How do we stop 'half' neutered male rabbit from trying to mate with us?!?!

Hi,

I wonder if any one can give me some hints or tips please.

The story is our rabbit is nearly 6 months old. From about 4 months he was showing signs of wanting to mate with us, so last month we had him 'half' neutered - He only had one testicle down and vet said that either he only has one, or there is another on up in his abdomen (they and we were reluctant for them to open him up to try and find if he had another one in there). Therefore one testicle was removed. Obviously after the anesthetic he did not want to mate with us and over the last month he has only shown this behaviour on rare occasions which we were happy to live.



Over the last couple of days he has been acting like a mad rabbit and will not do anything apart from trying to mate with us! And with anyone who visits - rather embarrassing!!
We have tried saying 'no' which has absolutely no affect and we have tried spraying water at him which stops him briefly (ie 2 seconds) but he carried on and we have a very wet rabbit!

If anyone has any other suggestions, they would be gratefully received please.

Thank you for your time in reading this.

Jo

Give him a teddy bear.

I've read on here that helps and the teddy will never, ever turn down his advances - or give him a soaking!!

Also, it takes several weeks for hormones to settle once neuter/spay has been done; it's not an instant overnight answer.

Maybe he'll settle down in a few weeks; if not, I'd consult the vet again.

Hi there,

Welcome to the forum

I had a bunny with only one ball- he was fully neutered to eradicate the heightened risk of testicular cancer- you might want to look at finding a specialist if you want to consider this, if your vet is not competent.

Really though, there's not much you can do. If he is driven by hormones then he is driven by hormones, you can't change that by trying to correct his behaviour. If he is that driven then, if he was mine (and having been in a similar situation with a different rabbit), I would be considering that if he is that driven and focused with hormones he isn't having as good quality of life as he might potentially have without them. The operation won't necessarily be easy, or equally, necessarily be difficult or hard to recover from, but it might get him a quality of life that he doesn't have, because it will allow him to be himself.

I found myself in a situation last year where I had a bunny who was too sick to be spayed, however, her hormones started to make her and her bonded friends fight, so me and my vet had a chat and agreed that if she stayed intact then she would likely end up alone and hormonally driven, which isn't fair, and so, despite all the risks, we went for it with the thought that if she didn't survive, then at least she wasn't miserable or suffering. Thankfully she did survive and recovered well and is now happier than ever, with her bonded friends, and either way we knew we made the best decision for her.

If your is that distressed and driven by his hormones, you may need to consider what is best for him given the change in him recently.

there is chemical castration available for dogs. an injection lasts about 6 months. it may be worth asking the vet if that would be a possible for him

belgian2 said:

there is chemical castration available for dogs. an injection lasts about 6 months. it may be worth asking the vet if that would be a possible for him

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Relating to that there is someone on here whose rabbit could not be neutered and was hormone crazy and I believe he had hormone injections which might be worthwhile discussing with a specialist rabbit vet.

Also sorry if my other post sounded harsh, it wasn't written meaning to sound like that, I just worded it badly, sorry.

Sky-O said:

Relating to that there is someone on here whose rabbit could not be neutered and was hormone crazy and I believe he had hormone injections which might be worthwhile discussing with a specialist rabbit vet.

Also sorry if my other post sounded harsh, it wasn't written meaning to sound like that, I just worded it badly, sorry.

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I thought the advice you were able to give from your own experience was valuable, not harsh at all, and I'm sure it won't be seen as such. If I were in that predicament I would be grateful that you offered helpful suggestions.

Thank you all for your time and comments. Sky-O - your comments were not harsh - I appreciate your time and that you are sharing your experiences. I want what is best for him and so that we can enjoy him. He is such a lovely rabbit - perfect, apart from this issue!

I like the idea of the injection - much less invasive. The vet would do the exploratory operation to try to find it, but said that since it is more invasive than a female spay (ie moving the gut around) and with rabbits having a sensitive gut, that it would be the last option. They thought it best to remove the visible one and see if it works incase there was no second one.

possibly a temporary outlet - a colleague kept an intact male and found he got a lot of 'relief' with his small beach ball. indeed, when they had to be parted for a short while, their reunion was....well, the second bang was the door closing!

I had a buck who couldn't be neutered. I gave him a toy rabbit (teddy bear) & during play time ONLY, tied some string round the toy's neck so I could move her around more realistically for him. (NEVER left him alone with string round his toy's neck - he could have a very nasty accident) He never humped me in all our 6 years together but sure enjoyed his toy rabbit.

I see this situation as somewhat different. Undescended testicles are at high risk of cancer in all animals. I'd advise a recheck for late descent, & a toy rabbit relief for him to get you through the waiting period.

I also note his hormones died down for a whole month after his 1/2 neuter. A recurrence of hormonal behaviour at this later stage sounds to me as if the undescended testicle has become functional, & may have even partially descended.
All bucks can withdraw descended testicles into their abdomen at will throughout their lives. Sometimes the only clue that they've descended is that the pouch (scrotum) has developed. It's worth checking whether the pouch is developing on the uneutered side.
Testes tend to descend when bunny is hot. It's no easy job to try to glimpse the "undercarriage" when they've been running around a lot.

If that side remains undescended I advise that you ask for a referral to a vet who specialises in rabbits for the op.