Cancer risk in an old, recently spayed rabbit

[mareofnight]

I'm looking into adopting a rabbit from my local animal shelter, and they have a 5 year old female (cinnamon or cinnamon mix) who looks like she might be a good fit for me, except that I worry she might be very likely to get cancer. Her listing says she was kept as a solitary hutch rabbit, so I assume she was sayed only recently, when the shelter recieved her. I heard that over 80% of unspayed female rabbits get ovarian cancer before reaching her age.

Does a female rabbit spayed late in life have an increased cancer risk, or is she safe once her uterus and ovaries are removed? Is it possible that she might already have cancer spread to other places, without the veteranarian who spayed her noticing?

(This bun also looks pretty overweight, based on photos. Is this something I should be worried about? If she's made it this far, I'd hope that a lot of hay and running time would be enough for her to stay healthy. I don't know what the long-term effects of too many pellets and/or treats are.)

I'm sorry that all this sounds very cold. I'm trying to decide whether to consider this girl as an option before I go to meet her, because I don't want to fall in love and find out later that she's already ill. There are a few other rabbits at the shelter who I could adopt instead, if I decide to avoid this one, so I'll still be adopting from a shelter either way.

 

[majorv]

The % cited is a bit exaggerated. It's true that does who have not had a litter and are not spayed are at higher risk of getting cancer, and the % goes up more once they get to 5-6 years old. You might call and get more information on her before deciding. Maybe they know when she was spayed?

At that age it might be a bit harder to get them to lose weight, but its do-able. I don't know offhand how much a Cinammon is supposed to weigh but you could ask her weight and someone here could look it up.

 

[JBun]

If there had been anything wrong with the uterus, it's likely the vet would have noted that. So probably not something you would need to worry about as long as no cancer was found.

I've found the best way to choose the best rabbit for you, is to find a rabbit that you make a connection with.

 

[mareofnight]

Thank you for the advice!

I'll definitely ask the shelter whether she was already spayed when she came to them, and if not, whether she had any signs of cancer. And I'm aware that the bunny might choose me instead, in the end XD I foolishly started looking at rabbits about a month before I'll actually be ready to bring one home, so I end up overthinking things. At any rate.. she's on my mental list of rabbits to meet, if no one else adopts her first.