# DIY neutering



## dr.zapp (Dec 24, 2012)

Some of you may have seen my post a while back about using calcium chloride dihydrate injections in the testicle for chemically neutering rats (and other animals). I have been researching the procedure and watching my adolescent rats get more and more violent in their free-range play, and then one (Yoda) started ripping fur out of poor shy Obie and forcing him into a specific corner and would not let him leave, so I separated them. Yoda also started marking ALL OVER, where before he didn't.. and his cage reeked even when I cleaned it every other day. You can see where this is going. I called all the vets and the cheapest neuter was $200.00... too much for me right now.. and I don't have the space to keep two separate cages of adequate size permanently.
So after talking with one of the paper's authors that initially published this technique, (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010782405003021) and looking at methods of injecting rabbits, cats and dogs, I decided to do it myself. I have access to an anesthesia station for isoflurane, and a sterile biocabinet and balance to make up the injection... I would NOT recommend anyone trying this if they do not have access to those. One thing I did different from the above paper is the 200 mg/ml CaCl2(2H2O) was dissolved in 95% Ethanol, because more recent work has shown that to be much safer and more effective. 
I injected Yoda a week ago, he was sore that day, and I gave him rimadyl for pain. The next day, he was back to his rambunctious self, but still had some pain. After 3 days he showed no pain symptoms, though his testicles were still swollen. After a week, he has started to mark less, and he does not smell as musky, and his testicles are shrinking. Since this takes about a month to be complete, I won't know how effective it really is till then. I plan on starting re-introducing Yoda and Obie over the next 3 weeks and then have them back together at a month or sooner.
As far as I know, nobody else here has had a rat neutered chemically, so I will give progress reports in case someone wants to know how it turns out.


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## HelloClarice (Feb 1, 2012)

how interesting, I would never do this personally, because I have never read about it and don't have access to proper info but how interesting. Interested in hearing how everything works out.


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## JessyGene (Feb 27, 2012)

I hope it turns out well! I would never trust myself to do it, but I hope this technique becomes available at the vet soon. I paid 350$ to have my rat neutered...and the cut opened up and he got a neuter abscess from it...all in all not a pleasant experience.


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## dr.zapp (Dec 24, 2012)

I started re-introducing today- they spent 30 minutes on a neutral table that was cluttered with boxes, toys and treats. Yoda (the injected one) was very subdued- no wrestling, only climbed over Obie twice, no attempts at biting. It seemed that Obie was confused- he kept following Yoda around smelling his butt, then hiding when Yoda would turn around to find out who was sniffing him. Maybe Obie recognized that Yoda is not much of a male now, but still afraid of him? IDK. Before, Yoda would chase him down and bite him or force him into a corner, but not this time, so things are going better. Yoda's testicles are hardly visible now, but I can still feel that they are about the same size, just very retracted. Instead of the slightly malleable feel of normal testes, they are very soft with some hard areas, which indicates the tissue is in various stages of necrosis.


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## dr.zapp (Dec 24, 2012)

almost a week of daily coordinated play time and only one tussle, which seemed to just be Obie wanting to be left alone. Yoda has become very playful, and tries to get Obie to play with him by crawling under Obie and then rolling on his back and grooming Obie's belly, but Obie seems to still be scared of Yoda and runs or freezes. This is how Yoda plays with me, he wrestles and grooms my hand just like this, so it seems he is trying to show Obie he is being submissive by crawling under him? Will Obie become the de facto alpha because he has working testicles?


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## PeachPeach (Jun 22, 2012)

It can definitely shake up the statuses in the colony to neuter a dominant male. Not always, but most have a harder time hanging onto it.


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## dr.zapp (Dec 24, 2012)

Today they had almost 2 hours of uneventful play time, both of them alternating who was the power groomer. Mostly they played tag, and Obie is acting less frightened around Yoda. Yoda's scrotum is completely retracted, so he looks neutered now, minus the scar. He has been shedding a lot, and his coat has become soft like it was when he was younger. Is this normal? I'm going to move them back together Saturday when I will be around all day to see how they do.


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## dr.zapp (Dec 24, 2012)

Introduction is over- they have been in the same cage for 2 days with hardly a peep, seems like neutering solved the aggressiveness enough for now.


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## LightningWolf (Jun 8, 2012)

Wow, glad it turned out well. Do you have any more articles on it (you can PM them to me if you want). This sounds really interesting. I don't have any boys that need to be neutered luckily, but this sounds less invasive then neutering by far.


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## dr.zapp (Dec 24, 2012)

LightningWolf said:


> Wow, glad it turned out well. Do you have any more articles on it (you can PM them to me if you want). This sounds really interesting. I don't have any boys that need to be neutered luckily, but this sounds less invasive then neutering by far.


This page has the most useful info on how to do it http://www.parsemusfoundation.org/calcium-chloride-for-males/ 
Get the Overview documents from the Data Download section, it is very detailed. By using ethanol, it eliminates the need for a sterile work environment. Anesthesia is still an issue for any DIYer.... I suppose you could use the ethanol to get them drunk ;-)


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## dr.zapp (Dec 24, 2012)

A 2 month update- One interesting note- Yoda has stopped marking. Completely. For the last 3 weeks, I have noticed that he does not leave a mark on my hand, or on my chair, or the table, or other places he used to in the course of play-time. Usually he would leave a drop on my hand or wheelchair armrest when he left it for another surface... kind of like a crumb trail. He doesn't do this anymore, and it is great! Obie does however, and lots of it, so I am going to inject him tomorrow to see if that helps. I am also considering a female, so having them both neutered will make that possible. 
Another note- Yoda's testicles (what is left of them) are now small, firm lumps that can only be located by feel. He does not seem to be bothered by palpitating them, so they are not sore or causing any discomfort.
I currently have 4 rats in my lab for cancer treatments, that I did this procedure on a month ago so I could keep them in a single large enclosure without fighting. All of those went without any problems too.
I wonder why this approach is not used by exotic vets?


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## j_kalman (Apr 14, 2013)

Wow... that is so cool. I will send the information to my vet. He loves ratties almost as much as I do and I'm sure he would love to learn about this.


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## moonstruckmuse (Dec 17, 2012)

I recently stumbled across this thread. I just wanted to comment on a few things here. I'm not trying to be a debbie downer, just posting some of the CONS of DIY medical procedures.
Chemical castration is used in a number of species right now, but I would never recommend DIY-ing something unless you have all the tools and understand the mechanism (so, Dr. Zapp, I think you have your bases covered, but this isn't necessarily a great idea for everyone). Keep in mind that you have lots of innervation and vascularization in the area in specific places, and if you inject INTO a nerve or a vein, your animal is going to be having some SEVERE issues. This works by causing necrosis (tissue DYING), and besides, is also commonly used to treat conditions like hypocalcemia (in a different concentration) and other electrolyte imbalances. In other words, you can KILL your animal if you inject this into the wrong place. If you're used to injections, then the usual drawing back to check for negative pressure will be fine.

Another big issue is that if your injection is too superficial, you'll be injecting your solution into the peritoneum of the animal (yes, testicles are CONTINUOUS with the tissue in the abdomen). Nasty, nasty peritonitis and other complications will follow. 

Even if everything goes correctly, you're intentionally causing tissue necrosis. Your nerves there are still intact, while the flesh there is dying. It's painful. Make sure you've got pain meds available. With surgical castration, you only have pain in one small area, and have a number of drugs on board to reduce inflammation and pain. With this, you have pain ALL over the testicle, and it touches the floor when your rat sleeps, moves around, etc. 

Know your anatomy. Know your physiology. Be aware of any complications that can arise. Make sure you can get access to the right things (or at least euthanasia methods) if things go severely wrong. That's all. This can totally, totally be done correctly, and if so, it's easy and quick and effective. However, it's not well studied - the things I listed here are just from working in animal clinics in the past, and being a veterinary student now. I'm no expert, but I plan on taking my rats to get surgically neutered should I ever need to.

That being said, Dr. Zapp, I encourage you to look to a greater body of literature and see if you can talk to veterinary professionals about it. It may be a new technique that exotics vets can add to their repertoire, with some tweaking.


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## dr.zapp (Dec 24, 2012)

When you say "greater body of literature"... what do you mean? I've looked through BMC, PMC, all the NCBI databases and the web at large... are there vet-specific collections I don't know about?
Yes, there is quite a bit of risk involved, as I said in the original post, but I think there are equal, if not more, risks in surgical methods. Rat testicles are easy to identify, and large enough that it would be difficult to miss or pass through using a 1/2" 28g needle. Insertion from the posterior end towards the anterior with this needle places the injection point right in the middle, and avoids major blood vessels and nerves. 
On the pain issue- I was frankly surprised at the lack of pain in the 6 rats I have done this on. The animals we have for cancer research sometimes require quite a bit of pain management (as do most human cancer patients) and so I was ready with whatever they would need, but after 48 hrs. buprenex/rimadyl was not even necessary. All the other papers I read on this had the same finding, which is quite interesting in itself- it would appear this should be a painful procedure but the data does not support it, possibly due to the way rat testes are innnervated http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7542932. 
As far as this injection causing necrosis, it is not clear if most of the cell death is from this vs apoptosis.. either way they die, but there is evidence in this paper that apoptosis plays an important role. http://www.stray-afp.org/nl/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/CaCl-2006-Jana-calcium-chloride-rats.pdf

Here is a recent article on how this works in cats- http://www.biomedcentral.com/1746-6148/7/39


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## Lisaspeter1 (Apr 16, 2021)

Can I get the info to do the same. Please pm me. I have 3 adopted boys that are 3 months old now. I want to neuter them before they get too old. They are birth brothers. 
Thank you.
L


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## Rats_for_life (Feb 17, 2021)

Lisaspeter1 said:


> Can I get the info to do the same. Please pm me. I have 3 adopted boys that are 3 months old now. I want to neuter them before they get too old. They are birth brothers.
> Thank you.
> L


Hi , sorry but this post was in 2013 I don’t think they are active on this forum anymore :/


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## TwilxghtRat (Nov 27, 2020)

Yeah, this is 8 years old. . .

Also, are you just neutering them for no reason?, or are they being aggressive? 
If it’s because you just want to, then DON’T! It will put your rats in unnecessary pain.


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