Should I spay my rabbit?

[buddybun]

I know already that the overwhelming answer will be yes, and I’m leaning towards spaying but I want to get some opinions before deciding. I have a 2 year old female purebred bunny, and are thinking of getting her spayed so litter training can go easier, to prevent cancer in the future, and to stop some hormonal issues. I previously had a Holland lop which we had neutered at the age of 7, who unfortunately passed away about ten months ago after getting neutered. His surgery went well and my vet had a trained cardiologist on him the whole time during the neuter but he did not wake up after the anesthesia wore off. Basically, once they took him off anesthesia his heart stopped and they had to preform CPR and were unable to save him. It was pretty traumatizing for me so I am just worried about my current bunny dying in the same fashion as my previous one. I know that bunnies are a little bit more likely to die during surgery than cats or dogs, so that also worries me. I guess I’m just looking for opinions or some reassurance that I should spay her. I think it would be better for her in the long run, but if she dies I don’t know how I’ll handle it. The vet we took my last bunny to would be the same one spaying this one, and I trust her very much. Her care for animals is immense and I know that she cares about every pet under her care, but I can’t help but wonder what went wrong and if the same thing would happen this time.

[DanaNM]

I’m very sorry for your loss. 🙁  I understand your concerns, it is scary anytime an animal goes under anesthesia, especially the first time, and even more so if you’ve lost an animal during a procedure before.

Since you already know the benefits of spaying (in terms of reproductive cancers especially), I think the best I can offer is to tell you that I volunteer with a rescue, and our vets spay and neuter 100s of rabbits a year. In my memory, I only know of 2 cases where a rabbit died during castration (over a several year period), and both were not with the rescue’s preferred vet. The volunteers were all very upset about it, because our regular vet has an exceedingly high success rate. We love all of our bunnies, so losing even one occasionally is not acceptable.

There are also times when the vet and anesthesiologist do everything perfectly, but the rabbit just reacts poorly to the sedatives. Doing blood work can sometimes help detect whether there might be a problem, so I would recommend having blood work for your bun beforehand.

I think it would help you to talk to your vet about her success rate with spays, how many she does per year, etc. She should be willing to have that conversation with you, especially give your history with her. If she isn’t, then I would find a new vet that you are comfortable with and is willing to communicate that information with you.

I can also share with you that I’ve seen more than a few members on this forum who had to do emergency spays later in the rabbit’s life when cancer is detected. Sometimes those bunnies do very when well the cancer is removed before it has a chance to spread. For example, we had a 6 year old unspayed bunny come in to the rescue with cancer throughout her uterus and ovaries. She recovered well from the spay surgery and seems to be doing great now (she’s been adopted and bonded, so a wonderful outcome all around). Time will tell if the cancer comes back, but at least we bought her some time. Other times the outcome isn’t as good, and all of the concerns about anesthesia are even scarier when a rabbit is older, and you might feel more guilty about waiting in the future when the decision is harder to make.

It is also not always helpful to read accounts online because the many many people who’s bunnies had uneventful spays don’t tend to post about their experiences online, so there is a negative bias to online spay/neuter stories. Most often the accounts you read are the ones where things went wrong, because people post to get support and look for answers.

Overall, I think it will help you a lot to have a frank conversation with your vet, and even get some second opinions to make sure you are 100% happy with the vet you have.

. . . 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]

Dana makes some very good points. Since you had a bad experience, you should have a talk with your vet. Ask them how many spays/neuters they perform on rabbits and what their success rate is. If you’re not satisfied with the answers, then it’s time to look for a new vet. And yes, it’s definitely better to do the spay now instead of waiting and then (most likely) having to do an emergency spay when she is older.

[buddybun]

Thank you for the kind words! I will have a talk with my vet. It’s comforting to know that deaths during spays a neuters are very uncommon, so I’ll talk to her and see how often it happens in her experience. I would hate to have her suffer something that could have been prevented.

[buddybun]

In the mean time, is there any way I could prevent some of the hormonal behaviors or start litter training? Would it be redundant to start litter training now? She’s also been humping me pretty frequently, and I was wondering if there was any way to prevent that. She nips and scratches me so that kinda sucks.

[Bam]

Its good to start letterbox training right away, but you cant expect her to be fully litter trained until after she’s been spayed. Its still good to teach her where pee and poop should go, but keep in mind that her marking behavior isn’t subject to any kind of free will on her part, so it can’t be disciplined away.  You should still squeal and put her back on the floor if she bites you and tries to hump you, but chances are she’ll just keep trying.  Sometimes the sexual attention can be redirected towards a plushy toy.

[buddybun]

Alright, thank you so much!

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