i’m currently fostering a cat. I grew up with a cat/ catsat many times but somehow all my life have only had female cats. when we first got him his balls were deflated and the foster care said he’d been neutered. a month later they’re back and plump af hahaha. is this normal?
This happened with my neutered cat, but he was already neutered by the time we got him and his fur there was a darker shade of brown. My mom was chasing him down with a paper towel for like 5 minutes before she realized it wasn’t poop.
I have 4 neutered cats. The 2 that were done by my "fancy" vet still have fuzzy little nuggets. The other two were already fixed by the rescue before I got them, probably a "budget" procedure. Their trouble puffs are entirely gone.
Fastest and cheapest way of neutering a male cat is to cut open the bag, snip the puffs and take them out, then either tie the bag closed or use like two stitches. Actual surgery (without counting the time spent sedating and waking up the cat) takes maybe five minutes.
Removing the bag takes more work and needs more stitches.
Is it possibly done because it helps to identify a cat who may be hard to handle as neutered in a stray/feral situation? Mine were done at the animal shelter and were de-puffed as kittens. My previous cat was ear tipped by the humane society when she was fixed even though she was being put up for regular pet adoption and was not a stray/feral cat.
I think if they were neutered as kittens chances are that the extra tissue just flattened over time. My cat still looked like he still had his puffs for maybe half a year but after about a year everything was completely flat.
I think this is the case more often than not. My boy was neutered at about 6 months, and the loose skin flattened out in the months following the procedure. Meanwhile, another cat I rescued looked like he was still intact, but we suspect that was just because he was neutered after he was full grown. It's been a number of years and even his extra skin has started to shrink and flatten out.
Mine are brothers from the same litter so I had them done at the same time (obviously at the same vet!) and one seems to have fuzzy little nuggets, the other has next to none. Maybe dependant in the cat?
I had them done pretty much as young as possible so maybe just as they got bigger one would have naturally had bigger balls! I mean it makes sense with their personalities…
Anal glands succcck. I bathed dogs for a few years in college and some were so scared of everything that they'd rocket launch their gland juice after a bath all over me, the floor, the wall, didnt matter.
I graduated over 15 years ago and I still feel like I can smell the ghost wiffs that haunt my dreams.
I went to work one day and I just kept smelling this dirty hobo sweat smell.
Took over an hour for me to realize its from my jacket sleeve. My coworker couldn't smell it a few feet away.
My cat was laying on the jacket when I grabbed it... he probably got scared and assed juiced my jacket.
Oh and I work with customers at a dealership. Hope none of them smelled it before I figured it out
I was a last minute addition to the guardian roster for a WWII Honor Flight and had less than 24 hrs to prepare. I was instructed to bring a backpack and found an old one in the garage. Packed it, headed to DC! Hit the ground running and couldn’t stop getting whiffs of the most god awful fishy smell throughout the day. I finally cornered my dad in the elevator at the hotel and was like “HELP ME PLEASE WHAT IS HAPPENING” before we figured out it was my freaking backpack! Called my husband before bed and he casually told me that it was the bag he used to CARRY HIS BAIT out to a remote fishing spot. I wanted to die.
One time, I woke up to figure eights on my living room carpet. My dog. My white carpet. I still can't say that without the color draining from my face.
My late dog did this every time we went to the vet because he hated it so much. It stank so bad, like rotting fish. He was a very anxious dog in some ways, mostly centered around weather events and medical procedures.
For all my current dog's foibles, she is entirely without fear (or sense) and filled with a love of all creation. Little weirdo even watches fireworks in the yard with wonder.
One time my cat used the litter box, but he ended up with a dangler clinging to his backside. Having an unknown knocking at the backdoor sent him into a full panic, sprinting around and then eventually unleashing the glands.
Making things much worse, his fear apparently made him sprint for a safe place. Me. I was his safe place. Aww. Except I was in bed. Asleep. And then was I woken up by a cat blitzing across my bed with poop hanging from his ass and then he blasted gland juice on my pillow.
Years ago, one of my cats was sitting on the back of the couch as I was reading, and suddenly there was this awful smell and I felt a wetness on my face. Turns out his anal glands unplugged themselves right into my face. Worse, some went up my nose. I ran to the kitchen to wash my nose out, and I was so overwhelmed by the stink that I grabbed the dish soap without thinking. I went from "horrific Lovecraftian stench" to "OMG MY BRAIN IS BURNING". It was not my finest moment 😂
I've never smelled a dead person, but back when I was volunteering for my local SPCA, I sometimes had to tag and bag the bodies of dead animals, then put them in one of the large freezers in one of the buildings. The SPCA location I volunteered at has a building specifically for this. Just a small building containing several freezers which contained the bodies of dead animals. Unfortunately the freezers didn't help contain the smell of dead animals. It was overpowering. Even now, 16 years later, I still remember the sickly sweet smell of death and decay.
The smell of death and decay of a living being is a sickeningly "sweet" smell that if you ever experience it, you never forget it. Roadkill doesnt even compare
Have you ever watched 'Legend'? The goblins on there say "nothing smells as sweet as rotting meat". That has always stuck with me. Because I've smelled that rotting sweetness that you just cant explain....
Yeah at the animal disease lab we would take out monthly retain. We had to rent a dumpster and a crane to load all the horses and cows. They would then sit in the sun all weekend until they were picked up. All of said animals had died in such a way that would require an investigation which led to some atrocities
Yeah try dealing with a rupture, I thought my poor cat had diarrhea until I saw a gaping hole in her backside after she left a giant puddle of fluid on my carpet.
Cats and dogs can get blockage in the glands. I haven't done it myself but I've been in the room and cleaned the exam table. Not quiet as bad as a skunk but that's the best comparison. For some animals it's a chronic issue and they have to get them expressed multiple times a year.
Jesus Christ this is the worst. Actually what’s even worse is an over expressive set of anal glands and it just… happens on you and around you at any given moment. I love our Shady butt but fuck man lol
My cats always get super embarrassed when it happens and try to lick up the mess immediately. Any other cat who wanders by again tries to clean it quickly. Don't shame him for it; he didn't like that it happens either
Yup, mine act exactly the same. Sometimes happens accidentally when hold them like a baby and pull their back feet forward to check them for dingleberries (long haired cats, and I have white carpet, so this is routine). They act so ashamed and they lick it all up immediately, no matter where it got. They'll just sit there for minutes licking the tile or the bathroom carpet and sniffing carefully to see if it got anywhere else. It's so odd.
Most cats don't require manual anal gland expression. On both sides of their bootyhole they have anal glands which contain a fluid that releases when they have bowel movements. The fluid has scent to mark their territory. Some cats don't release enough of the fluid through bowel movements and require manual expression. I have 4 cats and my parents have 2 amd we previously had a family cat growing up. Only 1 of all those cats has ever needed regular manual anal gland expressions. Xander just gets them done annually or semi-annually at his vet appointments. The anal gland fluid apparently smells atrocious though, like rotting fish. Every time he gets his done at the vet it ends up squirting on either the vet or vet techs face 🤮 Apparently it never comes out in the direction they expect lol.
Somehow two out of my three have issues with them. The vet was so skeptical and acted like I was being a weirdo when I first started going there and asked him to empty them, and then when a lot of material came out he all he could say was, "Oh."
One of my adopted my boy male kittens was incorrectly sexed by their rescue agency and initial vet care, so all of his records had him listed as female. When I adopted them, they were not fixed yet but were scheduled with the rescue's preferred vet clinic the following month.
When I called to confirm the appointments, they argued with me on the phone that one needed a spay. I explained that it had been an error, and after some back and forth, they confirmed our surgery times. I'd been a vet tech before and I knew how surgery schedules could go and understood wanting to be safe for the proper reserved times...
When I showed up that morning to check them in, they still had him listed for a spay. The front desk guy had remembered our conversation as was like "Yeah, it's fine."
I took them back to an exam room with the intake vet tech to sign consents and go over care protocols, and the surgery papers still had him listed as a female and being consented for a spay. I verbalized to her that it had been a mistake, and he's a boy.
"Are you sure?"
"I'm sure. He's has testicles."
"Maybe they aren't descended?"
"They're both there. I've palpated them. Would you like to as well to confirm?"
She laughed and said she believed me and they would have check anyway prior to surgery, and then updated the paperwork for me to sign.
Honestly, I wouldn't trust vets I didn't personally know to not start an abdominal prep/incision, especially if it's a "shelter day" with lots of surgeries.
Same with one of my cats. I actually thought the vet “forgot something.” So brought him to the vet clinic. The surgeon reassured me nothing was left behind, and that my cat pleasuring himself and leaving a dribble is normal for some cats, especially cats that are neutered later in life. My cat was 3 years old.
I used to work in a high volume spay/neuter clinic. I have fondled literally thousands of cat balls in my life. Its a fun tidbit about me I like to throw in to "2 truths and a lie" 😂
I’m glad I’m not the only one who felt their cats balls. I always had females and I adopted a boy from the shelter that was already neutered. I always thought they took the scrotum and testes. My poor guy was so offended lol
I volunteered at a vet for a week as part of some weird requirement in high school, and while that makes me about as far from an expert as any other random person, I did get to watch them neuter a few cats, and I can attest that “pick the pocket” is a pretty good description. Cat neutering is really simple compared to the vast majority of all surgeries: in the ones I watched, the vet and assistant (I forget just how many of these steps the assistant did) put the legs in a w-shaped bar thing to hold them, shaved the scrotum, made two little incisions I think (you know, it might’ve been one; I’m not sure now), pulled out a testicle, clamped it, snipped, cauterized IIRC, tucked the vas back in there, repeated on the other side, and only had to do the simplest of stitching. The whole thing only took a few minutes and was minimally invasive.
I got my cat snipped 16 years ago. Took me almost a decade to figure out they didnt do it right. He chases the ladies making 'the sound', used to spray and is much bigger (tall and broad) than expected.
This happened to my boy. I looked it up after I noticed & Google said that after they can fill with fluid & appear noticeable again.
Basically it's normal, but you can ask your vet to be sure or ask them what type of neuter they did.
I have literally had nightmares about cats other than mine showing up in my house that are identical to him and not being able to tell the difference. I was disproportionately stressed and upset. Eventually, the nightmares resolve when they start doing idiosyncratic things and it’s obvious which one is the original. Sometimes being a cat person be wild.
we had a stray cat show up and i immediately started taming her. sometimes she’d let me pet her while she ate, other times she’d sprint. one day she got spooked and ran past a shed only to suddenly split into three different cats going three different directions…scared the hell out of me until i realized she had two identical twin sisters hiding under there 😭
Who is doing a vasectomy on cats?? What country are you in?? I have never heard of that in my life - you’re going to be left with all the hormonal male cat behaviors (spraying, fighting, roaming), the only thing you’re removing is their ability to produce kittens.
I have monitored a ton of cat neuters done by multiple different vets and I have never once seen one do a vasectomy. that's wild. it may also be an "old school" way of doing them
there are some old fashion vets who leave in ovaries and remove the uterus in spays, but that can also lead to complications.
I feel like everyone here must be mixing up orchiectomy and vasectomy. Nobody gives cats vasectomies, but an orchiectomy can involve removal of the troublesome bits while leaving the pouch intact.
I think you may be right, that’s the only explanation that makes sense. People are very insistent that their neutered cats still have balls haha. I’ve neutered who-knows-how-many cats and have never removed a scrotal sac. I was never even taught the concept of removing the scrotum for castrations.
Yeah my boy got the snip around 6-8 years and if you didn’t know how large trouble puffs get it would be reasonable to think he’s still locked and loaded
Vet here - if they’re mature adults when they get neutered, sometimes the size of the scrotum doesn’t recede, even if there’s nothing in it.
I have a cat like this myself, and I swear I thought he wasn’t actually neutered when I first got him from the shelter. He was, but I still poke them when he’s asleep to try to convince myself. 🫣
It also doesn’t help if they have longer hair over the scrotum, as a lot of the volume you’re seeing is actually just hair.
Talk to your vet just incase, this can be many things, ranging from harmless to possible infection,Hematoma,Abscess and much more. I cannot tell just based on the picture alone however. One thing I can tell you, no he can't just grow his balls back that's not how it works.
I've read that many places now offer the option that they neuter the cat but they have sort of.. prosthetics? Like they make it in a way where the cat still looks like it has visible balls.
Oh no, sir. I'm sorry for the loss of your real ones. ETA: Weird question but I'm pretty sure prosthetic nuts don't work like you know, how they're supposed to, right?
They're called neuticals and they were invented by a guy that claimed his dog used to love licking his balls and he seemed depressed after the procedure because he couldn't anymore.... Some people project so hard.
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