Pet Forums 2000

Friends of ours has a male cat that they banished to the outdoors when he started spraying everywhere. They are now going to go and get him fixed (we have lots of cats around our neighborhood), and my hubby and I are taking him in. But I will only if I know that he will stop spraying after he's fixed? Does anybody know if he will?

He will stop spraying after hes fixed.

Yes he will stop...

Yes he will stop...

Most males do stop spraying after they are fixed. The occasional one may not, it depends often on their age at the time of neuter. Obviously the younger they are neutered the better.

Spraying is simply territory marking. It starts when the male kitten becomes sexually mature, somewhere between 5 - 12 months. Occasionally a female will mark, but if it does happen usually the female is in heat or if there is an overcrowding of cats in one household.

For older cats, one study showed that
87% of all male cats stop spraying after castration
78% stop immediately
9% stop in a few months
13% keep spraying

Another study showed that 77% of cats reduced or stopped spraying within six months of being neutered or spayed.

In addition, sometimes cats spray when they are stressed or in multi-cat households. Normally however, a neuter will stop the spraying.

Yes, the male cat will have no need to spray once he's fixed.

Most cats do stop spraying after being neutered. I rescued an adult tom cat from the pound and he sprayed as soon as I got him home. He was neutered the next morning and never sprayed again (even in a house with several strange cats, all of whom were fixed). The testosterone will stay in his system for about a month after neutering and until it's gone, he will think he's still a tom cat and may continue to spray for awhile. You might want to keep him in an easy to clean room till you're sure he's stopped. Like I said, most stop immediately after neuter, but there's no guarantee he will. It's worth a shot though. He deserves a second chance at a good life.

Use of a Feliway diffuser or spray can help with his transition and curb his desire to spray. I've used the diffuser for issues other than marking and have had good results with it. Here's more about it.
http://www.feliway.com/gb/How-Feliway-R-can-help/How-do-I-use-Feliway-R/Urine-Marking

Most cats do stop spraying after being neutered. I rescued an adult tom cat from the pound and he sprayed as soon as I got him home. He was neutered the next morning and never sprayed again (even in a house with several strange cats, all of whom were fixed). The testosterone will stay in his system for about a month after neutering and until it's gone, he will think he's still a tom cat and may continue to spray for awhile. You might want to keep him in an easy to clean room till you're sure he's stopped. Like I said, most stop immediately after neuter, but there's no guarantee he will. It's worth a shot though. He deserves a second chance at a good life.

Use of a Feliway diffuser or spray can help with his transition and curb his desire to spray. I've used the diffuser for issues other than marking and have had good results with it. Here's more about it.
http://www.feliway.com/gb/How-Feliway-R-can-help/How-do-I-use-Feliway-R/Urine-Marking

While it's true that the vast majority of male cats do stop spraying after being neutered, it's not an iron clad guarantee. The intact male cat sprays not only to mark his territory, but also to attract female cats in heat for mating, and this seems to particularly be true with outdoor cats. Since neutering cats tend to not want to go outside as much after being fixed, and if you have no other cats in your house that may cause territorial issues, chances are very good the neutering procedure will eliminate the spraying tendencies completely. This has been 100% true in all three of the male cats I've had neutered.

Of course, aside from likely cessation of spraying, neutering is otherwise very beneficial to your cat. Neutered cats tend to live longer and the procedure completely eliminates chances of your cat getting testicular tumors or cancer. It also of course helps to reduce the population of cats, should your cat get outside. And again, if your neutered male does go outside, he will tend to roam a lot less than an intact male, greatly reducing his chances of getting hit by a vehicle or being picked up by animal control.

Kudos to you for doing the responsible thing by neutering, which, by the way, tends to cost less than half the price of spaying a female. I believe we paid just around $220 for our now 9-month old to be neutered, but we did opt for the pre-op bloodwork to ensure no complications and also updated his vaccines as well. Without the extras, the neutering procedure would have cost around $120.

Best of luck to you.

It depends on the cat. Some neutered males will continue to spray, especially if it has gotten to be a habit, or if the spraying is due to anxiety rather than hormones. It's likely that a cat will either stop spraying or spray less after neutering, but there's really no way to know for sure.