Views on Spay/Neutering?

[Kris1114]

I know neutering a male, can decrease aggression, & allows males and females to be kept together. It probably also decreases certain cancers.

But what about the females?  I know it may decrease the chances of mammory tumors, but , since it is a more intrusive surgery, that will require anesthesia, is it worth it? What is the recovery like? Anybody here gotten an ovariohysterectomy for their female rats? What about cost?

Just curious for future reference. I will address these questions to my vet(who is well respected by many doctors in GA) as well

Thanks!

Kristin

[stodda29]

I have a couple of girls in quarantine now, and when they've reach their adult body weight and are suitably healthy, I'm going to get them both spayed.  I'm also getting a boy to share their space, so naturally he's getting neutered.

Both procedures require going under anaesthesia, though neutering should take less time than a spay.  Neutering doesn't open a body cavity (unless you do an abdominal approach, and I can't see why you'd want to), whereas spaying obviously does.

However, since spaying reduces the incidence of the most common type of tumor found in females later on in life, I still consider it worth the risk.  My two-year-old girl Aida isn't spayed, and has had three tumor removal surgeries since she was a year old.  None of them was particularly long or involved, and none of them was invasive, but that's three times going under anaesthesia--and all when she's getting older and less tolerant of such stresses.  I was allowed to observe on her last tumor removal, and she struggled with the anaesthesia the whole time; I can feel a new lump on her now, but she's not going into surgery again.

Just my opinion, but if you can find a good vet/clinic to do the procedure, it's less of a detriment to the rat's overall health to have her spayed when she's young and healthy, than to keep putting her under as she's getting long in the tooth.

[kikoalex]

I currently have 10 ratties (4 of which are tiny babies, 2 weeks old).  My 5 original girls and 1 rescue female (the reason for the babies).  My 5 girls are all spayed.  I am glad I did it, and it was done with minimal complications.  The only problem I had was one of my girls reacted badly to the pain meds... they made her hyper.  We decided not to give her the pain meds unless she seemed to be in a lot of pain, and only then in conjunction with valium.  My vet gave me a package deal for my 5 girls (thank god) and it only cost me $500, instead of $750.  I plan on getting the rescue girl spayed (if she stays with me) and her daughter (same case scenario).  I can't imagine why if you have a good vet, and can afford it, that you wouldn't.  Considering that you reduce the cases of cancers, its a win, win situation.  Honestly, I don't think I'd have agreed to let any other vet spay my girls.  It is too dangerous and I wanted only the best.  

I am currently awaiting a boy from an excellent breeder and have the 3 baby boys here with me too.  They will all get neutered if they do stay (of course the breeder's baby is here for life).  I don't  believe in leaving intact animals.  By having all spayed/neutered, I can bring home any additional animals and not have to worry about keeping sexes separate (after quarantine of course).

As a side note, males are not prone to testosterone induced tumors, so neutering has not been found to have any health advantages as far as prevention of cancers.  I suppose it is possible for a male to get testicular cancer, but from what I've seen on these boards, it is a very rare instance.

[scout]

Here's an article by two very experienced rat owners with opposing points of view on spaying:

http://www.rmca.org/Articles/spay.htm

[umbrella]

How old, in your opinions, is too old to have a ratgirl spayed? Mine are all about 4-6 months old, and I'm considering it, once they've weaned their accidental litters. My girls are sweethearts who have had hard lives (well, one of them didn't, but she can make good puppy-dog eyes and make you think so) and I'd love to do something to keep them from dying before their time. Plus, mammary tumors don't sound fun.

Jessi

[TheChicagoCrew]

Four to six months old is not too old to spay. I'd think that after they get up over a year it'd be more risky.

  I myself have had 14 girls and only 2 develop tumors. The one female developed a mammory tumor at 10 months of age. I had it removed and it hasn't grown back and she is now 17 months old. Her sister has now developed a tumor and I will be having that one removed as well.

 Having gone through the tumor removal for Sweetie, I believe the spay surgeries are far too invasive and risky. I refuse to spay any of my females, much less ALL of them. Most of my females are rescues and come from unknown lineage. The risk of losing them to an unnecessary spay surgery isn't worth it to me, considering they aren't *guaranteed* to develop tumors.

 My first two rats were a pet store female, and a breeder female. I know nothing about the breeder female's lineage because I didn't get any info about her breeder when she was given up to me. The pet store female, Louise, passed at 20months old of respiratory problems. The breeder female, Thelma, died at 27months old. Neither female had a tumor in their entire lives. My oldest girl right now is Patch, 21 months old and she also has not developed tumors. Her daughters, Sweetie and Serena, have both developed tumors. The one was removed on Sweetie and she hasn't had one since (7 months ago). I'm hoping for the same outcome for Serena. I have 8 other females ranging in age from 6 months to 10 months and will be watching them closely for tumors but I am not *expecting* any. We shall see.

 It is more of a personal opinion whether or not to spay your females. I just prefer not to put my girls at that risk when they aren't guaranteed to develop tumors. Yes, a lot of rats do develop tumors.. but not all of them do. We hear a lot about them but what we don't hear about is the large number of rats that don't develop tumors.

 Neutering males is much less risky (although neutering still carries it's own risks) and I have considered having it done to some of my boys. I've been thinking about it so long though that two of my boys are too old to have the surgery now in my opinion (they are 17 months old)! Oh well.. it wasn't a necessary surgery so I didn't push the decision. And my other boys are getting along fine now so there is no reason to neuter them either.

 I always go along with weighing the pros and cons. If the surgery isn't an absolute necessity, it does not get done. Spaying and neutering rats, for my household, is not an absolute necessity and is more risky than is worth it to me.  

 Good luck in making this decision.

-Melina

[tamena]

question on this too...
cause it looks like we're gonna be neutering a lot of critters in this house VERY soon (my hubby is cringing at this one LOL)
cost wise what are we looking at for a rat?
kinda curious, so if I get a "quote" I'll know better if they're being jerks about it LOL
We're in the NE USA here...central NJ.
My regular vet won't do a neuter on a rat, he doesn't have equipment small enough
He recommended a few ppl that would be able to do it and that he trusts, I'm in the process of getting referals from them so I can be sure I'm headed to the right place.

[scout]

It really varies from vet to vet, and across the country as well. My vet charges $65 for a buck neuter and $103 for a spay. Another vet in town charges $200 for a buck neuter - I didn't even ask for the price of a spay.    Sounds like you've got a good plan for finding the best vet at the best price. Good luck!