Don’t know what to do about spay?

[RetroJester]

So, Nellie will be a year old in June, and I still haven’t been able to have her spayed. The closest rabbit specialist to me is 3 1/2 hours away. I talked to the specialist, and Nellie would have to be there over night, which means I would have to drive a total of 14 hours to go, drop her off, then go back and pick her up. In the first place, there’s no way that I could drive that much with my schedule of school and work. In the second place, Nellie freaks out and panics during the 1 mile ride we have to take once a week, so I can’t even imagine how she would act for 3 1/2 hours. There is a vet that is literally on the same street that I live on, that does spay rabbits, but they don’t specialize in rabbits; they just said that they have before. I just don’t know what to do at this point, because I know that the rabbit specialist is out of the question. Any advice? 

[LBJ10]

Have you questioned this vet that is literally right down the street? You could see how much they know about rabbits. Just because they don’t specialize in them doesn’t mean they are a bad choice. My vet isn’t a “rabbit vet”. They are an exotics vet that sees everything from hedgehogs to parrots to rabbits to lizards. When I had chinchillas, they went to this same vet. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that they are definitely knowledgeable when it comes to rabbits but they aren’t their specialty. I’ve had nothing but good experiences with them though.

So maybe you could ask this vet questions like if they think rabbits should be fasted before surgery and what kind of medications/anesthesia they use.

[LBJ10]

This has good questions to ask. Scroll down to “What kinds of questions should I ask the vet?”.

http://rabbit.org/faq-spaying-and-neutering/

[RetroJester]

I talked to them a bit, but I didn’t ask anything extensive. We have our cats spayed there, so I know that they are good vets, I just want to make sure they are good with rabbits. I am afraid of them lying and saying they are just for the $300 they would get…

[LongEaredLions]

Definitely do question them thoroughly. Ask how many rabbits they have spayed in the last year, and how many were successful. Let them know this bunny is your baby, and if they are not what they say they are are, they need to get out of the way.

[Deleted User]

I live in a state where it is illegal to own a bunny and my exotic’s vet (I’m sure he doesn’t see too many bunny’s considering….), was confident, informative (knew his stuff) and I never gave my Henry a second thought while he was in their care being neutered (I was too busy scrubbing bunny pee off my walls!), and just ‘felt’ good after our initial visit that we had left him in the best of hands. When we collected him the next day I’m sure he was eating someone’s lunch? (a beautiful salad) ha ha ha…… Henry recovered without any issues whatsoever and is now the love of our lives again….. (we didn’t like him much before being neutered) LOL! Ask the questions, but also listen to your gut. Cheers RetroJester.

[Roberta]

One of my back up vets admits they do not really know rabbits, never claims to be a specialist in rabbits and will immediately refer you to a specialist for any thing above cosmetically obvious conditions… However they routinely desexed male and female rabbits (with a near zero mortality rate), I have a few done with them now and have always been very pleased with the way it was done and the bunnies rapid recovery…..

[Linette]

If they spay/neuter rabbits with any regularity there shouldn’t be a problem. They don’t need to be a specialist for that.

Do a bit of online research as to which anethesia and antibiotics and pain meds are rabbit appropriate, then ask vet which they will use and see if they match up.

If you trust this vet with your other animals, do you really think they would lie to you? I don’t think they would want to lose your business by putting one of your beloved pets at risk. A busy vet practice that cares for it’s patients would not have to put an animal at risk for the sake of $300. What does your gut tell you?

[Author]

Messages