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your thoughts on spaying but leaving the ovaries

Rita

Warren Scout
hi all

i know most of us will at some point have to make a decision on getting are bunnies neutered / spayed.
i have been reading about a less invasive operation on spaying females, and it was suggested that they left the ovaries.
has anyone had this done to their females.
some vets were agreeing with this procedure and some against it.
 
I've never heard of this. How interesting.

I would assume that bunnies with intact ovaries would still behave hormonally.
 
The cancer risk would also still be very high. I think it sounds rather pointless...surely a full spay is better in the long run? Even if it's a higher risk op?
 
Would the risks of ovarian cancer be removed as in a full spay? I know it's uterine cancer not ovarian cancer that is the massive risk in buns but still, that would worry me!
 
Hmm not sure how this would work as the ovaries are attached to the uterus? So surely you just take all of it?
Usually the uterus is the main bulk of the spay (I've seen many and even scrubbed in on a rabbit spay) so not sure how it would be less invasive?
Hmm would be interesting to know!
 
Yes obviously without knowing what they do, I'd have thought it was far less fiddly to just whip the whole lot out in one go rather than faff about trying to tie things off and leave bits and take other bits :? Personally I don't think I'd go for it, I would think it would still leave a hormonal bunny with a cancer risk although it would obviously remove the risk of pregnancy, uterine cancer and pyometra. But they do tend to bounce back from the op relatively quickly so unless there is a sudden influx of new information as to why it's better in the long run, I don't think there's any value in doing anything different to the normal removal of the whole lot, personally.
 
I've heard of keyhole spay where only the ovaries are taken out but leaving only the ovaries in sounds mad! The uterus is the difficult bit to remove, surely!
 
In some practices there's a shift to ovariectomy (just taking ovaries) rather than taking out the ovaries and the uterus in dogs (never heard of it in buns!) - are you sure it wasn't this? :)

Can't imagine leaving the ovaries as they're only really attached to the uterus and body wall... Don't even know if they would survive without the uterus! Definitely no point leaving something in that's secreting the hormones you don't want! :)
 
In some practices there's a shift to ovariectomy (just taking ovaries) rather than taking out the ovaries and the uterus in dogs (never heard of it in buns!) - are you sure it wasn't this? :)

Can't imagine leaving the ovaries as they're only really attached to the uterus and body wall... Don't even know if they would survive without the uterus! Definitely no point leaving something in that's secreting the hormones you don't want! :)

Sorry to be dense, but how does it work in humans then, as you can have a hysterectomy with the ovaries being left behind?
 
Sorry to be dense, but how does it work in humans then, as you can have a hysterectomy with the ovaries being left behind?

Not dense at all.. I'm really confused by it! There are big arteries/veins between the uterus and ovaries for hormone exchange and I've always presumed that they're the main blood supply to the ovaries but there must be a decent enough supply from vessels in the ligament connecting it to the body wall I guess!

I've just googled it and apparently there are vets in the UK that do it in show dogs but I don't understand why you'd want to leave ovaries in an animal - very strange!
 
Sorry to be dense, but how does it work in humans then, as you can have a hysterectomy with the ovaries being left behind?

Ovaries are attached to the ovary suspensory ligament so I assume they are left attached to that! Seems pretty pointless in animals though!
 
Ovaries are attached to the ovary suspensory ligament so I assume they are left attached to that! Seems pretty pointless in animals though!

I've just had a look through some notes and Google and the ovarian artery is still intact so they still have some blood supply but apparently in women it's not always enough

Very very weird procedure!
 
I imagine in show dogs it's because a spayed dog will have a different coat and temperament to an entire dog, I'm surprised it's allowed though as I was under the impression show dogs needed to be a breeding prospect.

When I've seen cat spays, many moons ago, they didn't remove anything. Instead they slit the uterus and cut the ovarian tubes and just left everything inside when they closed up. No idea how they do it now though, or on bunnies. I'll try and find out!

I would think with humans they'd want to retain the hormones from the ovaries to avoid hormone imbalances... That's just speculation though!
 
I've just had a look through some notes and Google and the ovarian artery is still intact so they still have some blood supply but apparently in women it's not always enough

Very very weird procedure!

How interesting. I'd honestly never thought about it before!
 
i have read a few reports on leaving the ovaries in. i kept ferrets for many years and we noticed that ferrets being neutered early in life there was an increase in adrenal cancer.
so that started me looking into rabbits and if any problems had arisen from early neutering, and what is the best procedure for the bunnies. we all want to do what is best for are rabbits and other little animal friends.
 
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