Posted by Babyblue on April 25, 2003 at 07:41:03:
In Reply to: Netuering/Spaying ratties posted by RabbitEducator on April 24, 2003 at 20:48:34:
I don't have any personal experience with neutering or spaying, altho my boys will eventually be neutered. But actually neutering and spaying rats are fairly common and a lot of people do this either for preventative measure or to have their males and females live together.
As a preventative measure, spaying is known to reduce the chances of mammory tumors, which is a common problem with female rats. Many people prefer to spay over neuter because they don't think neutering has any health benefits. Neutering do have some benefits, such as reducing agression in some rats (but not all males get agressive), reducing marking and softening their hair.
But spaying is also a more invasive procedure than neuter, and often a bit more expensive. Because neutering is a simpler process some people prefer to do this instead of spaying.
The most important thing in any surgery with small animals is to find an EXPERIENCED VET!!! There are risks in any surgeries, epecially with small animals, but if you have an experienced vet the chances of mishap is minimal. Also spaying and neutering rats is not done the same way as they do dogs, so the vet needs to know about rats in order to safely do the surgery.
The cost varies greatly, depends on where you are and on the individual vets. I'm in Rochester, NY and I believe it's about $100 for neuter and maybe $125-140 for spay. I've heard as cheap as $40 for neuter and as expensive as $200, so it really depends.
I don't know how long you're supposed to wait after spaying, but after neutering you need to wait about 3 weeks before introducing them to the females, as they can still get them pregnant during that time. Also you might want to ask about getting antibiotics and pain killers afterwards, some vets don't give you if you don't ask. Anbitiotics is to prevent any postsurgery infection (altho if it was a very "clean" surgery you don't really need this). Pain killer is really a must, you don't want your rats to be uncomfortable after surgery, so insist on this. If they don't give you any you can use infant's tylenol.
I think that covers most of it. Let me know if you have any other questions.
