Spaying and age?Ivy's surgery this morning.

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Melissa's ZOO

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Joined
Sep 4, 2007
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Broken Arrow, Oklahoma
So Ivy is around 2 years old. In good health other than a permanet head tilt and her tumors that just keep coming back. She has two now and last night I noticed some vaginal bleeding. So I was wondering if having her spayed at this age is a good idea or is it too late to prevent any other tumors? Now that I found a good vet who will do a spay and tumor removal at the same time I wounder if it would be worth it to have it done.
 
I would have her spayed if she's in good health, although the tumors could still come back at her age. But again, they might not. I think it's a tough decision at 2, but myself, I would give it a go.
 
If she's in good health otherwise, I would do it. It's less likely to assist with the tumours at this age, but there's always the chance, and if she has vaginal bleeding there is likely something going on in there that could be fixed with a spay.

I recently had a female spayed to prevent regrowth of several small tumours she had growing. It turned out the tumours were all cysts and she had cysts in her ovaries! It was lucky we decided to spay her at the same time we did the tumour removals.

Good luck with your girl, whatever you decide.
 
If she is experiencing some vaginal bleeding, she may need an emergency spay, depending upon what is causing the bleeding. Personally, I would take her to the vet, asap.
 
I will take her tomorrow it is the soonest I can get her in. I feel confident with this vet and I am sure Ivy will be okay to make it through the surgery. So I will just get the spaying started with her and move onto the yougins next month. It is an awful big chunk of money to dish out all at once so I will be doing one maybe two a month depending on the fundage.
 
Spaying is still a viable option, even at 2yrs old. There's a better chance of the tumors not coming back than if you just had a removal. Especially since she's in such good health, she should do just fine. Hopefully the bleeding is just a UTI and nothing too serious.

I'm so glad you were able to find a good vet!!
 
I too am on the side of doing the spay. Any and all females that enter my home will be spayed regardless of age. We will only consider the health of the rat.
A few of the spays we've done have shown some babies to have cysts on their overies or in the their uterus, this would surely have cut their lives too short.
 
I had a 2.5yo rat (Chutney) speyed when she developed vaginal bleeding and I speyed her sister (Pickles) at 2 yo when she got some tumours removed. Both rats went well and Chutney even had respiratory problems at the time. So like everyone else has said, it's a good idea to get Ivy speyed.
 
Although we have all our girls spayed (unless they are elderly or have poor health when we adopt them) now, with some of my first groups, we did have a couple of girls develop vaginal bleeding. We always had them spayed after about three days on Baytril (to start clearing up infection and help to ward it off during surgery).

Our vet has always recommended a spay in the case of vaginal bleeding. The baytril may clear up infection, but there's usually something that's causing it and it always seems to come back.

For me personally....I would really consider getting just the spay done, unless one of the tumors is becoming life threatening. Rats should not be in surgery any longer than necessary, so a spay and tumor removal can take some time. My vet is SUPER fast, and even he will say he'd only do a spay/tumor removal if one goes very quickly. As rats age, surgery takes more out of them. It's sometimes best to consider what is most important, and have your vet play it by ear how much can be done at once safely. Also, spaying as they get older, is not a guarantee that tumors won't return. It could help, but in the ones I've had spayed after a tumor appears....they still grew more :**(
 
As for the spay and tumour removal, that would depend on the vet. My vet has always done both at the same time. In fact she will no longer do a tumour removal without a spay. It has been our experience that a spay at any age is a huge benefit to our girls.
But again, it all depends on how confident and comfortable the vet is with the procedures.
 
Having had one rat die of ovarian cancer and another develop a uterine infection, I find that speying is beneficial for more than just mammary tumours. So I'm all for the spey. It's funny how most of the speying debate (not that we’re having a debate here) centres about mammary tumours and largely ignores other reproductive health disorders which are also common.
 
Well, I actually took Ivy in this morning for a spay and tumor removal $310.00 after it is all said and done. The vet agreed that at any age a spay is beneficial and that 9 times out of 10 the tumors never resufface. Regardless she does have vaginal bleeding and the only way to fix it is a spay. I feel confident with this vet. There are 4 vets who are all small animal, exotic, reptile and fish educated I guess you would call it and Dr. Setser the main vet has been working on rats for YEARS. He has an article from 1995 in his office where he talks about just rats and their health and his love for them. So it is a large chunk of money but I do not care even if it gives me just a few more months with Ivy at least they will be tumor and female problem free.


So keep my girl in mind. I am chewing my fingers nails waiting for the call that everything okay.
 
I have had a girl spayed, and had a tumour removed at the same time, when she was about 2 years old. Holly came out of it fine, and she was up and about in no time.
I am sure that Ivy will be fine as well, keep us posted when you can. Waiting for the results is always tough.
 
Dewi said:
Having had one rat die of ovarian cancer and another develop a uterine infection, I find that speying is beneficial for more than just mammary tumours. So I'm all for the spey. It's funny how most of the speying debate (not that we’re having a debate here) centres about mammary tumours and largely ignores other reproductive health disorders which are also common.
Click to expand...

You are so right Dewi, it's shocking how many times my vet told us, good thing we did this girl because there was a tumour in the uterus or a cyst on the overies or once, something was just floating in the uterus. She didn't know what it was. :shock:
 

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