Should I Fix My Male Or Female

[ailish]

I can only offer this. I adopted Ailish when she was about one year old. She already had weaned a set of kittens and they were not full grown, but they didn't look a lot like kittens anymore. Not sure exactly how old they were, but they, including her, had been neutered about a month before. She was originally given to a kill shelter, supposedly because her owner died, but I suspect because she was, probably unexpectedly at her young age, pregnant. She was saved by my rescue. She is a small cat, probably due to having kittens so early, but she is the most wonderful pet a person could want. Please do your cats a favor and have them neutered.

We had a dog who was spayed and developed a serious infection. She went back to the vet and it was taken care of by antibiotics. Even if something does go wrong, which it usually doesn't, most often it is fixable.

I would spay my females first in you situation to prevent any chance of pregnancy.

 

[ailish]

OK, I didn't watch the video---I don't have 25 minutes right now. However, all of Mercola's anti-neutering information in print is about the drawbacks of spaying/neutering large or giant breed dogs at an early age. Nothing about cats. Cats and dogs are entirely different! And I agree that large dogs shouldn't be neutered early. My own male dog is intact. But he doesn't live with unspayed females and he's not allowed to run around loose. Dog are much easier to keep properly contained, and it's much easier to keep a female dog from getting pregnant. Cats are both predator and prey in the wild, and therefore have a much higher reproduction rate.

You can see the articles only talk about large dogs:
When Spaying and Neutering May Not Be the Right Choice for Pets
Why I've Changed My View on Spaying and Neutering

But cats are not dogs! Cats MUST be spayed and neutered! If you don't, you'll have hundreds or thousands of cats to feed and care for. Can you afford that? Female cats have an average of 2 litters a year with an average of 4 kittens per litter. So 8 kittens a year per female, and half of the kittens will be female. So after one year, you'll have 21 cats (5 now, 16 kittens). 11 of those are females, so after 2 years you'll have 88 kittens plus the 21 from the year before, up to 109. . .it adds up fast!

(ETA: I saw some Facebook comments on the video that say that Dr Becker specifically states that this does not apply to cats. Perhaps someone can figure out which minute mark that's at?)

I did watch the video and I have to say, she did address some issues that have always concerned me about early spaying and neutering. Including my questions about why there are no less drastic methods of sterilizing that preserve the hormones. And yes, she is talking about dogs. The disclaimer about cats comes in about the last three minutes and she flat out says that the same physical problems found in dogs do not apply to cats and that as far as is known at this time, cats can be neutered early without adverse consequences.

 

[Willowy]

There are Facebook groups you can find where people list vets who will do vasectomies and ovary-sparing spays on dogs. If that's what you're interested in.

I've heard it's hard to find a vet to do cat spays/neuters in India. But some members here have managed to find them. I've heard government vets mentioned (the ones sent to take care of livestock) and those who live around embassies and other areas with a lot of expats.

 

[tarasgirl06]

Animals 24-7 is an excellent source of worldwide news about animals and they have long known groups advocating for animals in India. Search them and you may want to contact them personally -- they may be able to direct you to vets who can help. Here is the direct Link:
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