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So, we’ve had Fred for over a month now and he’s doing just fantastic (for anyone who doesn’t know – I rescued him from a snowbank in my town in Early Feb. Found out from a neighbor he’d been out in the wild on his own since the Fall).My next steps are to get him vet-checked and neutered. I had a bit of surprise today when I was doing a wellness check on him myself. I made a VERY quick check on him the first day I caught him just to quickly determine if I had a male or female (cause…I’m surely not going to win any trust flipping him over and poking around his junk). First side of his vent I peeked at was a small testicle. It didn’t seem like it was fully developed, hence why I figured him young and still developing. I stopped the inspection at that as I had his gender and that was what I was after. I hadn’t really checked again as we’ve been building trust with him. Well… we’ve definitely crossed a threshold with him… he is really happy with our companionship and seems to really trust me now. ( You can see his crazy antics/binkies/playfulness with my daughter in this video: Fred doing binkies! ) So, I took the time to begin really looking him over and checking his outward health. When I flipped him over again, I checked both testicles this time. He has one somewhat normal one (it kind of looks like a medium-inflated balloon) on his left, and the right one had a fully developed testicle sac, but no testicle inside.Now I’m a bit confused as to what to do. It is said to have them neutered when the testicles descend. BUT, not knowing his age…. I don’t know if he just hasn’t had both testes drop yet (maybe he’s younger than I think)….. or if he has a cryptorchid. How the heck will I know? Will a good vet be able to tell the difference? I guess I could wait to see if his testes drop, but I really wanted to have him fixed asap and I’ve read all kinds of different timespans that some rabbits testes drop – so waiting could mean that I have to wait months – and I’d rather not if I don’t have to – and I’d rather him be fixed when he is brought inside for good (he already gets frustrated from smelling my bunny girl on my clothes, poor guy) .Any thoughts bunny gurus?
Thanks for your help! Oh, and I’m sorry for the unrefined descriptions.. but it seemed to be important info if I want to get anywhere with this. *sighs… this is what real bunny-parenting reduces you to* -
Sarita… I definitely agree that the absence of testicles does not in any way positively indicate that it is not a male. I DO think that the presence of them IS a pretty good indicator of maleness though, lol.
However… that being said – Wooly’s story reminded me about a rabbit I had a long time ago who had a small hernia near his vent. The hernia looked just like a testicle…. he was a male though… but I bet that it could def be possible that a female could have a hernia that looked like a teste and could trick your gender prediction. So yea – prob always BEST to be safe and check ALL the indicators. I’ve enough experience by now that I can figure out gender with or without teste development – but the presence of testes is the easiest clue-in.
[ Funny, but true story quick to share – My friend brought her pug in to be neutered. Seems simple-right? When they got in there…. turns out the dog had both male and female reproductive parts (unbeknownst to my friend). They had to both neuter AND spay him, and my poor friend had to pay for both too! You just never know…. nature has many many surprises for us. ]
Jackrabbit & Bam, I have heard that too!
AndHenry… I had a VERY grumpy, ballistic, wicked rabbitude Rex for 12 years! We just accepted him for what he was.. a big grouch… and respected his personality, though it is hard to do when you get bit and growled at/chased repeatedly. He finally got too old to keep up the aggression and attitude and relented to being a nice guy his last few years. I think that Radar and now Fred are my rewards for not giving up on Stewie for all those years.
Henry sounds like a peach in comparison to Stewie! Don’t give up hope …. it took Stew 9 years to figure out getting bunny-rubs was actually enjoyable, but he finally did. Thanks everyone on the comments on the movie. I love to see a happy rabbit! And you’re all cracking me up too! Since most rabbits are built like sand-bags, they all seem like they have too much junk in the trunk!
Thanks for your input! I am going to bring him to my awesome and very rabbit-savvy vet (I’m sure lucky to have him) for a checkup first and get his thoughts…… then will take it from there.
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