Sunday, January 15, 2012

Oh yes, I took the picture!


These pictures were taken in the name of science.

Many people don't know that intact male cats have barbs on their penises. They are supposed to have two purposes. One is to induce ovulation in the female cat and the other is supposedly to scrape sperm from other male cats out of the female's vagina.

For veterinarians, there is another purpose. If there are no barbs on the penis, the cat has been castrated. I know it is generally very easy to tell if a cat has been castrated (just lift the tail). I have run into a couple cats that had been adopted as neutered males but it turned out they were bilaterally cryptorchid (the testicles were still in the abdomen).

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