Re: Iguana Spay/Neuter

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Posted by Iguanamomma on September 20, 1998 at 23:48:07:

In Reply to: Iguana Spay/Neuter posted by Teresa on September 20, 1998 at 15:23:31:

Spaying - Spaying of dogs & cats has been going on for years now. Except for putting them out to do it & the possible side effects of doing so, it is a pretty safe operation at this point. As has been pointed out by others, the care of iguanas (or any reptile/amphibian) is still a fairly new speciality. You would need a herp vet who has long term experience in doing spaying of iguanas. If you were to make the initial incision at the point normally done on other animals, you would cut a major artery in an iguana & they would bleed out before you could help them. It is very costly because it is so specialized. We had our female spayed because she prolapsed and had eggs in her abdominal cavity. There was no choice in the matter if she were going to live. In my Texas town the cost was $256 and this was the operation only. There were additional costs for lab work and post op oral antibiotics, etc. Because females can run into serious, potentially life-threatening situations during egging, our vet recommends spaying...especially when the odds of successfully breeding them in captivity are quite slim.

Neutering - This, too, has been done for years & years to cats & dogs. It is essentially safe except for the anesthesia &/or its side effects. Neutering DOES curb agression in some iguanas. I personally would not do it except as a last resort or if there was something going on that was life threatening and neutering would correct. I do not know the cost of neutering a male ig but I would assume it's in the same ballpark as spaying a female. If the agression only comes around during the ig's season, then it's something that can probably be dealt with in a more non-invasive way to the iguana. As stated under spaying the female, this would be a very specialized operation.

You can deal with the behavior of a male; a female, on the other hand, will produce eggs whether they have bred or not & possibly endanger her own life at some point because of this.

Just my own personal conclusions folks!

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: Spaying - Spaying of dogs & cats has been going on for years now. Except for putting them out to do it & the possible side effects of doing so, it is a pretty safe operation at this point. As has been pointed out by others, the care of iguanas (or any reptile/amphibian) is still a fairly new speciality. You would need a herp vet who has long term experience in doing spaying of iguanas. If you were to make the initial incision at the point normally done on other animals, you would cut a major artery in an iguana & they would bleed out before you could help them. It is very costly because it is so specialized. We had our female spayed because she prolapsed and had eggs in her abdominal cavity. There was no choice in the matter if she were going to live. In my Texas town the cost was $256 and this was the operation only. There were additional costs for lab work and post op oral antibiotics, etc. Because females can run into serious, potentially life-threatening situations during egging, our vet recommends spaying...especially when the odds of successfully breeding them in captivity are quite slim. : Neutering - This, too, has been done for years & years to cats & dogs. It is essentially safe except for the anesthesia &/or its side effects. Neutering DOES curb agression in some iguanas. I personally would not do it except as a last resort or if there was something going on that was life threatening and neutering would correct. I do not know the cost of neutering a male ig but I would assume it's in the same ballpark as spaying a female. If the agression only comes around during the ig's season, then it's something that can probably be dealt with in a more non-invasive way to the iguana. As stated under spaying the female, this would be a very specialized operation. : You can deal with the behavior of a male; a female, on the other hand, will produce eggs whether they have bred or not & possibly endanger her own life at some point because of this. : Just my own personal conclusions folks!

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