To spay or not to spay

[Annie Robbins]

Hey everyone,

My girl is bleeding from her private parts for the past 3 months. My cavy savy vet and I have given her 2 type of antibiotics and hormone treatments to prevent a spay. She has had two sonograms and multiple tests done, everything has come back fine. I have even gotten a second opinion from another vet. We can’t figure out if it is a bad case of pyometra or a very small ovarian cyst. But sadly, none of these actions have worked. He told me that pigs have a 50/50 chance of survival from being spayed. Back to the wall, I think I have to get her spayed. I want to prevent it, but idk what else to do. Any suggest or words of encouragement or tips?

thanks everyone

 

[Siikibam]

I’m not sure where the 50/50 comes from but a number of spayed piggies on here have survived. It depends on the age and health of your girl I guess.

I’ve no experience with it, but if it would help I would go for it.

I’ll tag @Wiebke she’ll be of more help to you. All the best with your girl.

 

[Emx93]

Hope your piggy is OK
I've seen a number of piggys successfully spayed on here and I've had my own fluffy spayed in July for hormonal issues, we had to syringe feed post spay as she was a little poorly but she did make a full recovery and it was absolutely the best thing we could've done for her as now she is happily bonded with a new friend she did develop a hernia 2 months later and had another op to fix it last Tuesday, recovery from that has been great and she now weighs her heaviest and is back to normal! I'm not an expert in this field though I just wanted to offer support as I remember also being terrified about a spay! I think it also depends on the general health and age of the piggy in question, fluffy was one and in good health a piggy savvy vet makes all the difference too!

 

[furryfriends (TEAS)]

I've had a number of piggies spayed over the years, ranging in ages from a couple of years to 7 years and ALL have come through the op really well, so I would be very concerned about a vet who is giving 50/50 odds!

 

[Wiebke]

Hey everyone,

My girl is bleeding from her private parts for the past 3 months. My cavy savy vet and I have given her 2 type of antibiotics and hormone treatments to prevent a spay. She has had two sonograms and multiple tests done, everything has come back fine. I have even gotten a second opinion from another vet. We can’t figure out if it is a bad case of pyometra or a very small ovarian cyst. But sadly, none of these actions have worked. He told me that pigs have a 50/50 chance of survival from being spayed. Back to the wall, I think I have to get her spayed. I want to prevent it, but idk what else to do. Any suggest or words of encouragement or tips?

thanks everyone

Hi!

I don't know where your vet is getting that number from - but if that is their own experience, I would be wary!
A spaying op is a major operation, but the odds are definitely better than your vet's assessment!
It very much depends on how experienced your vet is with small animal operations, I assume. Do you have access to a vet who is more confident and experienced in operating on small furries? It very much sounds like your girl really needs a spay, unfortunately.

So far, I have only ever lost one sow in an emergency spay (very fast growing large ovarian cysts at risk of bursting). That was over 8 years ago to a very elementary mistake by my then rather old school local general vets, who got the GA dosage wrong as they had put Fflur fully under before x-raying and finding a second large cyst and a lot of gassing in the gut caused by the pressure of the cysts on the gut. Fflur sadly never woke up.


Since then I have had four more older sows spayed successfully with a better vet; the last ones were a 5 year old sister pair. Morwenna was found to have a hard cyst that I was warned would turn cancerous eventually and Mererid needed an urgent spay a month ago for her suddenly fast growing large non-hormonal cysts. A drain under scan would have cost me just as much but would have only been temporary.



I have currently another couple of younger sows with hormonal cysts in the pipeline for a non-urgent spay as my vet fund allows.
Since my local vets are not all that good/confident with operating on guinea pigs, I am travelling further unless it is a here and now make or break emergency and I haven't been unable to get an emergency slot at my piggy savvy vet's.

Here are our post-op care tips: Tips For Post-operative Care

 

[Eriathwen]

I would be wary of allowing any of my piggies to be operated on by a vet whose personal experience of survival was 50/50. The risks are outweighed by the benefits when it becomes medically necessary to spay and its definitelt better odds than 50/50 with a good, experienced vet. I had one of mine spayed last month for a 1cm ovarian cyst she was back up, eating and pooping normally as soon as she came home later in the day. If all other options have been exhausted then a spay definitely sounds like a good next step, but I would find a vet to do it who has more confidence in their abilities.

 

[VickiA]

I’ve had a 100% success rate so far from sow spays with my vets. Any vet who have me odds of 50:50 would have me looking elsewhere unless there is something particular about your girl that makes her very high risk.