Spaying risks?

Hi, ruby is about 4 months old now and I plan on getting her spayed (becasue i want to get her a friend). I was just wondering if anyone could give me information about any risks of spaying.

As far as I always knew, spaying was a routine operation and very low risk, however, last december i lost a kitten during a spay operation and it really affected me. I since have had two more kittens spayed and i was really panicky but they were ok. I think my two current kittens are a lot more robust than lily (who i lost). Lily was 10 months old (we left it a long time due to a lack of money as i had another very ill cat at the time who ended up costing us £1000 in vet bills!) she was very small for her age (probably about the size of a 6 month old kitten) and she died when the sedative was given. We decided aginst an autopsy but the vet said it was likely that she had a genetic heart condition, as her heart raced and then stopped. But there were no warning signs of this at all beforehand that we could have picked up on.

Anyway, the genetic heart condition aside, is spaying generally a safe operation for a rabbit? I know a lot of you have had it done and i am probably silly asking about such a "normal" operation. i would never have my doubts in the past about this but since the loss of lily, any little thing gets me paraniod (which i suppose in a way is good but ruby looks so grumpy when i tip her upside down and prod her to check she is all looking ok)

any help would be great thanks.

I know how you feel. I'm getting my bun spayed in just under 2 weeks time and i'm petrified.

I'm not sure of the actual stats but i know it is much,much safer than it was a few years ago. My vet said she had done just over 60 female buns spays last year and lost one.

Spaying is generally safe if you have a rabbit savvy vet, HOWEVER, like with a GA in any living thing, there are risks, although the better the vets, the more minimal those risks.

It will be a really hard few days, but hopefully it will be worth it for her.

My Mrs Bun was just over a year old when I had her speyed.I was so nervous for her!!
She wasnt starved before the op,it went well and Mrs B was kept in overnight as she was last down for surgery and didnt eat.When she had eaten,I bought her home, but she was a naughty girl and wouldnt eat much for me,despite me giving her analgaesia,the other stuff to get her tummy working (forget now,but its gooey stuff) and so I took her back for another short stay as I was working and couldnt keep an eye etc.
She made a great recovery and its changed her for the better.She would grunt and lunge at me...she would dig and thump and basically was a cross bunny but now she is so much better for it.Her hormones must have driving her cuckoo!!
Thats Mrs Buns story....Im sure yours will be a happy ever after too!!
Your little Lily just wasnt strong enough and for that Im deeply sorry.xxx

Hi :wave:, it is a big Op for female buns because an ovo-uterine spay is a deep Op and quite major, and as such it does carry risks same as any surgery - which is why buns need to be in good health ideally, and at an age to withstand it, but even elderly females have been spayed safely. The benefits outweigh the risks however, which is why it is so important. Incidence of, and risks of, uterine/ovarian cancer is very high in rabbits over 4 yrs of age, so it's such an important procedure in terms of long-term health benefits, aside from the behavioural benefits, it tends to minimise territorial, aggressive and dominant behaviour which means that they can live happily with other buns

The main immediate health risks I believe will be related to tolerance and recovery from the GA, underlying disease/congenital conditions, and any post-surgical infection. These risks can be minimised by using a rabbit-savy vet with plenty of experience and a good success rate.
Post-op risks again things like infection, buns pulling stitches out or opening the wound by jumping around, and slowing of the GI tract following GA, inadequate post-op pain relief, sending buns home dehydrated and not self-eating or in pain, or not giving owners enough post-op care info, or advice on syringe feeding etc.. The only buns I know of who have had problems post-spay has been where bun has gone into GI stasis from not eating soon enough post-op, gut motility issues not being addressed and not adequate pain relief for long enough. A good vet will discuss these issues with you BEFORE you take bunny home. There will always be risks, and things can go wrong, in any type of Op and in any type of medicine, but on balance this is generally considered a safe routine Op.
Bear in mind that ileus (slowing of the GI tract) can happen over a week or two, so being vigilant over this time on buns food intake and poo output after the Op is important to prevent a delayed GI stasis, and going back to your vet immediately if any concern, more gut motility agents/pain relief may needed.
http://www.vet2pet.co.uk/pethealth/rabbithealth/neutering_rabbit.asp
http://www.vet2pet.co.uk/pethealth/rabbithealth/choosingavet_rabbit.asp
http://www.vet2pet.co.uk/pethealth/rabbithealth/uterinecancer_rabbit.asp

we had same issue as Yvette.

Pebbles came around well, but once home she was very groggy and evry attempted step meant falling on her face! Very upsetting.

Then she turned annorexic on us and wouldnt eat! spent 2 days in vets under supervision. Again she is perfect in health. She was done aged about 18months. Is now 3 1/2 and no issues so far. Use bun savvy vet. Is essential in my view

thanks for the advice everyone. I hadn't even considered that there would be post op risks like feeding afterwards, i just thought of the usuals risks like infection of the site etc. I have got an indoor cage so i can keep her in htat a few days post op and keep my eye on her.

I got a letter from my vets inviting ruby to a complementary adolescent health check to discuss her behaviour, diet and spaying so i will take them up on that. Behavioural wise i don't think her hormones have kicked in yet, she is a lovely soft cuddly bunny!

One of my cats pulled her stitchedout twice and we had repeated vet visits so i know the problems with this. Do the vets tend to give bunnies the cone collars like they give cats? i imagine one of those though would make it tricky for bunny to eat.

beki said:

thanks for the advice everyone. I hadn't even considered that there would be post op risks like feeding afterwards, i just thought of the usuals risks like infection of the site etc. I have got an indoor cage so i can keep her in htat a few days post op and keep my eye on her.

I got a letter from my vets inviting ruby to a complementary adolescent health check to discuss her behaviour, diet and spaying so i will take them up on that. Behavioural wise i don't think her hormones have kicked in yet, she is a lovely soft cuddly bunny!

One of my cats pulled her stitchedout twice and we had repeated vet visits so i know the problems with this. Do the vets tend to give bunnies the cone collars like they give cats? i imagine one of those though would make it tricky for bunny to eat.

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Cones should only be used as a last resort in bunnies really and not long-term. It stops them being able to reach their caecotrophs and sometimes even drink properly and dehydration is a big risk! Better is internal dissolvable stitches I think, or glue and staples and a good abdominal bandage and/or vet wrap/sticky plaster if bunny is inclined to pull them out. You can use a cone if all else fails but would need to stay very vigilant and take them off for a few hrs a day perhaps whilst supervising. Well, that's just what I had heard anyway

I have had 2 females speyed and 2 males neutered and all of them were fine. I know how worrying it is though. All of them started eating OK and they had no problems with their stitches. My vet does seem to do quite a few though. Good luck.

well, saw the vet and was given some good advice, they use disolvable stitches and also give you some stuff whihc has nutrients and calories in it in case she doesn;t start to eat. Still there is the little niggle in the back of my mind about what happened to Lily cat, and i did mention this to the vet. For now though i don't have the money to pay for it until next month as it is £70 which i thought was a little steep, but they do seem good vets. Got to get some electrics done this month for my new kitchen whcih is still a work in progress, so i will have to see the financial situation first after that, otherwise ruby will probably be done early september when i have some more cash. Thankfully no hormonal problems yet still, so i am sure she can last another month before a spay, i might feel better if she was a bit bigger too.

My boyfriend though is not convinced it is the right thing to do and wonders whether ovarian cancer is a big risk, i think the risks of the cancer probably do outweigh the risks of the spey. My BF has also spoken to the lady we got ruby from, she still has rubys sister and said she will be getting her speyed, he seems to now be coming round to the idea a bit more.

I am worried to, like him, but our last two cats are OK after being spayed and they were only 4 months when we got them done.

Around 80% of does get ovarian cancer, so it is worth getting her spayed.

I had mine done back in March. I was going to molly-coddle her for a few days afterwards, but the vet told me to put her out in the run as normal the next day, because it would mean she'd eat the grass and not get gut stasis. It worked a treat - she ate the grass straight away and was back to normal really quickly.

The earlier you get your doe spayed (from 4-months), the more quickly she'll recover and the less likely she'll suffer adverse side-effects of neutering.

my run is on concrete as the back garden (AKA jungle) has ragwort and brambles. I am seriously considering the spaying i think now, i don;t know what i would do if she got ovarian cancer and I knew i could have prevented it

Hi there,

The risks of cancer are actually 90%, and that is by the age of 3.

I know you're nervous and you love your bun. The risks of not spaying her FAR outweigh the risks involving the op.

Your vets sound great, I'd stick with them.

Remember NOT to starve her before the op. This is critical. There is no risk of aspiration as buns can't vomit and their digestive system is very sensitive and mustn't be interrupted.

I promise you you're doing the right thing. You really are, by a country mile spaying is the best thing you can do for your bun bun.

Best of luck!

Baby Saint will have to be spayed soon and I am so very worried about it, I don't know what I'd do if anything happened to her as I love her to bits, and I will be in an awful state on the day.

Our two babies, Starsky and Hutch, are with the vet right now! I'm so worried, which is why I'm searching forums for reassuring information. Ours are female dwarf lops, nearly 6 months old. I know the op is for the best (especially as they have been exhibiting some aggressive behaviour to each other), but I felt so guilty taking them on a horrible stressful car trip then leaving them to their fate at the vet. The spaying op cost us £57 each. I hope they are ok, poor little things!

As far as i know, very few die on the table unless they have other health problems. Theyre more likely to die afterwards due to complications, such as not eating. The majority of time this can be prevented however, by giving pain relief and gut stimulants, along with fibreplex and possibly force feeding.

It must be worrying for you having lost one, but as your vet said it probably had another underlying problem.

The cancer...i never knew about ovarian cancer until the past few years. I used to have males, and only accidently got a female. They werent kept together so never thought about getting her spayed when we realised. The vet never told us, pet shops, nor the books we had (although they were older books, this was over 7 years ago) Unfortunately she did develop ovarian cancer, and to top it off manammory cancer too (both of which could have been prevented if i knew!). She was almost 7 at the time, and had a major op, she'd never been under before but she did fine, she was just groggy for a bit longer. She lived a further 7 months before it spread to her stomach and had to be pts.

I dont think the chances are 90% by aged 3...my vets said females have an85% of dying of cancer when they are aged 5 or over, and im sure iv seen the figure 80-85% from 5 somewhere else. (unless the female has had a litter, aparently that massively reduces the chances, something to do with hormones). Id say that age is more realistic, my other older female whos 7 now got spayed 11 days ago (due to her age the vet said they'd do it, but ideally if she had to be under anastetic for something else, so i left it as i knew she'd need her teeth doing, which she did), she had a little growth in her womb which they think was cancer (said not to waste money on biopsy as even if it is cancer they cant do anything other than observe for spreading.) We also adopted a female bun who was 9 1/2- 10 when she died (we dont think she had a litter, and dont know the cause of death, but she would have died a lot sooner if she had cancer by the age of 3!).

My new baby bun was spayed about 6-8 weeks ago now, aged about 5 months (my vet said they dont do females until theyre at least about 5 months, less risk or something). She was fine, got her home and straight away she ate and caused mischief. Within a week fur started to grow everywhere really quick and scar healed perfectly.

My baby male is very small in size (he is a mini but small for his age), so the vets said theyd prefer to wait a bit longer, he'll be just under 5 months as he's already booked in, just gotta wait.

I personally would say a spay has the same risks as any operation, its the anastetic that causes the problem, but the benefits are so massive. If only i knew about spaying years ago, my other bun would probablly still be here.

As iv said, Iv had old and young buns done, with no problems, even though the one that was pts had such a major op with the other cancer, and my other older bun had her teeth done and has recently had other health problems. As long as your vet is good with rabbits and has done spaying before with few problems, then there's no reason to be worried.

Just heard from the vet: ours are ok, thank god! They're just waking up and being given a bit of food. Lots of strokes and tasty treats for them tonight I think. Hopefully I won't have too much trouble getting them eating when we get them home.

I had my baby girls done a couple of months ago, and felt exactly the same beforehand as you do now. I told my vet about my worries when I took them for their vaccinations. He is a really good exotic vet, and he said he thinks the real risk is from the anaesthetic, not from the spay itself - some rabbits cannot handle that. He said he thought that the risk of losing a baby bun under the anaesthetic stands at about 1%, which sounded really high to me at the time, but he put that in context by pointing out that the risk of them developing uterine cancer as a result of NOT being spayed is 80%, or maybe even higher, as the others said above. He also said that he intubates all the buns he spays (puts a tube into their airways), which means that if they do suddenly have a problem breathing he is in a position to help them until they stabilise.

So when you compare the risk of losing them during the op with the risk of developing cancer, I don't think there is much choice, but a good vet can reduce the chance of you losing them.

I don't know if this helps, but I sure know what you're going through!

B-P
xx

I know how you feel, Amber had her spay last Thursday and i was terrified. It was no where near as bad as i thought it would be to be honest although they made her first on the op list as i was so worried

She was a lot brighter that i thought she would be when i got her home. I think the main thing is to have a vet you trust. For a couple of horrible days that you and bun have to go through it's definitely worth it.

Because Starsky and Hutch are our first buns, we haven't really built up a relationship with their vet properly yet. They've only been once before when Starsky had an upset tummy (injections are still to go). We chose the vet because she was the most local, knowing how upsetting the girls find car journeys, plus she said she treated a lot of bunnies. Now she's got our girls through their op, I think I'll trust her for evermore!