In college, I had a professor who owned several cats. He said he had taken in a kitten who externally appeared to be male, and also acted like a male. But when he took the kitten to a veterinarian, the vet told him that internally cat was actually a female.
I was wondering if anyone else had ever heard of that condition before, and if they had what would it be called.
Thank you.
2007-01-21 16:47:21 · 4 answers · asked by some_guy_times_50 4 in Pets ➔ Cats
Hi there...yes, the term is "hermaphrodite" which it isn't very common, however it can occur in all mammals.
More on hermaphrodism in cats: http://www.messybeast.com/mosaicism2.htm#hermaphrodite
2007-01-21 16:52:50 · answer #1 · answered by ♪ Seattle ♫ 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
I can't believe this!!!!! This is something that happened to one of my cats when I was about 9 years old. We didn't even discuss it because we thought no one would believe us. The cat was a male as far as we could tell (or at least my parents and they were originally farm people so they should know) In those days we were on the outskirts of the city and let our cat outside. It disappeared for a little while. When It came back it was a very pregnant female. I am almost 60 years old and I have never ever heard of that from anyone else until now. I'm sorry I can't help you with a name. I did not even know it had a name but I am sure relieved that we were not the only ones who have ever witnessed this. Thank you for posting and thank you Seattle for posting that URL. It is most interesting.
2007-01-22 00:56:47 · answer #2 · answered by felix 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well i don't know if it is an actual condition. In the vet hospital i worked at we saw lots of cases like that. The problem is when a boy cat is neutered, they make an incision in the both testicles and take out tbe inside of the testicle and tie them, then cut the rest off, so when the swelling goes down they don't have testicles anymore...so they tend to look like a girl on the outside. Besides that, as a kitten the sex isn't very easy to determine. If you look at a kitten just a few days after its born, even vets can't tell the sex. The sex is obviously determine when the kitten is in utero, cause the genes have to be female or male...but externally its very difficult to tell...sometimes a male kittens testicles are so small you can;t tell if they are a boy with small testiclesm or a girl with a lot of fur in one spot that looks like a testicle. The urethra tends to look the same in a male and female kitten,
2007-01-22 00:57:56 · answer #3 · answered by Ash 1 · 0⤊ 2⤋
It's called a hermaphrodite. I knew someone who had a cat like that.
2007-01-22 00:54:15 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋