Forum

OUR FORUM IS UP BUT WE ARE STILL IN THE MIDDLE OF UPDATING AND FIXING THINGS.  SOME THINGS WILL LOOK WEIRD AND/OR NOT BE CORRECT. YOUR PATIENCE IS APPRECIATED.  We are not fully ready to answer questions in a timely manner as we are not officially open, but we will do our best. 

You may have received a 2-factor authentication (2FA) email from us on 4/21/2020. That was from us, but was premature as the login was not working at that time. 

BUNNY 911 – If your rabbit hasn’t eaten or pooped in 12-24 hours, call a vet immediately! Don’t have a vet? Check out VET RESOURCES

The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

What are we about?  Please read about our Forum Culture and check out the Rules

BUNNY 911 – If your rabbit hasn’t eaten or pooped in 12-24 hours, call a vet immediately!  Don’t have a vet? Check out VET RESOURCES 

The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet.  It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

BINKYBUNNY FORUMS

Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A Possibly a hermaphrodite?

Viewing 5 reply threads
  • Author
    Messages

    • Moonlightbunny66
      Participant
      694 posts Send Private Message

        I’m not sure what the correct term (I hope it’s not offensive) for a rabbit that is both male and female is, but the vet used the term hermaphrodite as well.

        I posted about concerns with this a while ago, and thought we resolved it. Starting at the beginning, I was told by the animal shelter that Pinky is a male, and they offered to get him neutered for me before I took him home. I accepted the offer and they got him neutered at a vet a few hours away. I got him in August last year. The adoption fee for a neutered rabbit is $100, and I paid that for him.

        Fast forward to couple months ago, my vets had a look at his genitals. They told me that Pinky is a girl, doesn’t have a penis or testicles (probably wouldn’t have testicles since he was neutered, right?). She said she had several people look at his genitals and they all agreed that it looks like he’s a female. I was thinking maybe it’s just not showing properly right now, or his may be a little confusing when looking at it. A few days later, I get ahold of his neuter record from the animal shelter, stating he was neutered. I sent it to my vet and I thought that was it. The animal shelter even told me that he had testicles when he was with them, before he was neutered.

        The other day, Pinky had an ultrasound to look at his digestive system, because he has always had issues with his poop. I spoke to the vet on the phone yesterday and today, they said it looks like Pinky has a uterus and ovaries. Well… I’m not shocked but I’m a little surprised and confused. Luckily, they said it doesn’t look like there’s anything wrong with his digestive system. We spoke about potentially doing blood tests to determine if he’s a male or female. I was told that it’s possible he’s a hermaphrodite. I did get him neutered, I can only assume they did the surgery. The animal shelter told me that the vet doesn’t do spays because of how invasive they are. So now I’m thinking I need to spay him as well? I don’t want him to develop uterine cancer. I sent an email asking if my vet does spays. Hopefully I can get some answers. My new bunny needs to be neutered as well (young male). They are of course in separate rooms.

        I believe DanaNM has mentioned this and spoke about a bunny that has this (feel free to comment again!). If anyone has any experience with this or any thoughts, please add a comment. Some help with this would be appreciated. I just want Pinky to be healthy, no matter if he’s a male or female, or both! I still love him, of course.


      • DanaNM
        Moderator
        8901 posts Send Private Message

          We did have a hermaphrodite/intersex bunny at the rescue while I was there! It’s a bit more common than most people realize. If memory serves, she had a uterus, one ovary, and 1 testicle, that was found when they went to spay her (the testicle was undescended). Externally she looked to have more of a vulva (hence the assignment of “she”), but there was quite a lot of debate among the volunteers, with some people thinking it looked more like a penis.

          As you can see in this picture, there really isn’t a huge difference between external genitalia in vs female vs male without testicles:

          If the ultrasound shows a uterus and ovaries and possibly a blood test confirms, then I would think that eventually you would want to spay. If your current vet doesn’t really do spays, it would be good to get a second opinion from a vet that does. It would be awful to put Pinky through surgery, only to have the vet open him up and find that he does not in fact have a uterus.

          There is also a chance that the shelter mixed up their records, but since you had to provide post-neuter care that seems less likely.

          All of that said, you have been through so much lately, so don’t feel like you need to do anything immediately.

          . . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  


        • Wick & Fable
          Moderator
          5771 posts Send Private Message

            Just to talk about terminology, for humans, we don’t use hermaphrodite anymore — there’s inaccuracy in doing so and also negative connotation around it. When talking about a human whose external and internal genitals do not match, we say intersex.

            For animals, I believe hermaphrodite is still used to capture these situations though.

            The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.


          • DanaNM
            Moderator
            8901 posts Send Private Message

              I imagine intersex is probably more accurate for this case as well, but not sure what term vets use the most. Truly hermaphroditic animal species are that way as a rule (many invertebrates, and quite a few types of fish are sequential hermaphrodites, meaning they are one sex first and then they switch, which is super interesting).

              . . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  


            • LBJ10
              Moderator
              16870 posts Send Private Message

                There is something called a split male where the penis did not fully close. It can make it resemble a girl down there. Everything else would be normal, although sometime the testicles do not descend in these individuals. Obviously, there would not be a uterus and ovaries as they are still male.

                Intersex rabbits are more common than people think. If Pinky does have female organs, I would think you would want to address that.


              • Moonlightbunny66
                Participant
                694 posts Send Private Message

                  Thank you guys. Sorry I haven’t been on in a while because I’ve been busy and stressed with them. I think I posted about Pinky being in stasis a couple weeks ago. We have a CT scan consult booked for May to look for what’s causing the gas issues. I believe this will confirm whether or not he has a uterus, right?

                  That is interesting DanaNM. I’ll see what the vet says next time.

                  Seems like Pinky had a surgery, since he’s tattooed there, but we’ll see if he needs a spay as well. Our other bunny (I think we are sticking with the name the hospital gave him for now, Marcel) is getting neutered next week. The vet is just waiting to see the blood scan Marcel got at the hospital so we can book the surgery.

              Viewing 5 reply threads
              • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.

              Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A Possibly a hermaphrodite?