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Routine spaying of sows?

Wheekallweek

Adult Guinea Pig
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My sister as you may know is a final year veterinary nurse, who has an interest in guinea pigs of course.
She came across this link earlier today with regard to routine spaying of sows due to risks associated with uterine cancers and cysts.
Of course, any op is a serious matter for a guinea pig, particularly a full spay.
It's quite interesting! What do you all think? 🤔

Cystic ovarian disease - the veterinary nurse
Elective ovariectomy - dvm369
 
My sister as you may know is a final year veterinary nurse, who has an interest in guinea pigs of course.
She came across this link earlier today with regard to routine spaying of sows due to risks associated with uterine cancers and cysts.
Of course, any op is a serious matter for a guinea pig, particularly a full spay.
It's quite interesting! What do you all think? 🤔

Cystic ovarian disease - the veterinary nurse
Elective ovariectomy - dvm369

To my knowledge a number of US rescues have taken to having routine ovariectomies rather than boar castration. This method is leaving the womb in the body but by going in from the back with smaller incisions this method is less invasive and seems to come with better recovery rate.

A full spay is a major and much more expensive operation. While I have had majorly good experiences with having access to a good operating vet, outcomes from other forum members are still somewhat in the balance. At least one of my sows needed a full spay because the womb had gone wrong.

In view of the massive ongoing price hike, I think that while the concept is worth considering, it would need a much tighter net of vets familiar with the operation and a way to speed up the operation and make it affordable for the wider public.

Unlike rabbits where the cancer rate is near total, there is not quite the pressure in guinea pigs - nor is the familiarity with them as a pet species in general vets, which is another major stumbling block.
 
I've thus far been pretty lucky, with only one pig out of seven having any sort of reproductive tract issues so far, and given the fact that in my area this operation would probably run close to a thousand dollars and the vet in question would probably not have much experience, I'd be reluctant to sign up. If the operation became commonplace akin to a dog or cat spay and was reasonably priced, I might consider it at that point.

I've had much worse luck with hamsters as far as reproductive issues go, to the point that I now prefer male hamsters to female ones to sidestep the whole issue. I lost a lovely ham to pyometra right before Christmas and it was pretty heartbreaking. I suspect that hamsters are way too small for any vet to ever want to risk pre-emptive surgery on them, though, but if they ever did I would sign up for that because my experience of issues has been much higher for them than for my pigs.
 
My vets recommend it. They are an expensive vets operation wise but do discount spays done for young sows to be bonded with a boar, making a cheaper operation than having it done in an older sow for health reasons.
 
I think in an ideal world it would be wonderful to spay all sows but, and it’s a big but the vast majority of rescues run on a shoestring of donations, neutering boars is a more likely “value for money” Then there is the skills of most vets spaying guinea pigs which at best is sketchy
Having three sows I am mindful of the expense, I’ve already spent £600 this month on vet bills for relatively simple straightforward procedures of lumps and hay poke 😟
 
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