Expert: Norman Auspitz - 8/27/2009

Question
Dear Norm

I have a two year old neutered tom cat, who's name is Tom-Tom and he displays some characteristics normally associated with a whole tom.

He is extremely territorial and beats up my deceased mother's cat Jack (a placid, neutered tom) and chases the other two boys (also neutered) a lot.  They have all lived together since February of this year and I have to keep them separated to slow down the vet bills.  Jack has been hospitalised twice and operated on once and Tom-Tom has had an infected bite and currently has an infection in the muscle in his leg.

I have smelt his fresh urine and it definitely displays a very different odor to the other (more placid) boys' urine - have now sniffed several litter trays - that's fun.

Is there any chance Tom-Tom could not be completely neutered - in other words still a whole cat?

Or is there a chance he's just obnoxious?  I love him dearly and the other three and do not want to have to re-home anyone, but in the interests of their safety and enjoyment, (one or other of Jack or Tom-Tom spends the day in solitary confinement and then gets to come out when I get home from work), I really need to sort out this problem.

Tom-Tom can also get aggressive towards me (particularly after he has been shut up) and he wanders much farther than the others - they all happily stay in their own garden.

I have had both he and Jack injected with some type of drug to calm them both down, but this has had limited success.

Do you have any suggestions?  Can a male cat be given female hormones to calm him down?  Please help.

regards     Gillian

Answer
Gillian,

Remember, I am not a vet.  The first thing I would do is to take Tom-Tom to the vet and have his hormone levels checked.  If he had been a monorchid (one descended terticle) or a cryptorchid (no descended testicles), it is possible that when he was neutered, the vet did not get one or both of the undescended testicles.

We had a male who was neutered once and "spayed" twice, but the undescended testicle was never found.  He did display some whole male characteristics.

There are hormone therapies available, and you should discuss these with your vet as to cost, effectiveness, etc.

Best regards... Norm