Spaying: Always take uterus out?

Always take the uterus out or only above a certain age (or when any problems are already present of course)? Why (not)?

I thought the whole idea of speying was to remove the uterus :shock:

Georgeypudding said:

I thought the whole idea of speying was to remove the uterus :shock:

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It is, ovaries and uterus :wave:

http://www.lbah.com/rabbits/rabbit_spay.htm

(i have this bookmarked, after another member posted it - Jane i think?)

Well, the idea of spaying is to remove the source of the problem. The ovaries. (In the Netherlands that's what spaying means..)

Dutch vets seem to have a hard time agreeing on this subject. Since you guys over there have much more experience with spaying, I wondered what the general thought on this subject is in England.

Some vets over here say most (if not all) problems are developed under the influence of hormones, remove the source of the hormones (ovaries) and you have removed the cancerrisk. Taking the uterus out will make the operation (well, the healing process) more painfull for the rabbit.

My personall opinion is that I'm not putting my young, healthy rabbit at risk to have her develop problems anyway. When it's out, you're sure nothing can happen. My own vet agrees, but he can't spay her. So I'm looking for another vet and some of the vets I spoke to, don't take the uterus out when the rabbit is under the age of 1.5.

Dollie said:

Well, the idea of spaying is to remove the source of the problem. The ovaries.

Dutch vets seem to have a hard time agreeing on this subject. Since you guys over there have much more experience with spaying, I wondered what the general thought on this subject is in England.

Some vets over here say most (if not all) problems are developed under the influence of hormones, remove the source of the hormones (ovaries) and you have removed the cancerrisk. Taking the uterus out will make the operation (well, the healing process) more painfull for the rabbit.

My personall opinion is that I'm putting my young, healthy rabbit at risk to have her develop problems anyway. When it's out, you're sure nothing can happen. My own vet agrees, but he can't spay her. So I'm looking for another vet and some of the vets I spoke to, don't take the uterus out when the rabbit is under the age of 1.5.

Click to expand...

Hold 2 secs Dollie, theres a post on another thread i want to find for you :wave:

Jack's-Jane said:

It can happen occasionally but it should not be a regular event as would be seen in an entire Doe. If it happens frequently then it *might* indicate that some uterine or ovarian tissue was missed during the spay and so there *might* still be some risk of a neoplasm (cancer) in later life.

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From this thread: http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?t=264915

:wave:

Okay so even one little bit could cause problems..

My vet always takes out the uterus, at least, that's his advice. The vet that spayed my Feline moved away and since spaying does is something that rarely happens over here, the other vet has never done it. You'll probably understand I don't want him to do the procedure. He agreed, he refuses to do it.

But now I'll have to find another vet.. And since my vet isn't the only one who never spays any does, finding the right vet is quite difficult! Now I found two, one of them does take everything out, the other one doesn't. But the rest of the story, the anasthetic, the aftercare, does sound perfect........

Dollie said:

Okay so even one little bit could cause problems..

My vet always takes out the uterus, at least, that's his advice. The vet that spayed my Feline moved away and since spaying does is something that rarely happens over here, the other vet has never done it. You'll probably understand I don't want him to do the procedure. He agreed, he refuses to do it.

But now I'll have to find another vet.. And since my vet isn't the only one who never spays any does, finding the right vet is quite difficult! Now I found two, one of them does take everything out, the other one doesn't. But the rest of the story, the anasthetic, the aftercare, does sound perfect........

Click to expand...

I wasn't aware the spaying technique differed in Holland, sounds quite odd that what i thought was a standardised procedure could be so different.

From my very limited understand and research yes, even a small amount of tissue left could become cancerous in future life.

What a situation to be in, i really hope you find a good scenario in the end.

Well, the thing is, some say the cancerrisk over here is not nearly as high as it is in the UK. It has to do with heredity and genes and stuff like that and since most rabbits don't swim all the way over here to spread those genes, our Dutch rabbits don't have the same genes (and cancerrisk) as your English do. But since no one over here ever bothers to do some decent research, no one can guarantee that's true. Sure, we don't hear much stories about uterus cancer, but then again, the avarage age of a Dutch rabbit is THREE! due to poor care. And God knows what they died from.

I'm not going to take any risks so Feline is spayed and Pip will be soon, I hope. But that's the reason spaying is not a standard procedure overhere and I think it's, partially, also the reason some vets don't take the uterus out.

In France there are 2 opinions among vets : Taking the uterus as well is a very heavy ops for the rabbit, when it is in a bade state, they have to take it off as well, of course, but when spaying very young rabbits they just take the ovaries off as the uterus is normally in a good condition and wont get bad since ovaries are taken out.