Is it absolutely necessary to spay a dwarf rabbit?

I've called a lot of veterinarians and the average cost to spay my rabbit will be $360 CDN!!! To me, that is totally outrageous. The question is, is it absolutely necessary to spay my rabbit? It's so pricey considering that she's a dwarf rabbit. What happens if I don't spay her? *sigh* If It was around $100 or so, that would be good, but to me, $360 is just ludicrous!Is it absolutely necessary to spay a dwarf rabbit?
The only reason you should spay your rabbit is if you are going to keep her with a nother rabbit.





Some people say that it increases their life span however I have found no evadance there is any truth to this. The idea is that if you breed your rabbit there is always a chance she will have trouble birthing and that decreases the life span. It also decreases the life span of a rabbit to produce up to 6 litters of bunnies per year because she gets no break and its hard on the body.





Spaying a female rabbit will ocasionaly help a very grouchy female be a little less grouchy. Females will sometimes decide they want to breed and can be very moody. However fixing them dosen't always work either because it is also a learned thing from their mothers.Is it absolutely necessary to spay a dwarf rabbit?
There are few absolutes in life





However, unaltered females have hormones to drive them to reproduce. This causes aggression and other unhealthy behaviors, false pregnancies, and an extremely high chance of cancer of the reproductive organs.





It's your decision, but please don't come back here in a couple of months asking ';Why does my rabbit hate me??'; or ';My rabbit is destroying everything, what do I do??'; or ';My rabbit has developed strange lumps in her abdomen, what should I do??';
Nothing will happen if she's not spayed, unless she's around males, then she will get pregnant but in that case it is much easier, safer and cheaper to fix a male rabbit.





I had an intact female rabbit live to be 13 years old and she was an outdoor rabbit(in MB Canada)!
Some female rabbits tend to get somewhat territorial (launching and growling) once they reach sexual maturity. A majority of people spay and neuter their rabbits to calm the attitude down, but if your rabbit is perfectly healthy with no aggresion on her side then she doesn't NEED to be spayed.





However, apparently it increases their life span. And as does grow older the risk of uterine cancer increases - read up on it. But I've had many rabbits live 6+ years without being spayed.
Yes - spaying is absolutely VITAL for female rabbits for health reasons. It can also help with behavioural issues too.





Health - Around 80% of entire female rabbits develop uterine cancer before the age of 5. This disease is fatal - meaning 4 out of 5 does only live half their natural lifespan!! Spaying completely prevents this, and a number of other fatal diseases. I know it seems expensive (and that does seem really steep!) but the cost of treating some of these diseases could easily be much more.





Behaviour - Female rabbits often develop hormone driven behaviour problems, particularly aggressive behaviours such as lunging and biting, cage guarding etc. Believe me, trying to get an angry rabbit out of a cage where it has built a nest, when it is growling and lunging at your risks is pretty scary. Spaying (before any of these problems starts) almost always prevents them, as they are caused by hormones.





Welfare - This may or may not affect you, now or in the future. Rabbits are a social species and strongly benefit from the company of their own kind. However, they can be very territorial and entire rabbits (of either sex) will usually fight horrendously. A mixed pair will breed of course, and this is not good either. The best situation is one spayed female with one neutered male.





Please get your rabbit spayed - it really is worth it.





http://www.rabbitwelfare.co.uk/resources…