Introduction
Male rabbits are neutered for a variety of reasons. It helps minimize fighting behavior, makes it impossible to impregnate females, and prevents testicular cancer.
In the beginning of this page we will show you one of the more traditional ways rabbits have been neutered. At the end, we will show you how we do it with the laser, which is mandatory for all neuters in our hospital.
There is a short Quicktime movie on using the laser at the end of this page. It will take
a few minutes to download depending on your connection speed. You will need Quicktime from www.apple.com
to view the movie.
The reason this male rabbit has one testicle substantially larger than the other is due to cancer. Removal of this testicle is needed for treatment.
If this pet had been neutered at a young age this problem would not have occurred.
This area contains graphic pictures of an actual spay performed at the hospital. It may not be suitable for all ages
Preparation
When the rabbit's pre-anesthetic blood panel and physical exam are completed, it is anesthetized and brought into surgery.
These are the normal testicles of a rabbit about to undergo a neuter. The hair has been clipped on the abdomen and the surgical site has been cleaned. The arrowpoints towards the head.
Surgery
We use the laser for all or our netuers.
It has significant advatanges over the scalpel blade. In this picture
our doctor is just starting the laser incision.
With the laser there is no bleeding and much
less post-operative pain and swelling.You can see the testicle appearing on the left where
the scrotum has been incised by the laser.
After the testicle is gently pulled out of the scrotum it is ligated
with 2 sutures before it is cut off. You can see the first suture at the bottom (arrow). Again, note the lack of bleeding.
Instead of sutures we seal the scrotum with a special adhesive. This minimizes surgical time,
there is no post-operative discomfort or itchiness from sutures, and you do not need to return for suture removal.
We have a short movie that shows the same procedure on a different rabbit. Double click on the picture and the short movie will play in a moment.
We have much more information about laser surgery.
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