Does early neutering increase UTI risk or stones in male cats?

Hello. There is belief that neutering a very young kitten (2-4 months of age) which is commonly done now may limit the size of the urethra and make it easier for a urinary blockage to occur if the cat has infections or cystitis. Your year old cat has already grown as much as he is going to and neutering him now will not change anything with his development. The benefit of neutering him is to reduce his desire to mark territory in the House by yeinating on it. The odor of his urine would also be much less intense and that can be a positive for an indoor cat. Neutering him at this age should not have any detrimental effects. Thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach

Oh dear! I hate to disagree with your vet, but there's no evidence whatsoever that breeding is good for a cat's health. In fact, it opens them up to a much higher risk of disease and injury - so I would recommend having him neutered now, rather than waiting. If your current vet doesn't want to do the procedure, I would suggest checking with another vet in your area to see if you can find someone who will go ahead and neuter him. At 5 months old, he's plenty old enough to go ahead and have the surgery.

Not sure what are the signs Jr is showing at this stage, but stress related (idiopathic type of inflammation), infection and presence of crystals are the most common causes of UTI (urinary tract infection). These signs must be checked as soon as possible as urinary tract infection can be dangerous in male (especially neutered) cats as it can develop into a urinary tract obstruction/blockage. A clinical examination at your local veterinarian is essential to confirm these clinical suspicions and treat appropriately. Antibiotics may be needed. Hope this answer was helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.

This is only done in very severe cases that do not resolve or in cases that tend to reoccur too often, is this the first time it happened? if so you should first explore traditional treatment, and by the way in cats UTI is actually not very common, urinary blockage is usually caused by a condition called FLUTD which is related to stress and causes bladder inflammation.

It certainly might. Urine marking is a normal and expected behavior for intact males, so neutering is one of the first things we recommend if your cat is doing this. The earlier it's done, the better - this is because the longer this behavior continues, the more it will become a habit that may not resolve after the neuter. It's important to realize that urine marking can also be related to stress or anxiety, so if this is the case, these issues would also need to be addressed in order to resolve the behavior.

Intact male cats often spray in the home due to elevated testosterone. Instead of isolating him, which will only make him more anxious and likely to spray more, I would suggest getting him on anti-anxiety medication through your vet. Fluoxetine can work well for cats that spray in the home and can be used up 1-2 months after his neuter, which is the typical time it takes for all the testosterone to diminish in the body. You can also consider moving him neuter surgery to an earlier date. I hope this helps and best of luck getting Mochi to stop spraying in the home. Take care.

A true urinary infection with bacteria is much less common in cats then dogs, and less common in males then females. Unless there is a disease process predisposing to infection like diabetes or kidney disease. I would not expect a link between allergies and urinary issues unless as you say it is stress related. There is a syndrome in cats (many names) called feline lower urinary tract disorder (FLUTD). Basically it causes symptoms of a uti but there is no infection. In can be more problematic in males. It could be triggered by stress (changes in the house, change in litter, new food, not enough litterboxes, etc.). The Ohio State University has a good web site for indoor cat owners called the indoor pet initiative. There are other causes of urinary tract issues as well but it would be quite odd for both your kids to be affected. It is very important to make sure cats are able to urinate though because obstruction of the urinary tract can occur, more common in males, and this is an emergency if this happens. I hope this helps and thank you for using PetCaoch!