and our neighbor was beyond irresponsible. To our shock, the vet opened her up and found that she had already been spayed. I always wondered what our neighbor thought when his cat came home with her stomach shaved and an incision line. (This is not all about her, but in our defense he did leave both his cats behind when he moved away without asking if we would take them in, so yeah...that type of person.)

Since your cat had nothing to remove internally, and I apologize if someone has previously posted this - it would have been a deep incision only - no organs taken out. So he wasn't actually spayed. Still traumatic, and I understand why you are upset. IMHO, they should neuter your cat free, and of course charge nothing for anything done in association with the "botched spay". If you are comfortable allowing the vet to work on your cat again. IMHO, their, "Oh, well...these things happen..." attitude is unprofessional and inappropriate.

I am sorry this happened to your cat. And the distress you are going through. Neutering is much less invasive than an actual spay, but all procedures have associated risks.

Though I was not sure about my new kitten's gender myself, the vet was able to easily identify her as female. And I do not know her age, I am guessing between eight and twelve weeks.

 

[Talien]

Uh.....ok, yeah, what? If their response was really "these things happen sometimes" with no apology or even an attempt at a more detailed explanation for just how that happened I'd most definitely be looking for a new vet if it was me.

Once this is over, never go back to this vet unless you live in some very rural place with no other veterinary care. He failed Gender 101 apparently in vet school and, sorry, but we pay vets to know what they are doing, just as we do our doctors. Undescended testicles? He needed to have checked for that. Calling you was unnecessary as he put the onus on you in order to cover up the fact that he was not going to do any more work than necessary. And everyone else in the room was stupid as well?

And yeah, everything she said there.

 

[jcat]

I'd try to get an explanation from the vet. It's not likely, but possible that the cat is either an "inter", meaning the genitalia were indistinct enough that it wasn't possible to determine the cat's sex by means of a quick external examination, especially if the testicles descended rather late, or that he's a hermaphrodite (something I've seen 4 times over the past 45 years, so it's not as rare as people might think).

We've had a couple of kittens at the shelter whose genitals were so unusual looking that even the vets couldn't sex them until they were about 3 months old. One was 6 months before she was identified as a female.

 

[Maxthelittletiger]

Update.

Met with the vet who also apparently is the practice manager. He did explain what went wrong, basically that he failed to examine properly prior to operating, and then after a while apologised. I’ve accepted the apology as that’s all I was looking for and reassurance that it would not happen again (ie a one off) because I know we all make mistakes and it’s human to err. Max is doing well so we’re gonna put this behind us and move on. I hope the vet and the practice reflect on this incident and modify their practice to ensure this never happens, under such circumstances, again. Thank you all for your support and advice,

Syed

 

[jen]

If it is a vet you have used before I can agree with that. I have seen it happen maybe once or twice to wonderful vets. Many times the vet even relies on the registered tech to look at that stuff and set everything up, cover the cat, then the vet just scrubs in and performs the operation. Everyone does make a mistake. If your cat is a little fluffy back there and the testicles weren't readily apparent, if he was a cryptorchid, small testicles, etc and the tech didn't double check, it can happen. It is unfortunate that someone screwed up. But in the end, your cat is alive and healthy and he is now neutered right? An extra incision will heal, hair will grow back.

 

[Maxthelittletiger]

Hi Jen, I think it was an oversight on his part not to examine thoroughly - a pretty dreadful mistake - but seemingly an honest one. It’s my first experience of this vet and the practice does have good reviews so i’m Giving them the benefit of the doubt. It was a little disturbing to have the nurse wittering on about post op care whilst I was stood there staring aghast at Max’s butchered hindquarter, her not so much as acknowledging that something had gone wrong, until i mentioned it. Again, I suspect she was a bit stumped as to what to say and was autopiloting.