Spaying

[MissyAndMoonlight]

I have 2 female rabbits that both turned 2 years old this past June. I am going to get the one spayed, and was wondering how big of a factor age is. I understand that most people do it when the rabbits are younger, but I only thought of doing it now (I am certifying Missy as a therapy animal, and fixing is a requirement). Should her age matter that much? I don't think so, but would like to get some opinions.

 

[missyscove]

With any animal species the ideal age for spay/neuter is typically when that animal is large enough to be safely anesthetized and either young enough that we can presume they don't have any underlying medical conditions that would make anesthesia more risky or (ideally) they have had pre-anesthetic blood work to evaluate their health (particularly their kidney and liver health as these organs are essential to process the anesthetic drugs and any analgesic drugs). With males it's also essential that they're old enough that their testicles have descended into the scrotum.

Your 2 year old rabbit is definitely not too old to spay. Your veterinarian may recommend pre-anesthetic bloodwork and I would recommend that as well to at least get a baseline if she has not had bloodwork in the past but also to check organ function as discussed above. Female rabbits are prone to uterine tumors and spaying them is the only way to reduce that risk.

 

[MissyAndMoonlight]

Awesome, thanks so much