A new way to castrate cats by injection

A study, published by BMC Veterinary Research discusses a new way to castrate cats.  The article describes using an injection of calcium chloride dihydrate into the testicles.  

Surgical cat castration could become a thing of the past.

According to the study authors, the cats felt minimal discomfort during the injection and for about five minutes afterwards.  The testicles were mildly swollen for several days after the procedure, but the cats did not show any obvious signs of pain.

There are a few risks associated with the injection.  If some of the calcium chloride injection is spilled on the skin of the scrotum then this will cause painful sloughing of the scrotal skin.

It takes about 4-6 weeks for the tissue of the testicles to be completely destroyed.

What do you think?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this article.  My main concerns with this are how painful the injection would be for the cats.  I can’t imagine inserting a needle into the testicle of an awake animal!  But, if this method of castration works, it will be much less expensive than surgical castration and will be great help in helping to reduce the number of stray cats in the world.