Impregnating after Neuter

This topic has come up several times in the last few weeks, so while visiting with Dr. Walsh yesterday, I asked him about it.

I will do my best to explain all that he told me (I did take notes).

Background information:
Sperm are produced in the testicles. This is true of all male mammals. In sugar gliders, the testicles are housed in what we refer to as the POM or pom-pom.

After production, sperm travels into the epididymis where it is stored and matures.
I am not sure how long sugar glider sperm can live in these conditions. Most sperm for mammals lives about 20 days, but we know that the sperm of a bull is viable in the epididymis for 60 days (at least us Texans know, LOL). So, somewhere between 20 and 60 days sperm can live in this little space. Once the sperm leaves this space (i.e. once ejaculated or otherwise expelled), the sperm can only live 72 hours maximum, but studies have shown that most sperm are no longer viable after 36 hours or so.

So, having said that, what does that mean for sugar glider neuters and pregnancy afterward?

Dr. Walsh tells me that in a properly completed sugar glider neuter (whether pom on OR off), both the testicles AND the epididymis are removed.

Since the epididymis is removed, there are no sperm to be used for impregnating.

I then asked him about a study conducted back in 1980 by Pholpramool and Sornpaisarn (1980). They castrated 21 male rats and found that for two days after castration, fertility in these castrated rats was normal. After the second day fertility started to drop quickly, and by the eighth day after castration all the rats iwere sterile.
So, that begs the question: To play it safe, should we separate for a week?

Dr. Walsh's answer was No. For several reasons:
1) The reason stated above about the epididymis and testicles both being removed
2) IF any sperm are stored elsewhere in the body and not removed with neutering, they would only live at MOST 3 days.
3) Most males will not even try to mate within 48 hours of neuter.
4) History and incidence of sugar glider impregnation after neuter is very small.



In short, he says that he can think of no good reason to recommend separating a male from his family for 30 days or 14 days after a neuter. He can't even think of a good reason to separate for even 7 days. Given the collective experience of all of his sugar glider clientel, he does not see any value in separating for more than two nights (for healing).


My person experience in roughly 100 neuters is that I have always returned the guys to their cage with their family (and their normal lives) the night of the neuter (provided there are no complications) and I have never had a female turn up pregnant after the neuter.


So, there you have one vet's opinion and an explanation to justify it.

I have had quite a few males neutered here and I have never had one get pregnant after a neuter also.

I put my males back in with the family that same night as long as the incision is left alone.
Had w2 males that needed to be alone for a week after a neuter as one ripped himself open and had a cage mate trying to help clean and fix another males site once.

My vets only concern for not putting them back together for a few days was if a female happened to be in heat he could strain himself by trying to mate with her. I personally
feel the risk of this is too small. BUT I also pretty much check on them hourly the night of the neuter if not more often and I thought she was in heat I would remove him. You know within a short amount of time when they wake up for the night if she is in heat or not.

I posted about this same thing back in November on GC under Fact/Fiction:

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They can still impregnate a female for up to maybe 2 weeks after the neuter!!

I do not understand how this is possible. When a glider is neutered, the testicles and the epididymis are removed. At that point, there is no sperm in their body.

How can this possibly be true? Am I missing something? I keep hearing this, but just don't understand the logic.

Val - now that we have a Veterinarian's perspective, can you post this in that thread too? It will bump it up so maybe others will see it too.