Choosing your rabbit’s surgeon

[Billie]

I’ve been researching vets for Jolene’s spay and I feel so unsure.

I talked with the vet in my area recommended by HRS and discovered that she only does about 3 rabbits spay/neuter surgeres per month. In contrast, another vet in Seattle does that many per day. He also takes the rabbit home for the first night so he can monitor it. However, he says that while he does a lot of operations, he doesn’t believe they’re truly necessary for rabbits.

So one vet is recommended by HRS, but doesn’t actually perform that many surgeries. The other isn’t on the list, but does a ton of surgeries (apparently without any losses).

How did you find your rabbit’s spay/neuter vet? Did you take the HRS’s recommendation as gold?

[Monkeybun]

Hmm thats a tough one. I think I’d go with the HRS recommended one, for the fact that the other doesn’t know what is best for buns.

[Andi]

I go with asking local rabbit people, such as rescue volunteers and such. They have experiacne with many of the clincis and who they use, plus can give you ideas on each clincis cost most likely too.
The second one you mentioend who does a lot without losses sounds pretty good/experianced. However what is his reason for taking them home for monitoring? I could understand that if there were worries/difficulties, or the family felt they could not monitor themselves for issues. I’ve just never heard of anyone doing that for a sputer.

[Elrohwen]

I would call some rescues and ask who they use. My vet isn’t on the HRS list, but then, I can’t really find any for CT on the list because they tend to focus on NYC and leave Connecticut off the list! Haha. So just because the vet isn’t on the list doesn’t mean they’re not good. My vet is highly recommended by local rescues. They get in tons of rabbits and have them speutered, so a rescue will probably know exactly which vets they trust and which they don’t.

[osprey]

I’ll echo everyone else’s sentiments here – see if you can contact a local rescue and find out from them who they use for their rescued bunnies. The rescue I volunteer with does dozens of spays and neuters a year, and we tend to use the same 3 or 4 vets over and over. The best place around here to get them done is also the cheapest, a spay/neuter clinic run by the city of Palo Alto. We get lots of spays and neuters done there. Are there any clinics like this in the Seattle area?

Is Rabbit Haven in Gig Harbor near you? They are a fairly large and well known rabbit rescue in the Pacific Northwest, and might be able to recommend someone.

[KatnipCrzy]

Do not take the HRS list as a gold standard.  It is not a complete list and things can change- if a vet moves to a different practice- maybe that vet was the rabbit expert at the clinic.

In the area where I live- 3 a month is not a bad number.  More due to lack of education in the general public more than anything else.

I find it odd that one vet thinks many of the surgeries are unnecessary.  How could any surgery that improves the quality of life of a pet be unnecessary?  And if it does not help the bunny- why is he doing the surgeries?  I am not aware of any quesitonable surgeries on rabbits- like debarking on dogs or how some people are against declawing on cats.   And short of speutering- most other problems/surgeries like dental issues or abscesses present as pretty obviously need to be treated.

[Billie]

Posted By Andi on 05/11/2010 12:37 PM
The second one you mentioend who does a lot without losses sounds pretty good/experianced. However what is his reason for taking them home for monitoring? I could understand that if there were worries/difficulties, or the family felt they could not monitor themselves for issues. I’ve just never heard of anyone doing that for a sputer.

He said that it’s because the night following a spay is when they’re in the most danger. Maybe that’s why he doesn’t lose any rabbits, even thought he does tons of surgeries. Although I would feel guilty that I wasn’t there for Jolene. She would probably think I’d abandoned her.

[Billie]

Posted By osprey on 05/11/2010 01:15 PM

Is Rabbit Haven in Gig Harbor near you? They are a fairly large and well known rabbit rescue in the Pacific Northwest, and might be able to recommend someone.

The Rabbit Haven site is actually where I found the second vet.

[Billie]

Posted By KatnipCrzy on 05/11/2010 03:03 PM

Do not take the HRS list as a gold standard.  It is not a complete list and things can change- if a vet moves to a different practice- maybe that vet was the rabbit expert at the clinic.

In the area where I live- 3 a month is not a bad number.  More due to lack of education in the general public more than anything else.

I find it odd that one vet thinks many of the surgeries are unnecessary.  How could any surgery that improves the quality of life of a pet be unnecessary?  And if it does not help the bunny- why is he doing the surgeries?  I am not aware of any quesitonable surgeries on rabbits- like debarking on dogs or how some people are against declawing on cats.   And short of speutering- most other problems/surgeries like dental issues or abscesses present as pretty obviously need to be treated.

The vet said that there hasn’t been definitive scientific research about cancer’s correlation to spaying, and that it’s putting a rabbit through a painful and traumatic experience based on supposition. I guess I would rather be safe than sorry, not to mention it would prob. improve Jolene’s litterbox habits. 

Jolene’s first checkup was actually with a vet recommended on the HRS website, and the one I’m debating having perform the spay. She seems to know her stuff, but I’m super nervous about the surgery already and I think I would feel better if she did spays/neuters more frequently. 

[BinkyBunny]

I wonder what the vet considers “Definite Scientific Research” as there are several Scientific Journals to check out that have these stats. But regardless even if there were no cancer risk, though yes surgery is no picnic, there are so many benefits to spaying beside just that. (behaviorial positives as well as a better chance of being able to bond with another bunny if you ever decided to get another) Obviously though you didn’t post about that so I won’t get too side-tracked with that.

Since you are leaning towards the first vet, you can ask more questions just to be sure. Check out the screening questions

http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/…-questions

and ask those as well if you haven’t already.

[Author]

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