Piglet the male cat now urinates like a female after having his penis removed in an operation doctors have said is 'a little bit like gender reassignment surgery' Piglet the cat had a blocked urethra that was making him unable to urinate Vets performed a procedure to remove his penis and clear the blockage The procedure is similar to a sex reassignment procedure, says the cat's vet The cat's owner says she still calls Piglet 'he' despite the removal of his penisBy Yuan Ren For Mailonline Published: 13:30 BST, 16 April 2019 | Updated: 14:17 BST, 16 April 2019 8 Viewcomments A male cat known as Piglet had his penis removed and now urinates like a female after a life-saving operation. Piglet's urethra, the passage urine passes down from the bladder to the genitals, was blocked by a lump of minerals and stopping him from going to the toilet. Surgeons removed his penis and the blocked urethra, before creating a permanent opening so that urine would come out of his perineum closer to his anus. After vets performed the procedure, which they said was 'a little bit like gender reassignment surgery', the six-year-old cat made a swift recovery. A male cat now is now peeing differently after undergoing a radical 'gender reassignment' surgery that removed his penis, his vet has revealed WHAT IS A PERINEAL URETHROSTOMY? This surgical procedure diverts the stream of urine away from the urethra in the penis. It creates an opening for urine to go through in the perineal skin, which in males is found between the anus and the scrotum. Ejaculated semen will also come out through the urethrostomy instead of the end of the penis. If the scrotum is not removed, human males will usually have to sit and lift up the scrotum up to pass urine. Vets from Cheshire removed Piglet's urethra and 're-plumbed' him in a rare procedure to combat a potentially fatal blockage called perineal urethrostomy. The procedure reconnects the urethra to a new opening in the perineum skin nearer the anus so that pee can be dispelled without going through the blocked urethra. But the procedure does not necessarily include the removal of the penis or scrotum. Dr Sarah Bruce, of Charter Vets, in Cheshire, who carried out the operation on Piglet, said: 'In layman's terms, it is a little bit like gender reassignment surgery. 'The surgery involved making his anatomy more like a female so now he wees like a girl. 'Overall this is an exceptional case with a positive outcome. When Piglet came in, he had a bladder stone lodged at the end of his penis (the urethra).' It was the second time that Dr Bruce had performed such a surgery. The lifesaving surgery removed his penis with the blocked urethra, created a new opening so that urine would come out of his perineum closer to his anus. The picture shoes the X-ray of the inserted catheter during the procedure Vets from Cheshire removed Piglet's penis and 're-plumbed' him in a rare procedure to combat a potentially fatal blockage called perineal urethrostomy. The picture shoes the X-ray of the cat after the procedure Dr Bruce said: 'It is the second procedure I've done like this and it worked without any problems. 'The procedure is not something you'd usually leap into unless absolutely necessary because in many cases, the stones can be removed. 'But Piglet's wasn't going to come out unfortunately so we had little choice. She added: 'I think it's worth raising awareness about the problems with passing stones because it's quite common in male cats. 'I'd urge owners to get them seen to straight away if they are having trouble urinating, as Mrs Philpott did in this case, because it can lead to more serious problems. The cat was suffering from a potentially fatal blockage of the urethra, where a bladder stone was stopping him peeing. The picture shows Piglet as a kitten After the doctors performed a procedure similar to a 'sex change', the six-year-old cat called Piglet now 'wees like a girl' Piglet's owner, Zoe Philpott, from Sandbach, Cheshire, 48, a mum-of-three, said: 'Sarah said a stone was causing a blockage and they couldn't remove it. 'His penis was so swollen and Sarah asked me to consider whether to go ahead with a radical operation to remove it all together. 'But it was reassuring to know that Sarah had done the operation once before and it had been successful so I agreed for Piglet to have the procedure and have never looked back.' It was the second time that Dr Sarah Bruce (pictured) had performed such a surger Share or comment on this article: All rights reserved for this news site dailymail and under his responsibility