Vet Dumb neutering question

[Field-of-Dreams]

Really dumb question, but I am curious, as I've never heard any thing about doing this...


Since male piggies temperments do not change with neutering and castrating them can be dangerous because of the open inguinal canal, has vasectomy ever been considered a viable alternative?

Just wondered why that isn't done. Seems it would be less invasive and dangerous.

 

[Petlovr]

Good question!

 

[pinky]

My guess is that due to the small size of guinea pigs, vasectomy might be risky. Neutering is not a major surgery and much less invasive than a female spaying. The biggest risks of neutering would be the anesthesia (during any surgical procedure on guinea pigs) and abscesses, which can be treated.

 

[bpatters]

Apparently vasectomy causes some difficulties. See Effect of long-term vasectomy on seminiferous tubu... [Clin Anat. 1999] - PubMed - NCBI.

 

[Petlovr]

Apparently vasectomy causes some difficulties. See (broken link removed).

In plain English, please?
I understood some of it, but not all of it by far.

 

[bpatters]

Autoimmune orchitis is inflammation of the testicles caused by the body's reaction to something that is naturally occuring in the body. Rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and several other diseases are autoimmune. Men with mumps sometimes get orchitis, although in that case it isn't autoimmune.

Lymphocytic infiltration means that white blood cells are accumulating in the testes, which they don't normally do. They may be related to the development of the autoimmune orchitis.

Seminiferous tubules are where sperm are formed.

Vasectomy on only one side showed various damages to the vasectomized side.

Ipsilateral means only on one side, in this article the ipsilateral side is the one with the vasectomy.

Two of the vasectomized testes atrophied (shrunk).

The short answer is that the vasectomized guinea pigs showed degeneration of the testicle and developed autoimmune orchitis.

 

[SeeSpotSit]

There's bpatters again...amazing. I'm reading this post thinking...oh ya that's a great question! And bpatters has the link I love it!

@bpatters how many piggies do you have and how long have you had piggies?