Hormone treatments?

[MyBoyHarper]

My friend is trying to get me to get Harper hormone treatments. She has a friend whose dad is a veterinarian. They have a new hormone shot for rabbits that last 1-2 months and is non-addicting and safe. The cost is $15. The girl had her rabbit done after it had horrible cage aggression and big dominance issues, and she said the turn-around was 100%. It put the rabbit's raging hormones to rest, so his hormones and dominance wasn't controlling him to the point of stressing him out.

This is what is happening with Harper, and they are telling me I should try it. I'm going to talk to my vet first, given Harper's medical problems. But I may consider it in the future.

Had anyone heard of this, or tried it?

 

[MyBoyHarper]

Here's the info e-mail the girl sent:

It's an injection of progesterone. It lasts one-two months, possibly longer,and normally costs around twelve-fifteen dollars on a small animal like a rabbit. It's just a small amount of hormones, and it helps mellow them out quite a bit for that time period. They don't become dependent on it, and it helps them to chill out a little so they can be "trained" a bit better. If the rabbit is having "emotional problems", so to speak, it calms them down enough to where they canwork out any issues they're having. It's sort of an anxiety problem (rabbits get those...lol...). If something feels threatening, but they're too worked up over it to realize that it's not, then they don't improve. But, if they calm down a bit, it wil help them to realize that the supposed "threat" really isn't one.

Anyways, it doesn't alter their personality and it doesn't do weird things like cause them to grow breasts or that such thing. It sort of"balances out" the male hormones...even neutered rabbits will start producing too much testosterone if it's triggered.

_______________

Hmmm... sounds promising. Thoughts?

 

[Bo B Bunny]

Personally, I wouldn't let them give my rabbits or any of my animals a drug/hormone that isn't proven and widely used.Unless it was a matter of life and death and the treatment could save their life when there is no other option for it.

Rabbits especially are so suseptible to cancer, and illness from medicines,or evenspoiledfood.Iam a worrier tho.....

 

[MyBoyHarper]

I fully agree. It's not something I am going to run out and do. I would have to discuss is heavily with my vet before making any decisions.

This is the first time I've ever heard of it, so I wasn't sure if others have heard of it or had personal experiences with it.

 

[Bo B Bunny]

Yeah, I understand - I am actually curious cause I've not heard of it. I might even ask my vet when I see her next just to find out her feelings on it. They have actually used this sort of treatment on some male inmates in prisons that are there for sexually deviant crimes.... and upon their release.I saw a show on it one time.

Anyhow, Harper couldn't possibly be aggressive could he? Look at that cute and innocent face :inlove:

 

[MyBoyHarper]

Bo B Bunny wrote:

Anyhow, Harper couldn't possibly be aggressive could he?Look at that cute and innocent face :inlove:

*Dieslaughing* Don't let the face fool you.

In pictures, Harper appears as :bunnyheart

In real like, he's really :devil

 

[Bo B Bunny]

:shock2:NO WAY!

I don't believe you!

 

[naturestee]

MBH, just wondering but had your friend's rabbit been spayed?

I'd be uncomfortable with hormone treatments unless they were necessary for health. They can have some funky side affects and affect large portions of the body. It would be a good idea to look up what the side affects and complications are for humans as it should be somewhat similar.

I think I'd be more comfortable giving psychiatric drugs, although those aren't used much on rabbits yet. But their side affects tend to be less dangerous than those of hormones and they don't affect such a variety of organs/body systems.

 

[naturestee]

I suggest you read this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progesterone

It doesn't talk about potential side affects, but it does talk about all the different systems that progesterone works on. You may also want to take note that it increases significantly during pregnancy and is used in hormone therapy for trannsexuals.

Hence why I'd prefer a more specific pyschiatric drug. Hormones mess with a whole lot of systems at once.

 

[bluebird]

I think that would get expensive $15 every two months.It would be cheaper in the long run too neuter him.bluebird

 

[MyBoyHarper]

Bluebird, Harper is neutered. Has been for 1.5 years.

Angela, I fully agree and will definitely read up a good bit more on it. The vet actually did mention psychiatric drugs at one time, but not very seriously as in "we should try this". He just mentioned that they were out there, to an extent but were more for dogs and cats.

Harper's problem is nerves. I think he honestly has bad nerves. He gets so dominant and so cage aggressive and so *me* aggressive, that it runs his life. He gets himself so worked up and so stressed out, that his nerves are running his life. And I hate that for him. No one can walk in my room without him getting upset. No animals (besides the dog for some reason...) can be in the room without him being upset. If I move one thing around in the room, he'll thump andfreak out for hours. He can't sleep without a light on, or he'll bash his cage until daylight.

I really think he needs something to calm him down. The hormone treatment worried me, but I have the same concerns you mentioned. I will mention to the vet again about the psychiatric drugs.I really believe he needs something to calm him down. The stress is taking a big toll on him.

 

[Pipp]

a) I'm moving this to the Infirmary

b) Harper, can you get some shots of Harper's hair loss?

I've posted on the Etherbun, Dana Krempel'sYahoo Group, the responses to date, which I agree with, say that it may be a medica issue that's causing the stress and not vice-versa.

There are concerns about the hormone treatment, which is known to cause cancer in female rabbits according to Rami, who's the most knowledgeable poster there.

And I don'tthink Harper can really be classedas THAT aggressive, although maybe nervous and/or stressed.Maybe they'll have a tranq suggestion.

Big question was whatvitamin deficiency does your vet think he has?

sas

 

[katt]

well, to add a little personal insight here.

i have a cat, she is 11 years old this summer, we got her as a kitten from the human society when she was only 7 weeks old. 2 days after bringing her home (well, it started at the humane society) she got super sick, she almost died, she never became a cuddly kitty, basically won't let anyone touch her (as a child, she would corner me and i would have to call me mom to help me get away from her without being bitten or scratched), we suspect that a lot of it stems from being so sick for so long and being ripped of the attachments that cats tend to get as kittens to people (she hated the meds, so she hated the people who gave them to her. . .ie-us)

she started to have major allergies last year, and she needed to go to the vet, problem was that nobody wanted to see her (and nobody here wanted to take her). we finally found a vet that would see her, and well, he suggested at the time to try a hormone shot. it was for our well being,as wellas her's as she was so aggressive that she would freak in the vets office andbecame overly stressed out at the vets, in the car, while being givin meds ect.

we got her the shot, and well, it really works. . .we got 1 shot, about a year ago this fall. she got so cuddly for the first 3 months after the shot, that we couldn't stand it, and vowed that she would never get one again. after years and years of fearing this cat being anywere near our face (for fear of getting attacked) all she wanted to do was cuddle into your neck.

in the end it really helped her out, it has worn off considerably, and i have a feeling that she is only nice now because she got use to being nice while the shot was in effect. but we can get her to the vet now without to many problems, and i can pick her up if i need to, meds aren't a problem. in the end, i am very glade we did it, the benifits at the time out ruled the weight of the problems that might come with the shot.

i would only suggest getting the hormone shot for an animal if they can benifit it medically like it did with my kitty bagerrah. . .if she hadn't had medical problems, and if her aggressivness hadn't caused her such stress, we would never had done it.

tranqs were an option for us also, but as we had so many issues getting any kind of meds into her, we would have been poppin her tranqs so much she would have been a little kitty zombie. . . nothing seemed to calm her down, but the shot.