Cat Neutering: a Sad Procedure

For the first few months after we got our cats, I was overwhelmed by their cuteness. Then my family began to poke me with the question “when do you want to spay/neuter them?” Initially I was very against the idea of spay/neuter. I thought it was too cruel and was against nature. But my family kept persuading me to do it, saying it was good to the cats’ health. Eventually I gave in.

Our Bengal cat whose name is Tiger, was neutered when he was about six months old. That was the biggest medical procure on him so far. Prices varied greatly for cat neuter operation. I called at least five different clinics to ask the prices, the cheapest was around $200, and the expensive ones were over $400. We chose the one on the higher end because we did not want to risk anything.

Our Bengal Cat at Four Months Old

Several weeks before the operation, our vet did some blood work and checkups to make sure that Tiger was healthy. One day before the operation, we took Tiger in. He spent a whole day and night there to get familiar with the environment, so he would not be too scared before the operation. We had to bring some dry and wet food for his stay as well.

It felt horrible to walk out of the clinic without Tiger. We did not know how it was like staying there for the night. Was he cold and scared? We thought about him constantly. Even though Snowy, our Egyptian Mau was at home with us, it just felt much quitter without Tiger there. Yeah, it was sad. The next day Tiger had his neuter operation on the early morning. He stayed there until the late afternoon when we picked him up.  

The staff at the clinic was nice enough to send us pictures of Tiger during the day and right after the neuter operation, so we got to see how Tiger was doing. The pictures showed that Tiger stayed in one of the caged areas with his own litter box and the carrier that we brought him in. He seemed rather confused and scared.

When we saw him after the operation, he was very happy. I often wondered what his thought process was at the time. Was he thinking we abandoned him? We never know.

It took two weeks for Tiger to recover fully from his operation. During those two weeks he had to wear a cone. During the first several days we had to feed him by hands because it was so difficult to eat with the cone on. It took some time for Tiger to learn to live with it. The discomfort of the cone was obvious.

When everything returned to normal after Tiger’s full recovery from the neuter operation, we gradually noticed some changes in him. The major one was the reduced energy. Tiger was very active and playful before the operation. But after that, he spent most of his time lying around. He was not as curious and playful as before. Before the operation he was able to jump to the top of the refrigerator, to the kitchen counter top, but he did not do any of those even three months after the operation.

It has been about five months after his operation, only in the past two weeks or so did we see some increased energy in him. He became more active after I began to take him out for walks.

After going through Tiger's neutering process, I think cat neutering is a mysterious and sad procedure. I am not sure if it is really that good to the cats’ health. From the cats’ perspective, it is almost a terrifying experience. It is like being kidnapped by the aliens, put to sleep, and when they wake up things have changed.