[DFW_Rat_Luvr]

I was just reading another thread that the poster made reference to the fact that spay/neuter can actually improve the health and longevity of life of ratties.

I find that fascinating and would love more information should anyone have it? Or perhaps someone can tell me where to look for more info?

I have a vet that is working wiht me on neutering my boys but she doesnt do spays. Does spaying benefit the life of the female as neutering benefits the life of the males?

I am ALL for ANYTHING that will help me to increase the quality of their lives as well as the longevity.

 

[lilspaz68]

I was just reading another thread that the poster made reference to the fact that spay/neuter can actually improve the health and longevity of life of ratties.

I find that fascinating and would love more information should anyone have it? Or perhaps someone can tell me where to look for more info?

I have a vet that is working wiht me on neutering my boys but she doesnt do spays. Does spaying benefit the life of the female as neutering benefits the life of the males?

I am ALL for ANYTHING that will help me to increase the quality of their lives as well as the longevity.

Spaying has a lot of benefits for a female, but no real medical/health benefits to the average male. Testicular cancer is not a common cancer in male rats, and the only reasons to neuter should be for hormonal aggression and if you are going to have a mixed sex colony where the females may be unspayed.

I have an awesome record at home from my friend who spays all females coming thru their door (she takes in rescues) and she has recorded what age they were, if there was a tumour removal at the same time, reocurrence of tumours, and age of death and cause. You will have to wait a few hours to get it though. You can see for yourself the benefits for female rats, its rather astounding!!!

 

[Forensic]

I agree that spaying likely has many more health benefits than neutering. The downside is that spaying is more invasive and dangerous, relative to neutering.

 

[DFW_Rat_Luvr]

Do the benefits outweigh the risk?
Also, Im having an issue in finding a vet to do rattie spays in my area - and Ive even expanded my search more than 100 miles! My vet does neuters, but not spays.

Id really like to get all the sweeties spayed/neutered before looking for forever homes for the ones that I dont keep. Although the thought of parting with any of them turns my stomach. I love them ALL!

 

[Forensic]

In a healthy rat with a good vet, I would think so.

 

[twitch]

there is a bit of controversy coming out about the health benefits to neutered males. there is no dispute that females benefit more but there does seem to be a bit of an issue if there is any benefit for non aggressive males. longevity in males has been noted but not greatly documented. more reasearch still needs to be done in this particular area,

 

[DFW_Rat_Luvr]

My goal is to get the entire brood 'fixed'.

I know Ive been better since I was fixed :lol:

 

[lilspaz68]

Here's the spaying record I promised.

(Name, age in months, spay or spay/tumour removal, any more tumours?, age of death and why?)

Prin – 15 mo, spay, no more, pts at 26 mo for skin cancer (she is on ratguide if you are curious)
Candy – 21 mo, spay, no more, died of PT at 24 mo
Tanzie – 21 mo, spay, no more, died at 33 mo
Celia – 21 mo, spay, yes - discovered a small tumour right after the
operation, receded a month after the operation, started to grow back again
but very slow, two more lump developed at 26 months, Myco at 32 mo
Sophie – 18 mo, spay/removal, no more, Myco at 28 mo
Tiki – 21 mo, spay, no more, Myco at 25 mo
Lana – 18 mo, spay, yes- developed tumour at 23 mo, pts at 27 mo
Satine – 15 mo, spay, no more, Myco at 26 mo
Bleuet – 15 mo, spay, no more, Myco at 23 mo
Mitsou – 21 mo, spay/removal, no more, Myco at 28 mo
Lucy – 21 mo, spay/removal, no more, Myco at 31 mo
Irene – 18 mo, spay, yes - Developed malignant tumour, not mammary tumour, PT at 25 mo
Misty – 10 mo, spay, no more, Myco at 24 mo
Rain – 10 mo, spay, no more, alive today at 26 mo
Georgie, Josee, Pasha, Rochelle, 2 mo, spay, no more, all alive at 19 mo
Noelle, Eve – 2 mo, no more, alive at 11 mo
Kate – 12 mo, spay/removal, yes – died at 15 mo from cancer in her genitals
Bebe (Kate’s sister) – 12 mo, spay, yes – died at 16 mo from cancer in her genitals
Ness – 18 mo, spay, no more, died at 29 mo of growth wrapped around her pancreas
Loki – 18 mo, spay, no more, still alive at 30 mo
Chantelle – 8 mo, spay, no more, died at 24 mo of PT
Jolie Bleu – 8 mo, spay, no more, Myco at 22 mo
Bijou – 7 mo, spay, no more, died at 41 months
Mielle, Tresor, and Neela – 4 weeks, spay, no more, 2 still alive at 29 mo, Tresor did at 28 mo
Gigi, Cookie, Lucy and Maggie – 2 mo, spay, no more, still alive at 18 mo
Puce – 8 mo, spay, no more, still alive at 14 mo
Lollypop – 4 mo, spay, no more, still alive at 10 mo
Red and Coco – 12 mo, spay, no more, still alive at 16 mo


No point putting boys through surgery if there's no reason to. Unless you want to keep mixed sexes and get all the boys neutered for that reason. I had to neuter the 4 young boys I had here or I had to spay 28 females (at the time).

My intact rescue boy was 37 months when he died, my spayed rescue boy (same group) was 38 months...it doesn't mean that much.

 

[twitch]

its hard to really tell if the neuter had the effect with longevity in males because there are still other factors to consider. only having one record doesn't really give a full picture. one may have been genetically inferior to the other and each may have been exposed to different things that could affect during their lifetime. some people claim that there is a difference, some go further to say that difference is significant while others say that though they recognize a difference due to a neuter they also claim the difference is negligible, while other people claim that there isn't a difference at all. the problem here is that all accounts are still only based on accedotal evidence which can have too many uncontrolled variables.

i can understand why it may be true that longevity would be greater in the neutered compared to the unaltered. without the stressors of those horomones driving a male to protect his territory or mate he won't be as phyisologically aroused which would lead to less cortisol secrecrations which ages the body faster. mind you the health benefits, if they do exist for this reason, would then be most beneifical at a younger age before the cortisol has had a chance to do muc damage yet. but then the testorone hormone also helps the growth of certain muscles and certain parts of the brain. if that is taken away too soon then there can be health consequences that way. i don't know enough specifics to say exactly what the effects would be though.

right now the general consenus is that there is very little health benefits to be had in neutered male but that may change in the future. they may do a closer study on effects of hormones (and as they do most studies on rats) we may later learn that there is more benefits then is currently acknowledged.

so we DON'T know if it will help. we do know that all surgeries have innate risk and that that is especailly true for rats in general and the very young (5-8 weeks which would seem to have the best chances of having a benefit) and the elderly (1.5+ yrs) in particular. so, the question becomes whether it is right to neuter in hopes of benefits or only when benefits are absolutely clear.

in either case it will be interesting to know what they find out about all this stuff in the future.

 

[jorats]

All my girls get spayed regardless of age.
And it has always been beneficial to them, either by preventing the tumours or by slowing down/delaying growth.