Table A8.
Minimum desex ages selected for male cats, and female cats, by veterinary nursing students with different career lengths. Twenty-six nursing students selected no minimum desex age for male cats, and 30 selected no age for females and were excluded from log-linear analysis (question answered 90% and 88% of 254 students respectively). Two desex age categories were pooled because of small sample sizes (≤1 and 1–2 months). Several students stated that they had unqualified experience in the veterinary industry, therefore, six career length categories were pooled into two because of small sample sizes (<1 year vs. 1–5, 6–10, 11–15, 16–20, and ≥21 years). There was no significant three-way interaction between career length, desex age, and cat sex (G2 = 16.08, d.f. = 13, p = 0.24).
| Male Cats | ||||||
| Minimum Desex Age (months) | ||||||
| Career Length | <2 | 2–3 | 3–4 | >4 | Other | Total n |
| <1 year | 16 | 24 | 25 | 54 | 4 | 123 |
| ≥1 years | 8 | 18 | 32 | 44 | 3 | 105 |
| Total n | 24 | 42 | 57 | 98 | 7 | 228 |
| Female Cats | ||||||
| Minimum Desex Age (months) | ||||||
| Career Length | <2 | 2–3 | 3–4 | >4 | Other | Total n |
| <1 year | 9 | 22 | 24 | 62 | 3 | 120 |
| ≥1 years | 8 | 8 | 26 | 58 | 4 | 104 |
| Total n | 17 | 30 | 50 | 120 | 7 | 224 |