False Pregnancy/Spaying complications. Need Advice or Support!

Hello, I joined to day in hopes that people could help me make a pretty important decision for the future of my beautiful little bunny.
I own two bunnies currently, I had three but one passed away from a strange growth that went undetected in her midsection which eventually caused her demise. The two I have is a neutered Male Angora named, Feathers. He is approximately three years old- I got him almost a whole year ago from a rescue. He is super happy and loves his mate Cinnamon(A Netherland Dwarf Female.) Cin is maybe 3 months away from being two years old, perhaps a little less. A little over my first full year of owning the little girl she randomly had an issue in which her eye became dislodged from the socket. There was no signs of struggle between her and her mate - and it was definitely not caused outside of the cage. After much discussion me and the vet came to the conclusion that it could be one of two things - As she is slightly bigger than most N. Dwarfs - its possible shes some sort of half breed and her eyes are slightly smaller than they should be(or bone structure has larger sockets then they should) and the eye was pushed out while the two were playing(as they often did.) The other was that its possible she had been injured there a long time ago and the injury caused an infection that healed over and eventually pushed the eye outward.

The eye was removed with no sign of infection and no sign of damage on the eye. Perfectly intact - no scratch, no bite, nothing. In anycase the wound was closed sealed. She was good for about two weeks and then she had unfortunately developed issues with pasturella. After having the vet remove what she could without going in, the use of baytril and(with my vets approval) I used a feeding syringe to essentially draw out some of the infection little by little - as well as add gentle water flushes - we had a complete recovery. She is doing amazingly now and seems to have no problems anymore related to pasturella. I had planned on getting Cinnamon fixed the month in which she had her eye problem - but due to the pasturella and the surgery it set me back on this option. After it was all done the Vet said shes not entirely confident that Cinnamons chances are very good if she goes under the knife to be spayed. For if the spayed parts get infected after she is closed up it could cause several other problems that just may be either too difficult for her to survive - or lead her to a much shorter and uncomfortable life.

This leads me to a huge worry because I hear many female bunnies develop uterine cancer and die around the age of 5. I unfortunately here many many arguments on what percentage it is. There is also the issue of her having false pregnancies. She is currently going through the first false pregnancy since her surgery. As I mentioned her male is neutered and well, lets face it shows no interest in doing the deed. The good thing is she has not begun to pull out her fur this time around, however all of her nipples are slightly swollen - presumably preparing to feed young etc. This appears to be the longest false pregnancy of all of hers(so far about a week) and ocassionally makes me wonder if somehow Feathers managed(Super doubtful). Cin has become super angsty, very disobedient with the exception of a stern "Get in your cage.", she has become impossible to pet with out slapping my hand away at least once and grunting. This concerns me on two levels. I hate the idea that if I do not get her fixed that my bunny may have a shorter, slightly uncomfortable life and hating me ever time she goes through a False Pregnant Event. However on the other hand, I am super concerned that trying to get her fixed may end her life that much sooner and not only make her last moments very uncomfortable but make her mate beyond depressed.

What I am hoping for is advice from people who may understand my situation and be able offer me support in one decision or the other. My vet while extremely well versed in rabbits seemed rather stuck in the middle for the 'Best' life for Cin. I probably should mention- Cin is typically in a good mood - running around, binkying, visiting, lounging, bothering the heck out of me, running outside on the leash, and beyond all else shes completely normal - when not in a false pregnancy. Even on her false pregnancy she seems rather happy - with the exception of being completely standoffish with me and only slightly standoffish with her mate.

Thanks for your time.

I'm so sorry to hear, that's truly a rock and a hard place decision Antrim not surprised yourevtearing your hair out over it.

I'm not in any means the best person on here for advice and I've just recently gotten a rabbit so I can't pretend to have the answers.

However it's not something to ignore, and I personally feel it does come down to a personal choice rather than many people being able to say one way or another.

Both options have;
- Considerable life risk
- Considerable benefits (long or short term)
- Neither one HAS to go wrong in the end either and with that largely out of our control

Simply on a personal note I would consider searching for another rabbit-specialised get for a second opinion (not due to lackmof fAith in the venue rather for another voice tonoffer options before such a big decision).

The decision appears to lie in quality of life. If there are big risks then the question, maybe should focus on what the quality of life and daily risks bring if she isn't spayed rather than trying to predict if she will or won't survive or will or won't contract cancermlater on.

I'm sorry I can't be more help but hoping to sound supportive to your situation

That sounds like quite a difficult decision for yourself. I think, as Shrinkie has rightly said, both have considerable risk and benefits.
Quality of life is always top of the list. How will false pregnancies affect her, Feathers and you? Flo had false pregnancy as she was an absolute terror! I only realised it was a false pregnancy when she was being spayed and the vet asked if she could be pregnant.
I think the chance of uterine cancer is quite high, I believe it's about 80% (maybe more?) of does over 5 years.

If it was Flo, I would go for the spay. But cinnamon is your rabbit, you know her best, so I think you will make the best decision for her. Good luck with everything, sorry I was not much help x

So yeah, I did talk to other vets they did have less to say about the issue. The vets in the area seem to know of her pretty well too and even support that she is one of the best. Perhaps, I'll take Cin into her again and discuss further options as it has been a while, there might be new avenues we can attempt. She did briefly mention attempting clamping rather than what ever the usual process uses in the case that the pasturella still be overly active in my buns body. I did want to give Cin some rest and time to rebuild her strength after the costly/time consuming process of removal of her eye. I really do not want her to go through anything this harsh again - however, I am happy that(even though it was a lot of money) it bought her so far another year of happy relaxing. I trust my vet a great deal, she was the only vet whose first option wasn't euthanasia. In fact she didn't even mention euthanasia as a possibility which was the man reason I kept coming back to her. I've heard past 5 is somewhere debatably between 60-80% of the cancer. If the vet can give me at least a 75% success probability I think it'd be worth doing to give her the other half of her life. Anything less then that would need considerable consideration. Thanks for the support guys - you've made me feel not so bad for not knowing exactly what to do with her.

I could understand a vet maybe not wanting to push/influence a decision either way as it's very much a personal choice and by no means a straight forward path. I do think it's great to hear you did find a vet who was happy in offering Cinnamon options of life rather than euthanasia as she's certainly proved a year on she could still lead to quality life (current issue aside as it's an utterly different matter).

Glad you feel a bit more comfortable in the decision and I can definitely say I wouldn't know or feel overly confident in such a decision myself. Don't be a stranger though, would like to hear how Cin and Feathers get on