Rabbits/guinea pigs - how many are spayed?

RE: Rabbits/guinea pigs - how many are spayed?

grumpyoldman — Sat, 29 Apr 2017 18:18:32 GMT

The only time I spay a GP is when it has ovarian disease.large fluid filled cysts usually having space occupying effects. Rabbits sporadically ,the issue is that its just as difficult as a jack russell so i think it should cost at least the same .the rabbit people disagree and if some fool at V4P wants to do it for next to nothing I am quite happy to let them get on with it . We do see lots of uterine tumours ,cant say which sort no one wants to pay for the histo. Then the odd one surprises you whips out an insurance policy and wants a CT pre spay or jaw access treatment: just massive client variation in demands and expectations .

RE: Rabbits/guinea pigs - how many are spayed?

Michael Woodhouse — Sat, 29 Apr 2017 17:00:23 GMT

I didn't know rabbit 'shelters' were even a thing in the UK.

Plucking numbers out of the air but I wouldn't be surprised if less than 10% of owned rabbits ever saw a vet and less than 1% of females were spayed.

I sold a farmer some Xeno spot on for his rabbit and I didn't know they kept them for their children and he certainly wasn't going to bring one for a consult, just this week. LOTS of rabbits out there we don't know about (I suspect lots of dogs and cats too).

RE: Rabbits/guinea pigs - how many are spayed?

Rob Loxley — Sat, 29 Apr 2017 11:56:32 GMT

I'd agree on many levels:

Surveying subset of these animals that vets see is very different to a survey of the whole pet rabbit/GP population in the UK

Of the rabbits we see, all those from our local shelter are neutered, none of the guinea pigs.
For the non-rescue rabbits we see we advocate neutering; guinea pigs we don't routinely advocate neutering but we castrate a fair few male GPs and occasionally spay older female GPs with pathology

RE: Rabbits/guinea pigs - how many are spayed?

Marie Kubiak — Sat, 29 Apr 2017 07:19:03 GMT

Sorry, I went off on a tangent.

Generally rabbits leaving shelters will be spayed but guinea pigs aren't routinely spayed. I don't know what proportion of rabbits are neutered as we tend to only see one subsection of rabbit owners. Not most, maybe half but that is purely guesswork.

I occasionally do ovariectomies in guinea pigs as a preventative measure but only one or two a year as owners aren't enthusiastic! Gps unfortunately only tend to be spayed when problems develop but these are usually benign lesions in geriatric GPs and are less common than rabbit lesions. Male GPs are more commonly neutered but this is still the minority.

Marie

RE: Rabbits/guinea pigs - how many are spayed?

Dagmar Steele — Fri, 28 Apr 2017 22:50:36 GMT

My question wasn't really if we should be doing this. I see a lot of rabbits with uterine pathologies so I see why it makes sense to spay at least rabbits (apart from the social aspect), actually I like spaying rabbits and never understood why people don't want to do it. I posted because in a debate with a colleague it was stated that in the US and UK "all rabbits and GPs leaving shelters are spayed and so is the majority of pet rabbits and GPs." Obviously this isn't quite true (answers from the US are similar what people said here) and I can be very picky when it comes to bending the truth, for whatever good intention it may be done. I was just curious....

RE: Rabbits/guinea pigs - how many are spayed?

Marie Kubiak — Fri, 28 Apr 2017 22:20:35 GMT

[quote user="Martin Atkinson"]

There is an ongoing debate on spaying rabbits the argument of risk of ovarian/uterine cancer/disease v unnecessary stress/risk/cost and the jury is still undecided! I used to recommend routinely spaying rabbits for the former reasons but now I'm less inclined to except for behavioural or reproductive reasons.

Gn pigs no.

[/quote]

It isn't really an argument- it is 3 people (at least 1 of whom has little clinical experience with the species) making sweeping judgments on scant evidence. To not spay rabbits because some might live alone and some vets don't do it well is a pretty crap justification to leave them in social isolation to develop a preventable condition. Additionally, stating that adenocarcinomata are rare as one vet palpated some older rabbits and didn't identify discrete masses is massively flawed. We should be pushing for the best standards: stable social groups and modern preventative health care with a quality evidence base.

It is true to say there is little recent documented evidence of the exact rates of uterine adenocarcinoma in does - one old study showed 80% in does 4yrs+ but this had a limited population. Anecdotal I know but I still see plenty of mucometra and adenocarcinoma cases, with some not readily palpable and picked up on scans/rads/ex-lap. RWAF is looking into this with data collection to highlight the high incidence of reproductive pathology to try and stop vets from changing their advice to neuter rabbits. It is sad that vets I have spoken to have been gleefully saying they'll use the rather odd recent publications to discourage neutering as they don't want to do it anyway.

Marie

RE: Rabbits/guinea pigs - how many are spayed?

vs0u — Thu, 27 Apr 2017 17:27:25 GMT

Never really heard of anyone spaying guinea pigs routinely. Rabbits more common but most still aren't

RE: Rabbits/guinea pigs - how many are spayed?

Martin Atkinson — Thu, 27 Apr 2017 14:29:32 GMT

Gn pigs no.

RE: Rabbits/guinea pigs - how many are spayed?

Neil Wheadon — Thu, 27 Apr 2017 13:35:06 GMT

[quote user="Dagmar Steele"]most female pet rabbits[/quote]

If you buy one from Pets at Home they probably will be as get discountered neutering, otherwise not really. Having said that 20 years ago a sick rabbit over 5 had uterine carcinoma and i can't recall the last one I saw

[quote user="Dagmar Steele"] guinea pigs[/quote]

Double NOPE

Neil

RE: Rabbits/guinea pigs - how many are spayed?

Bob Russell — Thu, 27 Apr 2017 09:30:55 GMT

Nope!