update: neuter gone bad, what now?

[Milove]

so I postd about two months ago after I took my bun to get neutered, this was the previous post:

“I took my 4 month old rabbit Milo to be neutered today. They gave him pain killers and the anesthetic injection followed with isoflourane gas. After they began increasing the isoflourane he stopped breathing and so they stopped and didn’t perform the operation and resuscitated him (thank god he was okay!). I am now not sure if it is worth it or not to try again in a month or two…? But all the reseach I have done seems to lean towards a neutered rabbit being a happier and healthier one. He is a house rabbit and after I brought him home from the vet today he sprayed urine for the first time all over my bed, which just made me even more confused on what to do…

has anyone else had the same thing happen with their rabbit while under anestesia and had a successful second operation?”

Since then I have taken him to another vet, who is a high reguarded exotics specialist, and she said she would do the nueter if I want but that she would want to do a blood panel and other precautions during the surgery. she quoted me at right around 400$. The initial visit with her cost me 183$ so the total would end up being just shy of 600$. As a college student, this is pretty pricey but I want what is best for my bun.

Since my first post Milo has not sprayed urine once, he is not at all aggressive, the only small issue is that he drops the occasional marking poop. So I am leaning towards not having him neutered, I would feel so guilty if someting happened again… I was just wondering if anyone has an intact male that is well behaved? and am I making the right choice to not have him neutered?

[Freyja]

what a hard decision, while I can’t offer any advice re the neutering situation i can say that I used to have a male bunny who was the sweetest little bun ever and he was never desexed. He never sprayed or exhibited any aggressive or ‘randy’ behaviour and was the most beautiful bunny, living to the ripe age of 12. so i do think it is possible to have a happy intact male if you feel it is to risky to have the surgery.
However every bunny is different, and i by no means encourage against neutering in general and fully plan to have my new bun neutered when he is old enough, just offering my opinion for your situation

[Milove]

thank you! That information is good to know! =]

[peppypoo]

For males, neutering is not as necessary (unlike for females, due to risk of cancer). I’m sure you’ve come across this in your research, but an unneutered bunny can develop behaviors that make him/her difficult to live with, like aggression, marking and the desire to destroy everything they can. However if Milo’s behavior is fine, and he’s shown adverse reactions to anesthetics, then it’s fine to leave him intact. Do be aware though that if you ever are considering getting another bunny, Milo will need to be fixed even if the other bunny is already spayed/neutered.

My first bunny Tammo was not neutered until about 2 yrs, and we only had the procedure done because we heard it was better for him (we didn’t know anything about bunnies back then, haha) and not because he had any behavioral issues.  So yes, it’s perfectly possible to have a well-behaved intact male bunny, but I suspect that most bunnies are a little different.

p.s. I had the sweetest bunny named Milo too, great name

[Milove]

Thanks! I named him Milo from the movie I used to watch as a kid called Milo and Otis (though it was actually about and dog and a cat..). I wanted to get him a friend but if i don’t get him neutered then I wont. Still trying to decide everything! *sigh*

[Monkeybun]

If you aren’t planning on getting a him a friend, with his scare at the vet I personally would hold off unless his behaviour gets all weird again. It’s cary to almost lose a bun in surgery

[jerseygirl]

I agree. Leaving him intact is not going to be harmful at this point. Since he is only 6 months old, you can always look again at having him done down the track if thats what you want. You might be in a better financial position by then to do the added pre neuter tests.

Rabbits are social but they don’t have to have another rabbit to fulfill that need. Single buns can be very happy with an attentive owner. : )

[LittlePuffyTail]

I agree with Monkey and Jersey. Maybe you could put a little bit of money aside every month to save up so you can do the pre-neuter tests sometime in the future.

[Beka27]

I agree to revisit this when he’s a little older, maybe around one year, assuming his behavior remains stable. You have an estimate of what needs to be done, so over the next six months, try to put the money away for the neuter. Neutering will be better for him (and you) in the long run, especially if you want to get a friend for him someday. It’s not as necessary for males as it is for females health-wise, but intact males obviously have increased chances of exhibiting “annoying” behaviors like spraying as you mentioned.

[Eepster]

Porky is intact and a wonderful not at all aggressive bunny. We decided that the benefits of it did not outweigh the risks in our case.

The first and most obvious benefit is to avoid unwanted pregnancies, but Porky never gets access to female bunnies so that is not a concern.
The second reason is to prevent aggressive behavior, but Porky is the most laid back bunny ever, so not a concern.
The third reason it to prevent territorial marking, Porky does a bit of this but only in his own condo so we don’t really worry about it.
The forth reason is odor, Porky does occasionally get a distinctly male smell, but it isn’t terribly unpleasant and tends to pass in a day or two (I suspect it has something to do with him smelling wild bunnies near our house.)
The fifth reason is so the they will be more accepting of other bunnies, but one bunny is enough work and expense for us to handle.

Basically in our case the only benefit we would get from having Porky neutered is a slight reduction in bunny odors, and I’m going to risk him not coming out of anesthesia and having to explain to my son why his beloved bunny isn’t coming home over it. If the other benefits applied to Porky I might consider it worth the risk but as it is, no.

[Stickerbunny]

My vet doesn’t push neuters for male rabbits, unless you plan to bond them. He said testicular cancer is very low (he’s never treated a case in his 25 years with rabbits). So it is up to what the owner wants as far as behavior. If as your bun matures, you don’t have any issues with his behavior and you don’t plan to get a second, very little reason to have it done, especially with the risk.

I got Powder intact from the shelter and he was perfectly well behaved – litter trained, didn’t chew, didn’t spray, didn’t hump. Perfect little gentleman. So they _can_ be well behaved, it just depends on the rabbit. I did end up getting him neutered to bond him with my girl, which in the end after 6 months living together the bond has broken and Powders behavior actually got worse after his neuter, he began chewing/digging/marking during the month heal up time when his hormones surged and he still sometimes exhibits those behaviors even though before his neuter he never did. So, for him, it seems I put him through a lot just to get him slightly less behaved in the same position he was in to start with.

[bunnnnnnie!]

Zeus was intact up until a few months ago, and he’s almost 4.  Never had any issues.  The only reason I got him fixed was because I adopted a spayed female and wanted to bond them.  The bonding wasn’t a success, but I don’t regret getting him fixed, at least now he’ll have zero chance of testicular cancer, even if the chance was low to begin with.  He seems less “frustrated” now, so that’s a good thing.  But if a bun actually will be under considerable risk if they get neutered, I’d say it’s fine to forgo it as long as you can handle whatever behavior they exhibit as an intact male bun.

[Milove]

Thanks for your replies everyone! I think I’m going to leave him intact and just wait and see

[longhairmike]

just hold off for now. you can try putting a tv in front of his pen and making him watch Glee,, it will have relatively the same effect as neutering.

[LBJ10]

Haha Mike! You’re so funny. My mom actually likes that show. I thought it was funny when they had the Rocky Horror episode and she had no clue what was going on.

Milove – I agree with everyone else. Just wait and see what happens. If his behavior isn’t a problem, then there is no reason to risk having him neutered.

[Milove]

Haha I’ll try that!

[Milove]

Thanks everyone for your replies! makes me feel better about what I was thinking of doing

[LittlePuffyTail]

lolz, Mike is the class clown of the Forum.

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