Risks of spaying my 8-year old rabbit?

Question
I have a mini-satin who's an elderbun. Not that 8 years is *that* old - our Britannia Petite lived to 11 - but her black fur is turning grey, and she has bad arthritis in her legs (taking Metacam for it, btw).

Anyway...we got her when she was five, knowing absolutely nothing about her (friend of a co-worker was moving to a no-pets apartment, rabbit needed a last-minute "rescue").  Turns out she's "intact."  The vet says she ought to be spayed, to prevent uterine cancer.  I'm worried about how she'd handle anesthesia, and how well she'd recover at her age.  I'm not sure which is the lesser of two evils - risking uterine tumors (she had a x-ray and shows no sign of them at the moment) or risking surgery.  Any opinion?
Thanks!!

Answer
Dear Nancy,

This is a tough call.  Many elderbuns never develop uterine cancer, despite being intact.  And though her risk increases with age, if you can get annual exams to check the state of her uterus, this might be a more conservative approach.  You could spay her only if there appears to be anything anomalous in the uterus.

On the other hand, the more she ages, the greater her risk of problems under anesthesia becomes.  And when I say "risk," I do mean that in a statistical sense:  Not every rabbit has problems with surgery at an advanced age, but more of them do.  Unfortunately, there's no way to know in advance if your bunny is one of the lucky ones.

We've had rabbits 8 and older spayed without problems.  And we've occasionally had a young one who had an idiosyncratic reaction to anesthesia and died without apparent cause.  The former scenario is by far more common.  

I guess the bottom line is:  you'll have to make this call, since you do seem to be aware of all the risks and benefits.  If she's never going to be around other rabbits, then you might consider not risking the spay.  But if you would ever like her to have a pal, then the spay is a must, and the sooner that's done, the better.

I wish I could give you a clear answer here, but in this case there just isn't one.  You'll have to consider the options and then follow your gut instinct.

I hope this helps.

Dana