My parents once told me that a female dog who doesn’t go through a cycle
of giving birth is at a much higher risk of getting problems with the female organs later in life, such as uterus cancer etc.
What about female cats? Naturally if you chose kitten spay they cannot get problems in something they don’t have but what about other issues such as hormonial unbalance when/during growing up, if things are removed this early. Is the procedure the same when you do it at half a year of age, i.e. actual removal of certain organs? Are there other alternatives?
Anyone have first hand experience with un-sterilized indoor female cats?
I assume that an unfulfilled heat cycle is not that annoying to the cat, just to the owner and neighbours 
I’ve only had a male cat before so any first hand input would be very appreciated.
YingFan
Thank you for your link suggestions.
However the first link seems to be about dogs and the second
doesn’t address any of the questions I had.
I’m especially interested about the pros and cons of doing the spaying at like 2 months and 6 months. One site said 6 months was only because of old anastetic procedures not being so suitable for too young in the past. Intuitively it should be best to let the body mature naturally.
I admit guilty to not having googled that much myself though but one thing I found was a mentioning of a University of Florida-study on this subject. I’d really like to read that one if someone knows about it.
YingFan
The first is for dogs and cats - they both benefit in the same way from desexing.
The second one states that, contrary to what your parents told you, desexing a pet actually prevents “uterine, ovarian and breast cancer in females; prostate cancer/disorders and testicular cancer in males (less common)”. It also mentions that the procedure can be done at 8 weeks of age. The RSPCA are, by definition, primarily concerned about the health and wellbeing of the animal, so, that being said, I guess we can deduce that desexing at such a young age will not have a detrimental effect on your pet.
As for unsterilized indoor cats, it’s certainly an annoyance for the owner and neighbours, but it’s extremely stressful for any animal not to be able to satisfy its natural urges. Desexing prevents that additional trauma. My cat went through hell every 6 weeks until we spayed her.
The Winn Feline Foundation conducted the study with the University of Florida. This from their web page.
Studies have more recently been conducted at Angell Memorial Hospital in Boston, the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Minnesota, and the Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences at the University of Florida. The Florida project, begun in 1991 and completed in 1992, was funded by the Winn Feline Foundation in conjunction with the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA). … Dr. Mark Bloomberg indicates that although long-term follow-up results are incomplete, the initial results are extremely positive. Prior to undertaking the Winn Foundation study, Dr. Bloomberg had completed a similar study in dogs. Animals involved in that study have now been followed for over five years, with no negative side effects reported.
Hope that helps.
Thanks, yes the above was what I was looking for. I will also check out other references in that site which was pretty extensive. Interesting to see
that they did at first do the spaying early as they do now. Then change their mind for reasons which seemed to be similar to what I was fearing which then later was proven unfounded.
I think you misinterpreted what I wrote about my parents though. They said
that an un-neutered dog not ever having puppies has a higher risk than a dog who has given birth.
I’m kind eager to get a cat now after it taking like 15y to get over the last one. Never thought it would be an indoor one though, but Taiwan is definately not the place for outdoor ones…
YingFan