Speuters, is there a big difference in complications?

[Little_Vixen]

I've been trying to find a vet in TN that will do rats, treat rats, and has had experience treating such. I'm thinking my best bet is the animal hospital connected to the Uni of TN's veterinary clinic and program. They do small exotics to large animals (horses, cows, farm animals for the most part). I haven't been able to call and of course, all are too busy to respond to any emails unfortunately. I will see to it that I get an answer one way or another!

Onto my real question though::

Has anyone noticed if males have a harder time with complications from neuters (abcesses etc) than females getting spayed?
Or if there was a.. I guess different ratio of surviving i.e. actually waking up?
What other complications would there be to look for? Ripping the glue/stitches? Other stuff I haven't thought about?

I'd honestly like to get my rats speutered (not sure if I want boys or girls yet) and I'm worried about complications of the surgery.. as well as them not waking up which that I really have no control over other than willing them to live.

The benefits of speutering seem to outway the possible downsides so I think I'd really like to get it done, I'm just not sure totally I guess?

 

[mamarat]

All my girls get spayed so they don't get mammary tumors and I'm lucky none have so far. As for neutering I only neuter for aggression. I've never had complications from either, no abscesses and no deaths. I do have a fantastic vet too. Hope that helps.

 

[Little_Vixen]

Any response helps a lot ^_^

Once I can actually get a vet to respond to me I want to see if they've had any complications for these because for girls I definitely would want to spay for mammary tumors and boys for buck grease and hormonal agression (If they end up having problems with it). I've heard there was some sort of study done that proves that neutering males can extend their lifespan at least a small bit because the natural testosterone they have can actually poison them, shortening their lifespan. I'm still looking into that. if it's been proven, I'll probably consider looking into it for males as well.

I'm leaning more towards females at the moment because I washed my hands a few days ago (for the record, I DO wash my hands more than this ) with this soap that the smell is called Milk Protein and Honey. When I smelled my hands just a few minutes later I realized quite suddenly, that that was exactly how my babygirl Isis smelled after she was all clean and not smelling of her sister's pee.
I miss my babygirl and that about broke my heart but at least I know I'll be keeping that soap around for a while!

Isis was my fawn baby hiding under Seraphina, the big boss

 

[mamarat]

Beautiful girls! My girls smell like grape soda. But...my boys smell like corn chips. The neutered boys usually smell like the girls they're sleeping with.

 

[Little_Vixen]

Seraphina always smelled like grape but isis was always a toss up between vanilla and milk and honey.

Well.. I'm leaning more toward females also for the fact that the guy's goolies would make me giggle and I'm not sure I could stop xD So want the big squishes too though >.> Just Neever at the same time I wouldn't be able to I know unless they were all speutered because I'd be uber paranoid

 

[jorats]

I've got 25 rats, all but 5 are altered. All my girls are spayed and most of my boys are neutered. I haven't really noticed any differences. But my sister is adamant that boys have a harder time recovering than girls.
I've never heard of testosterone poisoning any animal. But... the stress in unaltered rat can definitely shorten their lifespan if they are prone to become easily stressed.

 

[Little_Vixen]

I've never heard of testosterone poisoning any animal. But... the stress in unaltered rat can definitely shorten their lifespan if they are prone to become easily stressed.

That's why I'm planning to re-visit that fact and see what I can find out about it. Don't want to keeps saying something MIGHT be true if it's not you know? And I think it wasn't them actually getting testosterone poisoning but having enough in their system to shorten the life span? Not sure but it's worth a looksee for me. I've got the day off so I've got nothing better to do really >.>

I got a message via goosemoose from a person talking about a rescue a state over that might be able to train *SQUEE* to an hr or so away from me and the rescue does neuters and spays, difference in adoption fee is only around 20 or so dollars so that's totally awsome. Here's hoping that they can do this in a few months time!

Are there any complications to look for in spays? I know you can get abcesses with neuters so I'm assuming spays as well but is there anything else to really look for?

 

[mamarat]

So far the only problem I've had with a spay, the vet found a dead fetus in her womb and I have her on meds for 10 days. But Milly is doing great after 2 tumor removal and a spay. And she's an older girl. She's already back with her buds.

 

[Little_Vixen]

Yay, that's good to hear -=) And that musta been a little scary to find that..

 

[jorats]

I have never had any complications to a spay except that two of my girls were found to have "bleeding" problems so they lost more blood than usual. But they recovered very well.

 

[Little_Vixen]

That's a relief ^^

I think I've finally ran out of questions... for now

 

[littledevils]

We dealt with a lot of complications when we did neuters through the scrotum. A few years ago we asked our vet to train himself to do abdominal neuters (through the stomach like a spay) and since it's been great... same as spay.

If we had to decide between a neuter/spay... we'd probably go with a spay because of the added benefits (reduces risks of mammary tumors)

 

[Little_Vixen]

That's what I'm thinking. While I would adore to have little (well large) squishy man rats I think I'd like more to have the energetic fun little girls like Seraphina and the shoulder rider in-the-hoodie-hider like Isis.