Ovarian cancer

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thumperdude95

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Hi,

I was reading an article on rabbit ovarian cancer and it said there's an 80% chance the doe can contract this disease if not continually bred after each litter. Should I worry about it as I'm hoping to breed in the future?

Cheers Thumperdude
 
I find that statement to be disconcerting for two reasons. First, I would wonder where this 80% comes from. What studies have indicated this is true? I have noticed that there are quite a few people that say that non-spayed females will likely die of cancer related to the reproductive organs. I, however, have not found this to be the case in my own rabbitry. My only doe that died of cancer was found to have had liver cancer before it spread to the rest of her organs. Cancer is so high in humans, it should not be a shock that it would also occur in rabbits. However, where the cancer starts is often not looked at by many...which is frustrating to me as a cancer survivor. How many humans die also die of cancer? I for one do not want to be constantly rebred so that it lessens my chances of ovarian cancer. I am not against spaying your animals as my cats are all spayed and neutered, but I do not like the idea of fear mongering in order to get people to spay/neuter their pets. JMO, and I'm sure I'll be bashed for this one. :)

Second, I'd be wary of any article that advises you to "continually breed after each litter." This can be detrimental to the health of the doe. In some cases, does can be bred following a litter depending on how they look after that litter. However, some pregnancies are hard on the does and they need time to get back to a fit condition before they are rebred. This statement alone would make me want to discredit the source as it's not in the best interest of the doe.
 
As far as I know it is an 80% chance by the time they reach four, unspayed rabbits often do die younger then spayed rabbits.
 
http://www.kanin.org/node/182

of course this is not an article for breeders but I would guess that breeding the does would lower the risk during the breeding years . You need more feedback from breeders with older unspayed does. I would guess after breeding days are over the female is at risk because of the huge amount of hormones circulating constantly in the female who is able to ovulate at any time.
 
I don't know about ovarian cancer, but UTERINE cancer is the bigger risk. It's more common. There is no evidence that breeding reduces the rate of uterine cancer. Here's a great article- with references- that's written by a breeder:
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Valley/1155/UC.html

And more info on spay/neuter and uterine cancer:
http://rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=12040&forum_id=10

Oh, and the 80% rate includes all tumors of the uterus, many of which are not malignant. AKA not fatal and generally not called "cancer". However, uterine cancer is probably the most common cancer of rabbits. I do know a number of people who have lost rabbits to it or where it was found during the spay of an adult adopted/rescued rabbit. Some of these have included ex-breeder rabbits.
 
An older doe would be like an older woman. You see a decrease in the number of kits the doe is producing...which is an indication that you should no longer be breeding her. As the doe is aging her hormone levels will decreaseand she will ovulate less. It's the same with any living creature, human or otherwise.
 
I wonder if supplemental estrogen would also increase cancer rates in rabbits as it has been shown to do in humans? It was a common practice for many years (and, quite frankly still is) to give women in menopause estrogen...now they're linking it to a higher likelihood of breast cancer. Several cancers can be linked to hormonal levels, so I don't expect it to be different in rabbits.
 
I lost a doe at age 4 from a female cancer. When she was two years old she had a litter, a few months later I tried to rebreed her for her last litter and she didn't take. I tried to breed her many times but nothing so I gave up. That was the only sign. A year and half later she started showing signs of illness and becoming "content", she was always a stubborn moody girl, and giving up. The day I started work I came home and found her dead. I truely miss her, she was my girly :( Only doe that I know of that I lost to a female cancer, that is why I am so for spaying rabbuts you truely want to keep as pets or after breeding years. It is not worth the risk, in my opinion.

I very much disagree with the whole keeping them bred so they do not get cancer, it is just something breeders use to beable to justify constant over breeding. Well... at least I believe so.
 
Thanks for all the comments, and so quick too.

I'll take all this into account when I start breeding, I too am against rebreeding constantly, it'll mess up her hormones and stuff. I think after her breeding years I will have her spayed.

Cheers Thumperdude
 
If you can have her safely spayed, that would be a good option. In my area "safe" and "spay" for a bunny cannot go into the same sentence. We have vets that can pretty safely neuter, but the spayingis another situation all together. Some vets locally refuse to even try it because they have not had a good success rate. Others will do it, but I'd rather take my chances not having my does die on the table when they are perfectly healthy otherwise.

My doe that died of liver cancer also showed few signs prior to her death. She basically started slowing down and then had some difficulty jumping as high as she once did. Her eating habits were consistent. In fact, she died when they tried to take a blood sample at the vet. It was sudden and the necropsy showed that the cancer was everywhere inside of her. She was one tough bun if we couldn't see much change in her with things being that bad internally.
 
Rabbits that are bred do not have as high a rate of uterine cancer. However, for pet rabbits it is quite high. Breeding your pet, however, is NOT a good solution to this problem. (Just throwing that out there because I have heard people argue it.) Spaying also can make your rabbit a friendlier, more well behaved pet with better litter habits so it really is worth it :)
 
The 80% statistics are false, BTW. Just pointing that out. I don't know any breeders who have had a doe die of uterine OR ovarian cancer and that's a good chunk of bunnies right there. 80% is a statistic used by the HRS to scare people. ;)
 
OakRidgeRabbits wrote:
The 80% statistics are false, BTW. Just pointing that out. I don't know any breeders who have had a doe die of uterine OR ovarian cancer and that's a good chunk of bunnies right there. 80% is a statistic used by the HRS to scare people. ;)
Click to expand...
My apologies, but your statement is erroneous.

naturestee wrote:
I don't know about ovarian cancer, but UTERINE cancer is the bigger risk. It's more common. There is no evidence that breeding reduces the rate of uterine cancer. Here's a great article- with references- that's written by a breeder:
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Valley/1155/UC.html

And more info on spay/neuter and uterine cancer:
http://rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=12040&forum_id=10

Oh, and the 80% rate includes all tumors of the uterus, many of which are not malignant. AKA not fatal and generally not called "cancer". However, uterine cancer is probably the most common cancer of rabbits. I do know a number of people who have lost rabbits to it or where it was found during the spay of an adult adopted/rescued rabbit. Some of these have included ex-breeder rabbits.
Click to expand...


As Naturestee just mentioned, the 80% statistic refers to the development of any and all tumours in the uterus.
Malignant and benign tumours are included in this figure.
A more appropriate remark would be to say that some people confuse the meaning of this statistic ;)


 
I'm curious what the study specifics were that came up with 80% as a number. Does anyone have a link? I'm not agreeing or disagreeing with it simply because I have been taught to research where your information is coming from before making an informed decision.
 
NorthernAutumn wrote:
OakRidgeRabbits wrote:
The 80% statistics are false, BTW. Just pointing that out. I don't know any breeders who have had a doe die of uterine OR ovarian cancer and that's a good chunk of bunnies right there. 80% is a statistic used by the HRS to scare people. ;)
Click to expand...
My apologies, but your statement is erroneous.

naturestee wrote:
I don't know about ovarian cancer, but UTERINE cancer is the bigger risk. It's more common. There is no evidence that breeding reduces the rate of uterine cancer. Here's a great article- with references- that's written by a breeder:
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Valley/1155/UC.html

And more info on spay/neuter and uterine cancer:
http://rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=12040&forum_id=10

Oh, and the 80% rate includes all tumors of the uterus, many of which are not malignant. AKA not fatal and generally not called "cancer". However, uterine cancer is probably the most common cancer of rabbits. I do know a number of people who have lost rabbits to it or where it was found during the spay of an adult adopted/rescued rabbit. Some of these have included ex-breeder rabbits.
Click to expand...


As Naturestee just mentioned, the 80% statistic refers to the development of any and all tumours in the uterus.
Malignant and benign tumours are included in this figure.
A more appropriate remark would be to say that some people confuse the meaning of this statistic ;)
Click to expand...

No, I was not meaning to say that some people confuse the meaning of the statistic.I meant exactly what I said, and the statement is not erroneous, but you can believe what you wish. I am trying to find the article, but it was hosted on a geocites site and since they are closing down, I believe it was taken off. I'll continue searching and post if I can find it. It had the exact details of the HRS study into uterine cancer and it showed many inconsistencies. Beyond that, the sampling of rabbits used in the study was so low that the results could not be considered useful in research. That, coupled with the fact that neither I myself or any of my "rabbit friends" have had any complications related to uterine cancer makes me 100% certain that the statistic is a bunch of...well, you know. If there were an 80% chance of anything,I would have personally come across it somewhere in the nearly 10 years now that I've been a part of the rabbit community.;)
 
I tend to agree. That one argument in the article by the breeder is that all breeders get rid of does that are older as they are no longer producing offspring for them, so they don't see the high rate of uterine cancer. Perhaps I'm a softy, but I don't see my buns as a commodity. If the doe is too old to be bred she stays with me until she passes. I too have not witnessed a large amount of older does getting uterine cancer. It's not likely that I've only possessed that 20% that didn't get it.

In a study I like to see replication. Who else replicated this study where 80% was found?
 
How old has your does lives? That is a big factor, if they died around 6-7 years or less then I would say it was due to cancer unless illness struck. But again, cancer weakens the immune system and will cause them to be sick easier. So unless you have had a necropsy on every doe of yours that died and there was no cancer found you can not say they did not have cancer when they died.

Not that this is any solid proof of cancer but a good ex-breeder friend of mine who bred for over 20 years sold his does and bucks at 3 years of age. He said from his years of experiance at 3 years old does are missing when bred. He said it might take 2-4 diffrent times before they take or they may take the first time. He said they just became inconsistant in producing around the age of 3. He included bucks, too.

I figure after 20 years of experiance with breeding for both show and later down the road just pets, with keeping everything heavily documented, it can pretty well be taken as more than an exageration. Does not mean cancer but it does mean something was changing and 3-4 years old is when the risks grow. Oh, and the years he bred when I knew him he had roughly 50 adult breeders at a time, I knew him in the late show through pet stage of his breeding life.
 
bunnybunbunb wrote:
How old has your does lives? That is a big factor, if they died around 6-7 years or less then I would say it was due to cancer unless illness struck. But again, cancer weakens the immune system and will cause them to be sick easier. So unless you have had a necropsy on every doe of yours that died and there was no cancer found you can not say they did not have cancer when they died.
Click to expand...
This is what I was thinking
 
When there is a debate, I like to see scientific statistics to back it up (which Autumn provided, thanks!). Not just personal experience. If you can find an article, saying otherwise, with as many good references as that one had and scientific evidence to support the information then you will have my attention.
 
Hi,
The house rabbit article noted in this post is here: http://www.rabbitnetwork.org/articles/spay.shtml

You will note that it says "up to 85%". Also, it is from 2003, and doesn't give any references. Finally, it's from the House Rabbit Network, not the House Rabbit Society, so please don't blame HRS for spreading misinformation. Their article on spaying and neutering is here: http://www.rabbit.org/health/spay.html

Here is a bibliography from the HRS with some of these frequently quoted statistics: http://www.rabbit.org/care/bibliography.html

This references a study in which 11 of 12 rabbits had uterine cancer, and the other one from which the 80% figure comes from. The 80% figure comes from a study in which 80% of rabbits that died between the ages of 5 and 6 were found to have uterine tumors on necropsy. These were not necessarily cancerous tumors, and they were not necessarily the cause of death in these rabbits. You may also note that both of these studies are really old, so I'll look into some more recent studies today, to see if I can find some.
 
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