Should you Spay your Rabbit?

[LadyKat]

What are the pros and cons of getting my 7 month old female Dwarf Lionhead fixed. She is the only rabbit, in fact the only pet, in the house and their is just me, one adult who lives in the house.

I am very leary about getting her fixed because I am so scared something will go wrong. I had the cutest Teddy Bear Hamster (Bazal) who got sick after two years. I had take him to vet and found out he had pneumonia. After trying to make him better he passed away in my hands one night. This was needy Hamster who even went to the vets every 3 months for a teeth trimming.

5 months later I adopted an adorable Hedgehog named Spork, I had him for only a short 8 months when he got really sick. After various vet visits that included driving to a specialist two hours away several times amounting to over $600 in vet bills I had to have him put down because of a urinary blockage they could not unplug.

Now, 7 months later, I have Smudge, who I am hoping will llive a long and healthy life and I do not want to make her undergo any high risk surgeries if the benefits do not outweigh the risks. She has been in first health check-up I know she is in excellent health right now. At this point if I lost another pet I do not thing I could stand it at all. After all look how cute she is. P.S. If you recommend gettring her Spayed do know a good vet in North Bay, Ontario, Canada?

 

[dragynflye]

the 80% chance an intact female rabbit has of getting uterine cancer is the main reason to spay...

spaying also removes the hormones that can lead to territorial behavior, aggression, and spraying. it improves a rabbit's litter box habits, and removes or reduces undesirable behaviors such as digging and chewing.

 

[Myia09]

Yeah, it is actually 90% from what I understand. Uterine cancer, especially common in unfixed females, is painful, hard, often silent (Don't notice it), and shortens your rabbits life by years.

Dragynflye was also right about the horomones and behaviors. Unspayed females often become territorial.

Plus, you never know if you will get another bunny down the road (It happens, especially since rabbits do better in pairs) and its best to do it now, early.

I strongly urge you to spay her.

 

[Marrie]

http://www.rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=49159&forum_id=75

The section for rabbit vets in the Ontario area from this forum. Might be one near you in there.

If you can't find one in that - house rabbit society has a great questionaire in their how to find a good vet section.

 

[naturestee]

To be honest, the rate of malignant cancer is not as high as is often quoted. That is the percentage of all uterine tumors, some of which are benign (not harmful). HOWEVER uterine cancer is still very common. Unspayed rabbits are also at risk for mammary (breast) cancer. A rabbit adopted from the rescue I help with recently passed away from mammary cancer, which must have started before she was spayed last fall. Her family did everything they could for her- excellent vet, massive and expensive surgery, etc. But it had spread too far in a short amount of time.

Also, the reduction of hormones from a spay usually increases litter training success and can eliminate the hormonal frustration that some of the more high-strung intact rabbits have (constant need to mate).

 

[Nancy McClelland]

The pluses greatly outweigh the negatives. We've had 22 done and the only problem we had was one bunny taking out her stitches--could not keep a collar on her, so the had to go back and use staples--that was one expensive bunny.

 

[Flick]

She was running a fever and had blood in her urine.

This is a normal, healthy rabbit uterus.

Honey is living in my husband's computer room. It's been 10 months since she was spayed. We think cancerous uterus was removed before it metastasized (spread to other organs). But, it obviously was extremely painful to her and I think it aged her.

I've made a video showing Stella's spay.
http://www.youtube.com/user/FastUpOnRabbitCare

Really, get your rabbit spayed. Really!

 

[jcottonl02]

The longer you leave it, the more risk there is. The risk itself is minimal (unless she has underlying heart problems etc) and in my opinion outweigh the costs of leaving her unspayed by far.
If you have no reason to keep her intact (ie. breeding, heart problems etc.) then I would strongly suggest spaying her. Talk to your vet and ask them how many rabbits they spay, and how many they lose each month/week etc. The losses should be minimal, and most with explainations.

I have had 7 dogs, 2 rabbits and 2 cats neutered and spayed and never had any kind of problem. I get worried before each goes in, but I know it's best for them and I don't have to worry about reproductive cancers taking them . That's just one cancer down. And a HUGE point is the hormone-related behaviour. Spaying/neutering just helps SO much. Like mentioned before- litter-training, aggression, territory-related aggressive behaviours etc.

In 99% of cases spaying will improve their and our (as the owner's) lives. In an extremely small number (just like in human operations) there are complications, but I have never met someone (and I know mannnyyy people with animals including bunnies) who has lost a pet due to spaying.

Jen

 

[Elf Mommy]

I lost Elf at age 7 to cancer. I will never not spay/neuter another one of my rabbits.

 

[LadyKat]

You guys have convinced me. I will get her spayed.

I am going to schedule her for Mid August. She will be about 10 months old at that point. Although I have just enough to go out and have it done tomorrow, I get paid my bonus a work mid August, meaning I will have more then enough money to cover any extra costs if there are any complications.

 

[Lucille]

There are a lot of doctors that used to use similar arguments to have their human female patients get a hysterectomy. It's major surgery.

 

[Sweetie]

LadyKat wrote:

You guys have convinced me. I will get her spayed.

I am going to schedule her for Mid August. She will be about 10 months old at that point. Although I have just enough to go out and have it done tomorrow, I get paid my bonus a work mid August, meaning I will have more then enough money to cover any extra costs if there are any complications.

Very good! When I had Sweetie spayed, I was a nervous wreck because she is tiny. I thought there would be problems but my vet reassured me that there will be no complications. I was still worried, but everything turned out wonderful.

BTW you have a beautiful bunny. Yes spaying will increase the lifespan of your rabbit and she will be extra loveable.

 

[naturestee]

Lucille wrote:

There are a lot of doctors that used to use similar arguments to have their human female patients get a hysterectomy. It's major surgery.

None I've met, despite having asked. From what I am aware it only occurs in cases where the woman has a decent medical reason.

Spaying a rabbit to prevent uterine and mammary cancer is more comparable to women with very high risk of breast cancer having their breasts removed to prevent cancer. This is becoming more common for women with a lot of breast cancer in their family history.

 

[Lucille]

naturestee

"From what I am aware it only occurs in cases where the woman has a decent medical reason."

[/quote]

That may be more true now, previously it has been well documented that unneccessary hysterectomies proliferated.

 

[TinysMom]

I just wanted to add two things - I had Angel spayed last year - she was over 5 years old - she did fine.

Secondly, I'm having Athena spayed on Wednesday - one of my does from my breeding (I can't afford to have them all spayed immediately after they retire). She is almost 2 years old and I'm a nervous wreck but the person doing her spay is the same vet who did Angel's and has done lots of spays when she lived in Houston.

I know that 80/90% number that is often thrown around is too high - that it is not the correct number for cancer but for tumors...

Still yet - I think its worth getting a beloved pet spayed while they're younger - at least you remove one possible way you could lose them early.

 

[majorv]

The risk of complications from the surgery may be small, but the risk is still there. One of our kits broke a backleg when she was very young and even though it healed, her movement was affected some. We found a good home for her and didn't think much of it when the owner later decided to have her spayed. We were devastated to learn that "Gimpy" didn't make it through the surgery.Although I don't know exactly what went wrong, always make sure the vet is experienced with treating rabbits and withgiving them anesthesia.