Bonded pair: 1 passed, the other is hormonal

[bluepaperplane]

Well, this has been one of the hardest weeks I’ve experienced.  We adopted two beautiful baby bunny siblings 7 weeks ago: Cloud (male) and Peppercorn (female).  Starting a few weeks ago, we discovered Peppercorn had been missexed and was female rather than male and began to panic about her getting pregnant.  We separated the pair and only let them together for supervised playtime, brought them both into the vet to get exams and schedule neutering and spaying for each.  The vet gave Peppercorn an emergency ultrasound one week ago and nothing showed up; he said they were both definitely ready to have babies, but that nothing was showing up on the ultrasound.  Though he also mentioned that if it was too early in the pregnancy, the ultrasound wouldn’t register anything anyway.  We scheduled Cloud’s neutering a week after that exam, and Peppercorn’s for the following week.  

We brought Cloud in to get neutered two days ago and the most horrific thing happened: he did not come out of anesthesia.  The vet was an experienced rabbit vet who said this hadn’t happened in years.  He was going to do a necropsy free of charge but believes Cloud may have had an underlying heart condition that was undetectable prior to the surgery.  My partner and I were and are still very devastated.  He was the runt of the litter, so that may have contributed to things.  Anyway, we are so sad for Peppercorn because her best friend and brother is gone.

Now we’re worried about her.  About getting her spayed (which we will do, just not for another month or so as she’s barely 4 months old) and whether or not she may, in fact, be pregnant.  The chances are slim, I know, but I’m still worried.  I’m a former bunny owner, but only had a boy.  While we supervised their playtime together the week up to Cloud’s death, he managed to mount her once or twice, but only for a very brief couple of seconds before we pulled him off.  Peppercorn seems to be getting along okay without Cloud, having been confused and moody the first day without him.  She’s digging even more these days (she’d been very diggy before), especially at the blanket that she and Cloud shared under our bedroom hutch.  I’m wondering if we should be worried still about the slim chance of pregnancy, or if she’s just exhibiting normal unspayed female rabbit behavior.  She binkies a lot, still, does the bunny 500, and is generally still very active and adventurous.  She grunt-moans whenever I try to pick her up and stomps her foot while running away (something she also has done many, many times in the past).  She does that now at times when I try to pet her when she isn’t in the mood (particularly when I touch her butt, which I read bunnies take as playfighting).

We’re still reeling from Cloud’s death and also trying to give the surviving bun as much love and attention as we can.  We’d love to find her a new friend after she gets spayed, but we also are now understandably very worried about putting her under anesthesia.  I am just so stressed and so sad!!  It is so unfair to have our baby bunny be taken away so soon and also for Peppercorn to be without her best friend.  We’ve given her our stuffed penguin doll that is roughly the size of a bunny, and she’s taken to grooming him, which is unbelievably cute but also breaks our hearts.  

[Sarita]

I’m sorry your Cloud is gone. I understand your concern about the anesthesia and it is sad but at least he went peacefully. I’ve had this happen before too with a young rabbit and a very experienced rabbit vet. I’ve also had much older rabbits undergo anesthesia and be just fine.

I think Peppercorn will be fine – young rabbits are really very resilient when it comes to these things. I think she will be fine since you are giving her so much love and attention.

I’ve had many bonded pairs who were bonded for a long time be just fine when their friend passed – maybe I’ve been lucky but for the most part they just went on as if nothing happened.

[bluepaperplane]

Thanks so much.  It’s just so scary; now I worry that all of the litter have heart conditions!  Cloud was so healthy and big … he had really put on some sizeable weight and was big boned!  Bigger than Peppercorn!  We were less concerned about his neutering procedure and more concerned about Peppy’s spaying, since it’s more invasive and she’s so tiny.  Sigh.  I’m just crossing my fingers that she isn’t pregnant.  I can’t deal with her health being at risk due to an oops litter.  We’re keeping a close eye on her.

Yeah, we figure she’d get on fine without Cloud because they were bonded for such a brief amount of time and at so young an age.  Still heartbreaking, though.  They had such great chemistry.

[Beka27]

Oh no… I am so sorry for your loss. That is so heartbreaking. We do have members (thankfully not many!) that have lost a young, seemingly healthy bun during a routine spay/neuter. It is usually some type of underlying condition that no one could have known about. But I know that this is hard for you nonetheless… And the vet… No vet wants to lose an animal during what should be a simple procedure.

Regarding Peppercorn, I am also thinking that she should be just fine without a mate… Or you can always explore getting another bun down the road.

Did you get them at 8 weeks old? If so, and you have had them for 7 weeks, that is putting her just under 4 months old. At that age, I highly doubt she is pregnant. It could happen that young, but it’s not common under 4 months.

[Author]

Messages