Traditionally, the recommended age for cats to be desexed has been between five and six months, and a survey conducted in 2013 showed desexing cats at six months remained the standard veterinary advice given to cat owners. Despite a growing awareness of the benefits of desexing at four months or earlier, by 2015 only one in three teaching staff at Australian veterinary schools advocated the practice of early-age desexing be adopted.
Since then, calls to desex cats at four months old have grown louder, and EAD is now actively encouraged by cat protection organisations, and the RSPCA. Both cite the significant animal welfare benefits that result from EAD, as well as the reduced risk and impact of unwanted litters. Results of a University of Sydney-led study published recently in Scientific Reports has confirmed that EAD is both on the increase, and has proved beneficial for cats’ overall health.
The study had three aims:
- To investigate the prevalence and predictors of desexing among cats presented to first-opinion practices in Australia;
- To investigate the age at which desexing was performed and its predictors and;
- To compare age at surgery in cats born between 2010 and 2017 with that in cats born between 1995 and 2009, to investigate changes in practice.
Researchers studied anonymous medical records of over 52,000 pet cats, breeding cats, cats owned by shelters, and semi-owned cats. Stray cats without a human carer were excluded. While sex, breed, location, and socioeconomic indices were found to ‘significantly influence desexing status and age at surgery’, results showed there were greater odds of cats born between 2010 and 2017 of being desexed, than those born between 1995 and 2009.
Co-author Julia Beatty, Professor of Feline Medicine at the University of Sydney’s School of Veterinary Science said the study found just 21.5 per cent of female cats were desexed at four months or younger, while 59.8 per cent of female cats had been desexed by the traditional recommendation of six months.
“This creates a potential pregnancy gap between the time the female cat reaches puberty and the age at surgery, and it’s a gap that could be closed if desexing before four months of age were routine in vet practices, not just in shelters,” Beatty said.
Sarah Zito, the RSPCA’s Senior Scientific Officer said the organisation adopted the practice of EAD in its shelters some years ago and based on ‘considerable scientific evidence’ considers it a safe and effective strategy to reduce unplanned and unwanted litters.
“Desexing cats before they can reproduce plays an integral role in reducing cat overpopulation. In addition, the extensive evidence of the benefits and safety of desexing cats before four months of age – before puberty – shows there are also many health and welfare benefits for individual cats,” Zito said.
Beatty agreed, and said EAD was important to prevent unwanted kittens heading into overburdened and under-resourced shelters, or into stray cat populations, situations both detrimental to their wellbeing, and that put additional stress on wildlife already impacted by other predators, habitat loss and global warming.
“We really hope this research encourages the pet owning public to have their cats desexed before they reach four months of age. This would be a win-win for cat welfare by helping to reduce the number of unwanted kittens,” she said.
Although the study found the practice of EAD is on the rise, Beatty said it was important Australia kept up the momentum.
“The ‘big-data’ approach to evaluating desexing practices in Australia used here can be repeated to evaluate the impact of future strategies to promote desexing by four months of age as a tool to improve animal welfare,” she said.
‘A shift towards early-age desexing of cats under veterinary care in Australia’ is available at nature.com/articles/s41598-020-79513-6
Anne Layton-Bennett