To spay a female rabbit?

[LaBelleDameSansPatience]

Just read that if you don't spay a rabbit, 80% will die of cancer by the age of five. Is this your experience? It costs £100 (apparently) and is not without risk. And before everyone jumps on me for being too mean to look after my pet, I rescued her from a friend who was not looking after her, have built her a great outdoor run complete with sandpit for digging, logs for jumpimg on, tunnels etc, have an indoor cage as well, let her free in the house frequently (she plays by running up and down stairs) and collects bucketsful of grass for her main food, as recommended by the vet. We do care about her ... but £100?

[thisisyesterday]

yes uterine cancer is the biggest killer of female rabbits (i think) my 3 are all spayed
i would say it's definitely worth it

[CokeFan]

Yes, cancer is a big killer of (especially female) rabbits. £100 sounds a bit on the high side, though.

[LaBelleDameSansPatience]

When you say 'all my three', are they related or not? Did you manage to add a new rabbit to an existing one?

£100 is what I have read. DH didn't want a rabbit in the first place ...

[thisisyesterday]

i had a brother and sister pair, but the boy died.
then we took on 2 sisters and have finally managed to successfully bond them all!

mine cost just under £100 each

[HappyAsASandboy]

Definately get her done if you possibly can - if you shop around you might find a cheaper vet, or perhaps contact a local rabbit rescue centre and ask them for a recommended vet?

Rabbits love living in pairs or groups. I had a single (speyed) female rabbit for about a year, living as a house rabbit. She seemed fine enough, but when I let her pick a husband from a rescue centre she completely blossomed :) It is fabulous to see them together, and now my first rabbit has company all day, not just when I can spare the time :)

If you're interested in getting a second rabbit, contact your local rescue centre for advice. They'll be able to help you introduce the rabbits safely (it can be a bit scary and violent while they get to know each other) and give you advice on caring for the rabbits.

On a finance note, you're right that speying is expensive. So are all the other vet bills, so you might want to look in to insurance for your rabbit.

Have fun with your new pet - I love watching my rabbits play :)

[GangstaGranny]

We had a female rescue rabbit who hadn't been spayed at about 18months. Turned out when we got her home from rescue centre she was really aggressive when feeding her (think 2 terrified DC and DH with bleeding hand and perfect rabbit front teeth inprint!).
After some googling (didn't want to send her back to rescue centre) it also transpires that female rabbits get very hormonal if not spayed which can make them really stroppy. Ours did calm down quite a bit after spaying but unfortunately had to be put down in February due to tumour in stomach and secondaries in lungs
Swallow the bill and get her done

[LetThereBeCupcakes]

Loads of info here, if it helps: www.cottontails-rescue.org.uk/neutering_rabbits.asp

My first rabbit, when I was a young child about 20 years ago, wasn't speyed and she was a miserable mare. All of my others have been and all have been lovely (and usually live to ripe old ages!). I have only paid for one neutering op myself though as all the others were neutered when I got them (from local rescue centre), and I'm sure it didn't cost that much. But then I am fortunate to have found an excellent small animal vet, and they deal with a lot of rabbits.

[deb9]

yes definately a good idea for a female rabbit to be neutered, it will be good for health (cancer) and temperament too

[LaBelleDameSansPatience]

Yes, will look for good vet. (Where we live, in deepest Countryside, vets are more used to bulls than bunnies.)

[LaBelleDameSansPatience]

Wish that I had been given a male rabbit, though. (This rabbit was dumped by a friend who bought her on a whim at a pet auction. )

[Equimum]

It's definitely worth shopping round for a vet to do the procedure. When we got our house rabbits (a girl and a boy), the vet at the bottom of our road quoted £98 for the female and £76 for the male. We did some research and contacted the vet which get the best online reviews in our area. We paid less than £90 for both of them to be done and the care was outstanding.

FWIW we also found neutering made our girl more affectionate x

[LaBelleDameSansPatience]

Will definitley be looking into it, with a view to doing it soonish. At present she is quite friendly - comes hopping up for snacks and lets us stroke her. Might this change? No idea how old she is.