Neutering/Spaying Stories of ones who nuetered their pigs

I want to share my experience, and though it is negative, please do not see it as a dissuasion against neutering. I am 100% in favor of neutering your average, healthy boar for the purpose of housing him with intact sows.

I have one neutered boar. His surgery went well, but they sewed the incision too tightly (at least that was the reason provided). Now, his penis is constantly partially extruded and drags on the ground. I have been using some balm recommended by the rescue to, well, keep things lubricated, and he has to be housed on fleece.

I need to lubricate and check for debris daily, and all of the care has improved his condition slightly, but he is no worse for the wear and we haven't had any serious issues with it. In all of the pigs at the local rescue here, only one other one has had this problem recently that I am aware of. We have lots of neutered boars whose surgeries went great and recovered just fine.

I'm with spy9doc for sure! My Pedro had been put under for a total of 3 times because of surgery, and never once did I fast him. Too dangerous. Cavies always need to be processing food or they will go into stasis. Never ever withhold food from a cavy.

Thanks to all who have responded i with take your post in consideration

Here's the text from a previous thread that I started:
"Today I had my piggie Steve neutered at Turquoise Animal Hospital in San Diego. I called around to several vets, and most of them wanted around $300-$350 for a neuter. Highway robbery if you ask me. I was a little nervous, since I have heard mixed things about Turquoise. I will post later on how Steve is doing, but so far he's walking around with obviously very little pain and eating a lot! Dr. Atkinson did his neuter. I had previously read Cavyspirit's page on neutering, and my experience with Dr. Atkinson was like checking off all the right boxes on that page. Pre-examination? Check. Isoflurane anesthesia? Check. Extra sutures to ensure inguinal ring is structurally sound? Check. Antibiotics? Check. Pain meds? Check. Best of all, the checkup was $50 and the neuter was only $100. My previous vet (I'm not going to her anymore) wanted $350! Dr. Atkinson was very friendly and knowledgable about guinea pigs. He said he has owned them in the past. I was also told that he has done guinea pig, rabbit, and rat neuters in the past. Overall, I had an extremely positive experience. I encourage anyone who needs a guinea pig neuter to do his/her own research, but I just wanted to share my positive experience in case anybody in the San Deigo area is looking...

Just a quick update to hopefully help anybody in the SD area. Steve is doing very well. He ate a little less than usual yesterday, but today he is eating quite a lot. He has not lost any weight at all! Dr. Atkinson called to ask how all was going. He offered to check out Steve to make sure he is healing well free of charge."

It's now been 10 days, and Steve's incisions are almost fully healed. He did have a little scabbing, but no swelling/pus or other signs of infection. I have heard anecdotal evidence that boars between 3 and 6 months seem to recover much more quickly than older boars, but I have no experience with older boars and neutering. Steve was only 3 months old, but he was already 750 grams and seemed very healthy so I went ahead and got it done.

I had my male neutered about 2 years ago. My vet also said not to have him fast. They did a complete check up before the surgery and used glue to close the incisions. About three weeks after the surgery, he developed an abscess. My vet felt the side effects of the antibiotics were riskier than the risk of an infection so I went without an antibiotic when he had the surgery. He ended up having to go on antibiotics for the abscess so if I ever had another neutered, I'd recommend antibiotics along with the pain meds, which he had. My vet didn't charge me for any of the follow up appointments or treatments for the abscess. The surgery cost $125.00. I would still go to her if I had another on neutered. He came home that morning and acted completely normal. I had him on fleece and changed it regularly. Three weeks was quite a while after the surgery for the abscess to have developed and I checked it daily so I'm not sure why the abscess formed but he fully recovered. The ironic thing is, he lives with a male now since I took in a senior male that was lonely.

I've had lots of pigs neutered. The biggest complication is abscessing at the neuter site. This could be because of a reaction to sutures (if your vet uses them) or some bacteria was introduced during the surgery (won't happen if the vet is careful), or from bacteria getting into the area after surgery. This can happen easily--after all, the surgery site is the part of the pig that drags through the bedding. Bedding on towels and/or fleece and changing it daily can help to counteract this problem. As well as giving antibiotics for 7 to 10 days afterwards.

Most pigs start eating not long after the neuter surgery. They will start eating sooner if they have pain meds. Most pigs are completely healed by the time you would put them in with any females (2 to 3 weeks).

I have found that some males will have some slight impaction problems afterwards. This goes away after a while.

With an experienced vet, neutering can be very safe. There is always a risk every time a guinea pig is under anesthesia, however. Which is why you really only need to neuter if you are intending to keep the male with a female. Otherwise, just find a compatible male companion and forego the neuter.