If a male kitten can't be neutered, can spraying be prevented?

Question

If a male kitten comes up with medical problems that leave neutering a life threatening event, how can spraying and other Tom problems be prevented/eliminated? My male kitten's pre-surgery tests show that he has serious heart problems.Although we have his neuter scheduled, with many precautions in place for the surgery thru his Vet, I am wondering if anyone out there has had success in keeping an indoor Tom without the usual problems. I have many other pets, including one other female spayed cat, so I think I am in for a lot of territorial spraying if he is not neutered.

Answer 1

I think you need to take into consideration the prognosis from the heart condition. Let that help guide you in the decision about the surgery.

Can they give your cat a local instead of regular anesthetic?

I know of no way to stop a cat from spraying once they start.

Best of luck to you and the little guy!

Answer 2

Not all males spray. It's best to assume they will in case it happens so you're not caught off guard, but it's definitely not an inevitability. When we adopted our male last year, he was fully intact, but never sprayed....and we had him for two months before he was neutered.

Unneutered males are more likely to spray than neutered males, but neutered males can spray, too. Territorial issues can arise and make even those without their testicles take a squirt. I had a male as a child that started spraying at a particularly stressful time, and he'd been neutered a year earlier (at 6 months of age).

I would talk over every aspect of surgery with your vet. If it's too risky, you may want to forego surgery all together and just see if you can handle the cat intact.

Answer 3

I had a very aggressive male cat (he was neutered) once. He didn't spray, but have other male behavioral problems. Vet gave him female hormone and it actually tame him down a lot. It has to be done once a week or so and there is a side effect (vomiting sometimes). But, after a while, it kind of got used to being nice and we stopped the treatment. Talk to your vet to see if that's okay with your cat.

Answer 4

I would say without neutering your cat will spray to mark his territory. His heart condition must be VERY serious for the vet to not want to do the procedure. A cat neuter takes about 10minutes from start to finish. Under light anesthesia it should be safe.

Answer 5

I was fortunate with the last male cat I had--I had to wait until he was almost 1 1/2 years before I could afford to neuter him. The good news is the vet told me since he was indoor/outdoor he was "spraying" outside and never sprayed indoors!!

Answer 6

yes if you don't get him neutered then he will spray. you can't keep him from not spraying. he will spray to mark his territory and to let the other cat in the house that he is the boss of everything, and with all other cats thay may come around your house he will spray to let them know that there is another cat that lives in that house. it usually doesn't take that long for the vet to neuter a cat because they are small and it is an easy procedure to do.
good luck in your decsion you make.

Answer 7

They make spray-pants, usually for breeding Toms. Kinda like disposable diapers.

Not all whole toms spray, HOWEVER, they do have a smell about them. So you will get the whole tom smell, nothing you can do about that short of neutering.

Answer 8

I had one who was not neutered and he never did spray but he did have a funky odor to his urine and when cleaning the box it stunk really bad. He was anice cat and not aggressive or anything but just had bad litter box smell.