Neutering Netherland dwarfs?

Hi everyone

I strongly believe it is important in neutering bunnies. I will have jack neutered when he is old enough and I will have his lady friend neutered when I find one. My question is is it much more of a risk having nethies neutered? I've read some things recently that have concerned me about nethies being too small to be neutered safely and them being more likely to have a bad reaction to the anesthetic (especially in the case of spaying females).

Does anybody have any experiences that can put my mind at ease? Or at least any information to help. I'm worried about it already!

Thanks in advance xx

I think you need to have a conversation with your vets about it. My vet is using a newish combination for anesthesia which involves sedating with one drug then knocking out with ketamine. This is reversible and so is not as dangerous. I don't know if it is suitable for neutering ops but it is worth asking the vets. There are also vets that can do keyhole neutering proceedures which may be more suitable for nethies - i don't know. Even if your vet does not know the answers they should be able to contact a specialist to advise.

I would also point out that my old vets neutered one of my guinea pig sows so a nethie should not be a problem.

We have 9 Netherland Dwarfs and they have all been neutered/spayed and they all did ok. There is always a risk with any rabbit being neutered/spayed it's just a risk you have to take.

We didn't have any problems with Daisy hun, if fact we wouldnt have known that anything had happened to him as he was back to his normal self straight away.

How old is Jack now?

Thanks for the replies

Katie - jack is 10 weeks old and I will chat about it with vets when I take him for his jabs soon. But I also wanted to know for when I get a female as I know it's generally more of an invasive procedure with girls.

Magoo wrote:Thanks for the replies

Katie - jack is 10 weeks old and I will chat about it with vets when I take him for his jabs soon. But I also wanted to know for when I get a female as I know it's generally more of an invasive procedure with girls.

Yes it is a bigger op for the girls but as long as you give them cage/hutch rest for a few days after, and just check their Op site to make sure it's nice and clean and keep them on something comfortable and soft while they are healing they should be ok. We always put our's on vet bed when they have been spayed or neutered for a few days till they heal.

Yea it is a litte more of a serious procedure for the girls really but its an increased risk in all breeds. Were you thinking of getting a nethie girl?

I would just make sure that you have as bunny savvy a vet as possible :-)

How is Jack settling in?

I know somebody that has a nethie girl I fell in love with who will be ready next month. As a rule I'm not a fan of breeders but she doesn't do it often and all the bunnies have such a great life and really are well looked after. I've been there so often recently to spend time with the bunnies. I just didn't want to take her if I can't get her neutered. My thinking is that yes it's risky but one that's worth taking for the health and wellbeing of the bunny.

Also just to say I do trust my vets. When I had pippin I interviews them and they are very very good. I completely trusted them to neater pippin and they were so helpful.

My mini-lop was spayed when she weighed 1kg, which would be roughly the same as a nethie. She was absolutely fine, very awake when she came home but I did have to hand her food to eat for about 24hours, after that she was eating as normal and begging to come out to play, which she wasn't allowed to do!!

She recovered so well from it, and she was young when it was done (17 weeks) so I'm a great believer on spaying earlier. My vets criteria is 16 weeks and weighing 1kg.

Good luck on the new bunny!

When Marshall was neutered her was fine the day after. A little quiet the night after but her recovered really well..... in fact her recovered better/faster than my bf's rabbit who is larger [a lionhead] so i think it depends on the bun and of course the vets.