Waiting period for introduction between neutered boar and sow - 6 weeks or 2.5-3 months?

[harkren]

I was under the impression 3-4 weeks was the incorrectly given figure, and that 6 is now the officially condoned waiting period before before introducing a neutered boar with a sow (when avoiding pregnancy). However, this has just shown in my feed recently:


Does anyone know anything about this and which I should take as correct? My understanding is that 6 weeks is still the norm, but any time beyond that is an anomaly? The 3 month quote is referring to hemicastration, but the 70 day quote does refer to general castration, which is still over 2 months, exceeding the approved 6 week period?

 

[eileen]

i would follow the gpf advise and recommendations for 6 weeks wait.ive had 15 boars neutered and waited 6 weeks before placing with sows.i have never had an unexpected pregnancy.some of the research mentioned above is dated 1979 ! i would trust any information in the GPF guides above any other on line advise !

 

[Wiebke]

Hi and welcome

6 weeks is the correct post-op waiting time. The little baby in my avatar is the legacy of a supposedly safe over 5 weeks post-op boar (not one of my own), just to prove that it can really happen as late as that - and that there is indeed a crucial difference between 'mostly safe' and 'totally safe'; even if it is rare.
Tegan's birth, which caused quite a stir at the time, has contributed to swing the waiting period in any good standard UK rescues (including the RSPCA policy) to 6 weeks. She was born 8 years ago when the discussion between 4 or 6 weeks was still very much underway in this country.
In the years since I have never heard of a post 6 weeks boar causing a pregnancy despite several thousand having been neutered in UK rescues in the intervening years alone. Anything later would be on scale of winning a multinational lottery; it is so rare.

Tegan has sadly passed away last Wednesday. The Cavy Savvy GP Community have shared her tribute from my own Wiebke's Tribe page yesterday to make their point again, by the way; you should find it there.

Here is our own neutering guide: Neutered / De-sexed Boars And Neutering Operations: Myths, Facts and Post-op Care

 

[harkren]

Should the 2-3 month quote from them be ignored?

 

[eileen]

yes !

 

[Wiebke]

Should the 2-3 month quote from them be ignored?

I certainly would - any pregnancy after 6 weeks would be on the scale of winning a multinational lottery with several millions of participants!

In the years since Tegan's birth literally thousands of rescue boars have been neutered just in this country alone but I have yet to hear of a post-6 weeks accident. Believe me, it would make the rounds like wildfire, like Tegan's birth has done all those years ago!

 

[harkren]

Ok we will make sure to buy our usual numbers too thanks

 

[Wiebke]

Ok we will make sure to buy our usual numbers too thanks

Tegan's birth was about in the ratio of being in the last remaining 1-2% of possible accidents. At the time of her birth there were several people contacting me over second-hand (if not first-hand) experiences; i.e. they knew a person who had had an over 5 weeks baby. Nobody has ever contacted me about an over an over 6 weeks baby; they would be extremely rare at a rate of one in quite a few thousands of operations. 5 weeks post-op is already rare, but it was definitely happening not so rarely that it was unknown.

What the Cavy Savvy Community are citing now is in practice somewhere in the region of 99.9999%! They must have been digging around in some old research since sharing Tegan's tribute yesterday...

None of the US, Australian or especially the German rescues (where neutering is even more common) practice more than a 6 weeks post-op wait, either (and many of the first two countries only a 4 weeks wait).