Castration

Uses

• Prevent breeding.
• Reduce behavioral problems such as urine marking and aggression. Bonding two neutered male rabbits is much easier than bonding two entire male rabbits!
• Reduce obsessive sexual behavior (copulatory actions) towards owners, shoes, toys or other animals.
• Removal of retained intra-abdominal testis (unusual).
• Removal of testis to treat inguinal hernia, testicular neoplasia, testicular torsion, severe testicular trauma, orchitis or epididymitis non-responsive to medical therapy (unusual).
• Prophylactic castration is generally performed in the rabbit >4 months of age, although rabbits can be castrated as soon as the testicles are evident within the scrotal sac.
• Testicles descend at 10-12 weeks, but the rabbit is unlikely to be fertile for a further 6-8 weeks.

Print off the Owner factsheets Neutering - why and when and Caring for your rabbit before and after surgery to give to your clients.

Advantages

• Relatively simple surgical procedure.
• Permanent solution to prevent breeding.
• The use of chemical castration in male rabbits using deslorelin implants has not been particularly successful up until now.

Disadvantages

• Rabbits possess an open inguinal ring that allows the testes to be withdrawn into the abdomen.
• Herniation of abdominal contents through the inguinal canal after castration may occur, particularly if a closed castration is not performed .
• A closed castration or an open castration with closure of the inguinal ring (also called open-closed technique or open technique with closure of the tunica vaginalis) are recommended to decrease the risk of herniation.
• When unwanted behaviors develop late in life, castration is less effective to control them.
• An anesthetic procedure is required.

Technical problems

• With the rabbit under general anesthesia, testes can easily retract into the inguinal canal and into the abdomen.

Alternative techniques

• Behavioral modification using training techniques.
• Vasectomy to retain male behavior but prevent breeding.

Time required

Preparation

• 15-30 min - pre-anesthetic assessment, anesthetic induction and surgical preparation.
• Allow extra time for intubation and placement of rectal temperature probe, Doppler, capnograph, etc.

Procedure

• 10-20 min, depending on technique used and surgeon skill.

Decision taking

Criteria for choosing test

• Neutering rabbits is commonly performed in order to prevent breeding, reduce unwanted hormonal behaviors and facilitate bonding.
• There is no real health benefit from neutering male rabbits, and therefore preventative castration may not be offered routinely.
• Many owners leave male rabbits entire and elect castration only if undesirable behaviors are noticed.

Risk assessment

• Low.
• Main risk is associated with the anesthetic procedure.