Spaying female rats..

[Skratikans]

I have been experiencing one mammary tumor after another in many of my female rodents...so i have come to the conclusion that I am going to talk to me vet and consider the possibility of spaying my two healthy female rats, Skrat and Constantine....

who has done this...what do you thing...pros vs cons??

[andreaS15]

I don't own rats, but I worked in a Vet Clinic where we did Rat spays & tumor removals regularly.
All the rats did very well, and we never lost even one.
I would however reccomend having a vet who's done them before do it, as I feel it's more tricky then a dog or cat being the animal is so much smaller.

Good Luck!

[Vanilla_Rat]

I have never spayed any of my rats,but know people who have.It IS risky,but normally there are not any (if any) complications.

But Andrea is right,you have to find a rat vet that knows what they are doing and talking about.Good luck!

[Skratikans]

im going to go to my regular vet who has been treating my mice...thanks to me...he is getting more mouse experience....however I am not sure I know if he has spaying experience in rats....I trusted him with neutering...bc it is a simple procedure...heck anyone could do it with the right level of isoflourene...but with the spaying being so invasive...I worry about whether he may hit an organ...ect...I have had to disect so many rats before, so I know their anatomy well...but I just have a hard time with this consideration.....the way I see it is ....the chance of tumors is about 50%....and once a tumor is there I would spend my time removing them over and over, till the little guy would not survive the next operation...I just cant give up ....I always chose to go to a vet and remove tumors...I know its stupid...but there is always hope in that...


Now I see that rather than wait and fight the good fight.. I have to take a huge chance and spay...if early enough...perhaps no oncogenic cells have spread..and perhaps this will reduce the chances enough for me not to have to endure the pain of seeing my beloved pets figthing to live...my hamster has two of them..and i am going to the vet..but that's another sad story...

what I think would be best...would be to spay all female rodent species...it sounds crazy and risky...but I dont think I can take having to go through another loss due to cancer...