Lagomorphine
Warren Scout
Dear Lagomorphologists,
The majority of rabbit owners seem to be in favour of having female rabbits spayed but, in the interest of having a balanced view, I was wondering if anybody is against the idea.
Here's our situation it a nutshell: we have Willow, a 7 month old unspayed doe living in the garden next to Charlie, a castrated 2-year old buck. In general, I have no particular issues with Willow as she is. She is healthy, friendly and tidy. Both she and her companion have a decent amount of space, 24/7 access to grass and they both seem fairly happy, apart from one thing: at the moment they can't live together. Basically, whenever I have tried to let them near each other, Willow wanted Charlie to mate with her (this is fairly obvious from her behaviour) but of course Charlie wasn't interested. So they ended up with Willow pestering Charlie, Charlie getting fed up and biting her, then the situation escalated and so I separated them.
So they live parallel lives, side-by-side, a few inches apart in separate runs. They definitely find reassurance in each other's company, especially Charlie seems to stay fairly close to Willow.
Now I must point out I am not particularly unhappy about the situation and if it continued indefinitely, I am not worried about it. I would naturally like to do the best for both of them and of course I can see how them being able to live together would be a bonus - to start with they would both have access to about twice their living space in addition to having somebody to snuggle up to. At the same time I understand that having Willow spayed does not guarantee that this will definitely happen, only make it a bit more likely.
On the other hand, I really don't like the idea of unnecessary surgical procedures. Whenever I take either rabbit to the vet, they get so stressed out, I can hardly wait to get back home with them. I must admit I am also a little bit unsure about the validity of the usual argument that unspayed females tend to develop uterine cancer. Some reports suggest that actually these tend to be benign and do not necessarily mean that the rabbit is doomed. Perhaps this is not quite a good example but my wife has some fibroids and they never gave her any problems and she certainly wouldn't consider a hysterectomy "just in case". I am also a bit sceptical about vets advice, as - and I say this without the slightest disrespect to their professional judgement - there is a potential conflict of interest.
So I thought I'd ask the question. By the way, I am not dogmatic and accept that whatever any of you will write, it will only be a personal opinion given with the best will in the world, as they say. I would just want to have a gut feel for what is best for Willow.
The majority of rabbit owners seem to be in favour of having female rabbits spayed but, in the interest of having a balanced view, I was wondering if anybody is against the idea.
Here's our situation it a nutshell: we have Willow, a 7 month old unspayed doe living in the garden next to Charlie, a castrated 2-year old buck. In general, I have no particular issues with Willow as she is. She is healthy, friendly and tidy. Both she and her companion have a decent amount of space, 24/7 access to grass and they both seem fairly happy, apart from one thing: at the moment they can't live together. Basically, whenever I have tried to let them near each other, Willow wanted Charlie to mate with her (this is fairly obvious from her behaviour) but of course Charlie wasn't interested. So they ended up with Willow pestering Charlie, Charlie getting fed up and biting her, then the situation escalated and so I separated them.
So they live parallel lives, side-by-side, a few inches apart in separate runs. They definitely find reassurance in each other's company, especially Charlie seems to stay fairly close to Willow.
Now I must point out I am not particularly unhappy about the situation and if it continued indefinitely, I am not worried about it. I would naturally like to do the best for both of them and of course I can see how them being able to live together would be a bonus - to start with they would both have access to about twice their living space in addition to having somebody to snuggle up to. At the same time I understand that having Willow spayed does not guarantee that this will definitely happen, only make it a bit more likely.
On the other hand, I really don't like the idea of unnecessary surgical procedures. Whenever I take either rabbit to the vet, they get so stressed out, I can hardly wait to get back home with them. I must admit I am also a little bit unsure about the validity of the usual argument that unspayed females tend to develop uterine cancer. Some reports suggest that actually these tend to be benign and do not necessarily mean that the rabbit is doomed. Perhaps this is not quite a good example but my wife has some fibroids and they never gave her any problems and she certainly wouldn't consider a hysterectomy "just in case". I am also a bit sceptical about vets advice, as - and I say this without the slightest disrespect to their professional judgement - there is a potential conflict of interest.
So I thought I'd ask the question. By the way, I am not dogmatic and accept that whatever any of you will write, it will only be a personal opinion given with the best will in the world, as they say. I would just want to have a gut feel for what is best for Willow.