Lilo’s Spay

[Marianne]

My 6 month old Lilo was spayed 3 days ago, and she is doing great. I did her anesthetic myself as I am a vet tech and I had my assistant snap some pictures of her in surgery. I figured I’d post here and show you some pictures of what goes on behind the scenes when you drop your little bun-bun off for a procedure. 

When Lilo was admitted in the morning, she was weighed and her vitals were recorded. She was then given a shot of fluids under her skin to make sure she was well hydrated before surgery. I had also elected to get bloodwork done on her, so I had my assistant safely restrain her on her side and blood was collected from her backleg. This process takes less than 30 seconds and only a small amount of blood is needed (approx. 1ml). She got a bunny cookie for being a very good girl, and she was placed in her new home. I had brought fresh veggies from home that she got in addition to her hay and pellets. 

Before surgery the veterinarian performed a full physical examination to make sure she was good to go for surgery. About an hour before, food was removed from her house and she was given oxygen. We take the food away about an hour before surgery to make sure there is no food in the oral cavity as it can be aspirated when intubating the rabbit. So, rabbits are only fasted for 1 hour before surgery. 

15 minutes before her surgery time she was given a pre-medication (a mix of sedatives and pain killers). And once she was feeling very sleepy, she was taken to the prep area where an IV catheter was placed in her front leg and she was started on IV fluids. Her anesthetic was induced and she was intubated (with a special supraglottic airway device for rabbits). ECG, blood pressure, pulse oximeter and a capnograph were attached to her to monitor her vitals while getting her prepped for surgery as well as during the surgery.
This is Lilo on the table right before surgery with all the equipment attached and on a heating pad to keep her warm.

This is Lilo after surgery. She stayed on the surgery table with an oxygen mask until she started waking up. 

She was then moved to an incubator with some heat and oxygen while she was recovering. Her vitals were closely monitored until she was sitting up again

This is her 2 hours after surgery, loving her tutti-frutti flavored medications.

As per hospital protocol she stayed overnight and was given IV fluids, pain meds, antibiotics and appetite stimulants. Even though she started eating her veggies right after surgery she was still forcefed overnight with Critical Care as her appetite wasn’t 100% back to normal. Even though cones in rabbits are contra-indicated (they tend to get depressed and won’t eat), I like to keep a cone on them overnight so they can stay on their IV fluids for longer. Otherwise they will chew their little IVs out in no time!

Lilo did great overnight, she was eating and pooping. All in all, a very successful recovery. 

She was very sleepy and quiet the first night I brought her home, but now her behavior is pretty much back to normal. She is still taking pain meds and appetite simulants/motility meds – but she is recovery really well and doing great.

[kirstyol]

I am sure people will appreciate this thread, I have two boys who have both been neutered so I don’t really have the worries about surgery anymore (apart from Bramble’s dentals) Its interesting to me because I am an almost qualified human nurse, and I often find myself giving advice on here based on what I know about people, it surprising that people medicine and rabbit medicine are not that different. Other than the fasting time in humans being a lot longer, the procedure for anaesthetising a human is remarkably similar to what you describe here.

[Bam]

Great thread!

Super-interesting! And great pics! This will be interesting to many members since a spay is a kind of scary procedure.

I’m happy she’s doing so well =)

[IsabellaRobyn]

This is really interesting and it’s nice to see pics during and after! It looks so scary to see her on that table but then she looks perfectly normal in the after shot! I have two buns to get spayed in the near future so this was nice to see!

[Marianne]

I’m glad you guys like the post. I meet a lot of worried rabbit owners and it’s nice to be able to put some of those fears relating to anesthetics and surgeries/dentals to rest. Obviously you will still worry, it’s your little baby.

Dentals are very similar to surgeries, the only difference is that we don’t intubate them, simply because their oral cavity is too small for a tube and all the dental instruments. So for dentals they are on a mask instead.

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