Let’s dispel a couple of
common myths about spaying or neutering your Abyssinian.
1.
Your Aby will not get fat if it is spayed or neutered. It
will get fat because it eats too much and does not exercise.
Just like US! One of our Ruddicat Abyssinian stud cats is 13
years old this year. He breeds on a regular basis and obviously
has never been neutered. He is at least 2 pounds overweight
and looks like a furry footstool! He is just heavy because
he likes his food, he is older, and he does not wear off enough
calories. Neutering is not the culprit here!
2. Your Aby does not need to be bred to be happy and “complete”.
A neutered/spayed Abyssinian leads a wonderful sedate life
and never knows the difference between being a parent and
not being a parent. The desire to be a parent is a human
emotion. Your Abyssinian will not care.
 We insist our kittens sold as pets are neutered before they
are one year old. See RUDDICAT SALES
CONTRACT. Some Veterinarians advocate that kittens be spayed and neutered as soon
as possible, sometimes as young as 3 months old. This is mainly
to prevent the overpopulation of unwanted cats and has been
successful in bringing down the number of unwanted
kittens in our shelters. It also allows control when someone
is placing a kitten in a new home. They don’t have to
worry whether or not the new owner will get the kitten spayed
or neutered in a timely manner. Personally, we are still advocating
that our new kitten owners wait until their kitten is over
6 months old before spaying and over 7 months before neutering.
This is for several reasons:
- It allows the kitten to settle into its new home with
its new owner and grow a bit more before undergoing surgery.
There is less risk of problems with anaesthesia when the
kitten is older.
- Your Ruddicat Abyssinian will not be running loose so
there really is no risk of unwanted pregnancy and therefore
no real hurry to get these surgeries done.
- With a female Abyssinian, it is possible once you have
owned her for a few months you may decide that she is the
most amazing cat you have ever owned (very likely!) and you
may want to start breeding Abyssinians! We can always discuss
this possibility with you and make arrangements to pursue
this idea. However, if she had been spayed already this would
not be a possibility for you and that door would be closed.
With a male Abyssinian it is unlikely he would be spraying or
starting to smell like a tom cat before he is one year old, so
once again, no hurry. If a male is older when neutered it may
actually prevent health problems later in life. In rare cases
a male cats can develop a blocked bladder. This is when crystals
in his urine block the urethra and he is unable to urinate. It
is believed males neutered later in life will develop a larger
urethra and therefore less prone to a blockage as the crystals
can just pass through. |
