will castrated toms still spray?

[spish]

i took in a tom cat last august (he was then a year old), his owners were moving to an appartment and didnt want to keep him locked in after being an outdoor cat for 8 months, so he came to live here with my ladies.
anyhow the former owners said he was castrated, but these past few i spotted the tom spraying all the fence posts in the garden, up the walls on the side of the house and he's yowling an awful lot. he's also been wandering for the past few weeks (i even did a thread on here about him being missing)

so now im wondering is he really castrated....can i 'see' that from the outside of his body or do i need a vet trip to take a closer look???? luckily he hasnt sprayed inside (or he'd be in trouble with my man!) he doesnt look ill or doesnt seem to have a problem peeing so dont think its a problem down there....

any advice?

 

[Ga Chicken Mom]

Sure sounds like he is not neutered. If you can handle him it's easy enough to feel if he still has all his equipment. It was nice of you to take him in but I think he is still intact and needs to go to the vets for surgery.

 

[spish]

oh he's easy to handle, he's the most loving cat ever, if you sit down too long hes there like a shot draped across your front with his paws on your shoulders, he loves attention!


may sound daft but what should i be feeling for?? what exactly do they take away during a castration?

 

[Ga Chicken Mom]

Castration involves making a small incision in the scrotum and removing the testicles. You should be able to feel two little balls in the scrotum if he is still intact. I don't know why it took him so long to act like a Tom cat but if there is an intact female cat nearby he is courting her. If he needs surgery, it is a very simple procedure but the male hormones will be present for some time after surgery and he may continue to spray for awhile. Your vet will explain the process. Please do get him neutered if necessary, there are too many kittens in this world and not enough homes.

 

[spish]

oh i know, i got my girls done before they were allowed out of the house. i just presumed as the former owners said he was done, i never had reason to doubt them, until now.....

shall go and check

 

[bagendhens]

a neutered male can and will spray for a short time after neuter, after that its rare for them to try...

sounds like he hasnt been "fixed" and theres a female in heat in your area.

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

I beg to differ. I have three male cats in the house and one young female. All four were fixed as soon as they were old enough. All four were at the really young end of the fixing spectrum. I was taking no chances!

Just recently two of the boys have started spraying and the third makes the motions. My suspicions are that they are reacting territorially to a fifth fixed male cat that started sleeping on my back porch during the winter. One of the indoor cats HATES the outdoor cat. He was the first to spray and is the one doing it the most. It is making me crazy as the house now smells like cat pee and he is ruining the furniture! I KNOW he is fixed. I know he had not reached sexual maturity when he was fixed. Yet he is still spraying. Sigh.

All of that to say, it can happen. I'm not convinced any more that fixing them will stop the spraying.

 

[ChickenWisperer]

We've got two males that are both your run-of-the-mill tabbies.

Chester was rescued from the human society. Word is that he was an intact alley cat that got hit by a car. Elliot is a kitten that we rescued ourselves (long story) he was fixed very early on. They BOTH are outdoor/indoor cats - and neither of them spray. We've got a lot of intact feral Toms that run through here, and one supposedly fixed male that lives just directly across the street.

They fight like hell, but I've never seen them spray.

 

[miss_thenorth]

Msle neutered cats will spray. WE have 6 barn cats. 5 male, one female. All fixed--we had every last one of them fixed. Along comes a tom who hangs our for a few days, and sprays everywhere. One day in my hubby's shop, the tom was luvin' on my hubby, and he sprays on hubs tool box. Two days later, one of OUR neutered barn cats (who is two years old) came and did the smae thing. Came for attention, and then sprayed in the exact same place as the tom.

We are trying to relocate the tom, and hopefully our cats will go back to how they were before the tom came.

 

[Imp]

Here's Zulukhan. About 14 years old, neutered when he was young. Still sprays all the time. He'd like to be indoors in cold weather, uuummm NO! He stays outside with the ferals.