To spay or not to spay - please help me decide what is best for Sharik!

As most of you may know I live in Ukraine, which is probably the worst place for rabbit medicine in the world, and my doe and best friend Sharik is coming up to 3 years now.

I desperately want to have her spayed so she won't die a slow and agonising death from cancer, so she can finally bond with my buck King so she won't be alone during the day, but also for the selfish reason that I want her to live with me for as long as possible.

There is one clinic 12 hours away which is the only plausible candidate for the operation, and they have experience of spaying, and other complex operations for rabbits (amputation, cyst removal, abscesses etc.) but they don't answer all my questions "correctly" i.e. they don't use isofluorane, stitches are external and she will need a collar, they told me not to feed her longer than until 4 hours before the operation etc. and I just have a bad feeling about the whole thing.

I find myself thinking about this way too much these days, and I need help deciding what is best for Sharik - to take the chance on a spay I'm not comfortable with and risk cutting her life short or to hope she doesn't contract cancer. Personally I would probably take the chance she doesn't get cancer, but this is selfish so that I don't risk loosing her already, but I also couldn't bear sentencing my best friend to a slow and painful death.

If Sharik and King can never be bonded is not a big deal (apart from them maybe being a bit lonely) - there is plenty of space, and plenty of love to go around, so this is not a consideration.

HELP!!

I very rarely say this, but I would not go ahead with the spay. The 12 hour journey, the 'bad feeling' you have ( I always think trusting our gut instincts is best)

Yes, there is a risk re uterine cancer, but from what you say about the Veterinary Care for Rabbits in the Ukraine there is possibly just as much of a risk going ahead with what is after all a major abdominal operation, with a Vet who's skills and experience may be questionable.

I certainly do not envy you this decision. I can see both the positives and negatives to having her spayed. I hope somebody knows more will be along butI am afraid I have no advice to offer.

ETA Jane hadn't posted when I wrote this but I totally agree with her.

Jack's-Jane said:

I very rarely say this, but I would not go ahead with the spay. The 12 hour journey, the 'bad feeling' you have ( I always think trusting our gut instincts is best)

Yes, there is a risk re uterine cancer, but from what you say about the Veterinary Care for Rabbits in the Ukraine there is possibly just as much of a risk going ahead with what is after all a major abdominal operation, with a Vet who's skills and experience may be questionable.

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I am totally with Jane.

You have to look at the pros and cons and risks of different options.

Ironically, the less risky option seems to be to keep her intact.

If she gets cancer, she won't know. She can potentially be happy. Yes, eventually it might take over her body, but until then she can still be happy, right until the day she is ready to go. I've lost one bun to skin cancer that spread to her liver and then lungs(she arrived with it), and another I adopted who was spayed when taken into the rescue Centre but it looks like she already had uterine cancer and it spread to her lungs, and both were happy right until I listened enough and let them be PTS. They never suffered.

These are the videos of their life with me, and given one definitely did, but likely both arrived with cancer, you'll see that they were happy.

This is Summer (who had the skin cancer) http://www.megavideo.com/?v=FXQ61WZU

This is Tilly (who likely had uterine cancer that spread) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBTwHDwZC5s&list=UU6rxJXGeRbbtO3wee5lPHMw&index=15&feature=plcp

I would say don't do it.
A bad feeling is a bad feeling for a reason; it's your mind telling you that something is wrong with the veterinary care on offer.

I agree with Jane and Sky-o, this is one of the rare occasions where not spaying is the best approach.
If you're not 100% certain that they know exactly what they're doing don't get her spayed.
Trust your instinct.

Thank you for the replies, and especially for the videos Sky-O, they did look happy and comfortable - I think we'll be taking our chances without the spay then

I think you made the right choice. Enjoy your buns!

Having recently put my faith in the hands of a vet who I now know did not have the knowledge or experience I had believed him to have, I would agree with the others. It is a major surgery for a female bun, a 12 hour journey could be very stressful and tiring for all concerned and you need to keep adrenaline levels to the minimum where operations are concerned.
xx

I know it doesn't always work out this way as we have seen a lot of problems with uterine cancer in older bunnies. But at the same time we have lost young neutered buns to other cancers and have had 11 year old female unneutered bunnies with perfectly healthy uterus Nothing is black and white so as others have said go with your gut instinct. You never know in a year or twos time the situation might be different and you may find somewhere you do trust to do the op

Such a shame that I can't bond her though, as she is such an affectionate bun (thumping, hissing and honking when I want to pet her during sleeping hours aside)

Either way, maybe I should try a boy/boy bond - that way King won't be lonely during the day, and another bun will be saved from a miserable experience in a Ukraine pet pet shop

I can't believe I'm going to say it but have you tried bonding her even though she is intact?

Alleycat said:

Such a shame that I can't bond her though, as she is such an affectionate bun (thumping, hissing and honking when I want to pet her during sleeping hours aside)

Either way, maybe I should try a boy/boy bond - that way King won't be lonely during the day, and another bun will be saved from a miserable experience in a Ukraine pet pet shop

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Is King neutered? I have successfully bonded unneutered females with castrated males before. As long as both are pretty laid back there has never been a problem

King is neutered, but during the one and only introduction, King had to escape over Sharik's back to avoid a large chunk of his backside taken out :roll:

Having said that, maybe taking them to a completely random site, like a room at the pet shop, and trying again might be worth a shot - none of them are particularly laid back though, and when Sharik free ranges and King is in his cages, they do tend to try and box with eachother... :shock:

But you are both right - it is probably worth trying at least a few more times...

I'm basically in the same situation as you, I live in Sweden and I don't trust any of my local vets to be able to do this operation on Bella. There are rabbit savvy vets in other cities but they are about 2 hours away and as I don't drive it'd be hard for me to take her there. I'm hopefully going to move sometime this year and take the buns with me so I'm definitely looking into it then, but as long as I live here I just don't dare. I have however successfully bonded her with my neutered male The first time they met they had quite a nasty fight But I kept them seperate for a couple of months and did the slow bonding method (letting them live "next door" to each other for a while so they got used to each others presence etc.) which worked great

Oompa-Loompa said:

I'm basically in the same situation as you, I live in Sweden and I don't trust any of my local vets to be able to do this operation on Bella. There are rabbit savvy vets in other cities but they are about 2 hours away and as I don't drive it'd be hard for me to take her there. I'm hopefully going to move sometime this year and take the buns with me so I'm definitely looking into it then, but as long as I live here I just don't dare. I have however successfully bonded her with my neutered male The first time they met they had quite a nasty fight But I kept them seperate for a couple of months and did the slow bonding method (letting them live "next door" to each other for a while so they got used to each others presence etc.) which worked great

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I'll give it a go, and fingers crossed

BTW, I'm originally from Norway so hello ex-neighbour