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Why You Should Sterilize Your Cat

Actionable advice.

By Dumb HedgehogPublished 2 years ago 3 min read
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Why You Should Sterilize Your Cat
Photo by Ludemeula Fernandes on Unsplash

Sterilizing a cat is the process by which the veterinarian will make it infertile.

When male cats are neutered, the process is called castration, and when females receive the same treatment, it is called an ovariectomy, but we can refer to any of the procedures using the term neutering.

"Why would I spay my cat?" You ask yourself. "What would I gain?" If we answer "fewer unpleasant conditions, illnesses and dangers for the cat and less parental worries for you" is enough?

It is difficult to accept, but there are not enough people willing to receive cats in need of adoption. Here's an edifying example: According to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, in the United States, nearly 3.4 million cats end up in shelters each year.

By sterilizing your cat, you will help reduce the proliferation and overpopulation of this feline community. Sterilization offers real benefits for both you and your kitten, your beloved companion: the life of neutered cats is significantly longer and healthier than that of other cats.

Why it's good to sterilize your cat?

Beyond the joys of living with this cute animal, we must admit that there are some unpleasant things that, no matter how much you love cats, you can not dispute.

Thus, in most cases, an uncastrated cat develops several annoying behaviors:

  • marks its territory by urinating all over the house, even if it is free to go outside
  • when it gets hot, the cat vocalizes day and night, which is not very pleasant for your neighbors, especially if you live in a block of flats
  • disappears from home for days, which can be dangerous for her and a cause for concern for you
  • fights with other cats, risking injury or contamination with various microbes and contracting any infection or disease

As, after neutering, 85–90% of cats will no longer have these behaviors, it goes without saying that this procedure has the advantage for both cats and their owners.

And another argument, perhaps the most convincing for an animal lover: if you have a female cat, you have to keep in mind that every six months you can wake up at the door with a bunch of live furballs, which one is sweeter, whose life will depend on you. What will you do? Will you turn your house into a farmhouse? Or will you throw them in the street?

Two benefits of sterilizing a cat:

Sterilization of the cat helps prevent disease

It is advisable to sterilize the female cat before it gets into the "heat" for the first time or to be able to reproduce, as this would greatly reduce the risk of metritis (infection of the uterus) and cervical cancer. uterine cancer and would eliminate the risk of ovarian cancer.

And because the removal of the ovaries reduces the level of hormones that promote the growth of cancerous tumors, the risk of breast cancer is also reduced. A female who has had an ovariectomy before the age of one year will be 7 times less likely than her unsterilized siblings to develop breast tumors.

However, other serious conditions result from the natural mating behavior of cats. Feline leukemia and feline AIDS are two of the diseases that spread through the bites of infected cats (don't worry, these feline diseases are different from AIDS and human leukemia and cannot be transmitted from cats to humans).

By reducing your cat's desire to fight rivals and defend its territory, you will also reduce its chances of contracting these incurable diseases from other cats.

After sterilizing the cat, your house will be cleaner

As you know, of course, cats spray urine everywhere to mark their territory.

And, beyond the fact that it is impregnated in the objects it touches, and it is very unpleasant for humans, the pungent smell of the urine of an unsterilized kitten warns other cats that there is a male nearby who claimed the area as its own territory, in time. what he tells the female cats that there is an opportunity for them to mate.

So the presence of an unsterilized cat in your house can cause a lot of problems … and a lot of dirt.

Sterilizing your cat will reduce or even eliminate the need to spray his urine everywhere, and the smell of his urine becomes much more discreet, almost imperceptible. In turn, when entering the heat, female cats eliminate body fluids.

These fluids also contain specific odors that warn cats that a fertile female is nearby. Sterilizing your cat will eliminate this problem.

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