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Cancer in Male Un-neutered rabbits

P

parsnipbun

Wise Old Thumper
This follows on from another thread - but is off the topic.

I have a male bun that is un-neutered. Long story why not - is thought to have heart problem so no GA advised - though since has survived 3 hr op on badly broken leg!!

As he has immaculate behaviour (no spray, no bite, no aggression, humps just a couple of times a day, usually when hungry!!) we are not thinking of chancing it by operating 'unnecessarily'.

However on the other thread it said they were just as likely to get cancer as un-neutered females. Does anyone else know about this?

If so is it testicular cancer they are more likely to get or are there other cancers associated?

Also - (embaressed look) do you check for lumps in the balls manually the same way a man would check his for testicular cancer?? (Parsley is very forgiving and would not mind at all . . . just his owner feels embarressed!!!). And how big is a lump???
 
parsnipbun said:
This follows on from another thread - but is off the topic.

I have a male bun that is un-neutered. Long story why not - is thought to have heart problem so no GA advised - though since has survived 3 hr op on badly broken leg!!

As he has immaculate behaviour (no spray, no bite, no aggression, humps just a couple of times a day, usually when hungry!!) we are not thinking of chancing it by operating 'unnecessarily'.

However on the other thread it said they were just as likely to get cancer as un-neutered females. Does anyone else know about this?

If so is it testicular cancer they are more likely to get or are there other cancers associated?

Also - (embaressed look) do you check for lumps in the balls manually the same way a man would check his for testicular cancer?? (Parsley is very forgiving and would not mind at all . . . just his owner feels embarressed!!!). And how big is a lump???
Click to expand...

Prevalence of uterine cancer in unspayed does is suggested to be around 80-85% in the post 4-5 age group. I personally have never read anything to suggest that unneutered bucks are at these sorts of risks, and if there is evidence of this I would like to see it! :)
I think the reason the incidence is so high in unspayed does is due to a proliferate uterus designed to produce many litters in a short space of time (average wild rabbit age 1 yr) and that uterine tissue just goes 'beserk' in a sense, and there are many opportunities for 'error' by age 4 or 5.
I would assume like you it was testicular cancer in the male bun.... am also very interested in seeing some documentation on this.
 
I have seen testicular tumours in older unneutered male rabbits but they are not reported to be anything like as common as uterine cancer.
It is worth bearing in mind though that if they do occur and have to be removed there is a greater risk with the anaesthetic if the rabbit is elderly than if they are neutered young. It is also possible that be the time the tumour is spotted it will have spread to other parts of the body.
In male rabbit though the main reasons for neutering are still to prevent breeding and to remove hormone-related aggression, spraying, humping etc.
Plus entire males are smelly as we all know ;)
 
I agree that it is far less common than uterine cancer but the risk for testicular cancer does increase with age. There is also a higher risk of an entire male getting flystrike due to the smells they produce.
 
Re-reading my post it looks like I'm suggesting not to neuter!! I'm not, sorry :oops: I would also advise it for all the reasons above and because my castrated male bunny smells just lovely! :love:
 
prettylupin said:
Re-reading my post it looks like I'm suggesting not to neuter!! I'm not, sorry :oops: I would also advise it for all the reasons above and because my castrated male bunny smells just lovely! :love:
Click to expand...

I didn't take it that way, don't worry.
It is probably true that the incidence of hormone related tumours in male rabbits is not be high enough that it would warrant a recommendation to neuter all male rabbits if that was the only reason for doing it (although this may change as rabbits live longer in captivity), but when taken together with all the other advantages of neutering (not least, prevention of breeding) it is justified.
 
Thanks for these comments:

Parsley really is the most 'odd' of male buns as he doesn't even smell (believe me I have neutered male buns who smell WAY worse than he does!!) and is never anti-social. In fact last night I found Peaches his girlfriend trying to hump him as he was not interested in doing it to her (she is neutered of course). We do not know his age but guess at about 3 years old. We have had him a year and he was fully grown then .

Really our only reason to neuter him would be if the risks associated with cancers in un-neutered males outweighed the risk of him having GA with his irregular heartbeat.

Hence my question as to whether anyone knows of any research on this but it looks like maybe not.
 
If he has a condition that makes anaesthetic risky and the only reason to consider neutering was the possibility of testicular cancer in the future then personally I wouldn't neuter.
 
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