Hello everybunny!
So my boy, Teddy, is a 6-month old Holland Lop, and I took him to the Washington Humane Society Spay & Neuter Center here in Washington, DC to get his surgery done. I brought him home thinking all went well, but once I took him out of his carrier onto his playmat/pen area with his food and bedding setup, I saw that the area between his legs were covered in blood all the way to the bottom of his back feet!! I freaked out and brought him back to the neuter center immediately to have him checked out. Turns out his suture opened up?! Not sure how that could’ve happened, I should have asked more closely but I was at a loss for words from being so terribly upset and stressed They had his bloody mess cleaned up and the vet who had done his surgery told me that he will be ok, she explained that the blood that I saw was probably the last of it since it just needs to clot? I asked wouldn’t this make him vulnerable to getting infection and she said no, I just need to apply a cold pack on him every 4-6 hours for 10 minutes at a time… I haven’t been able to do this though, Teddy doesn’t seem to want anything touching the area as of now..
So I brought him back home, and this time he seemed a little more at ease. I provided him with fresh romaine lettuce and some cilantro, which he started eating almost immediately. He went through 2 full servings throughout the rest of the same evening, and he even ate some of the pellets I had out for him. What worries me is that he hasn’t had any water (didn’t touch the sipper bottle or the bowl), and he hasn’t touched the hay at all either. He is eating the veggies and pellets quite well though, and he is pooping too (although they’re slightly softer than usual). I noticed in his litterbox that he peed as well, not sure where it’s coming from since I haven’t seen him drink any water, I guess it’s from the vegetables?
The vet also told me to check his surgical site daily but it’s been difficult to see clearly since:
A. Teddy makes a scene when I try to lift up him gently by his front paws– I’ve tried dangling treats high up in front of him to get him in the periscoping position
B. When I do manage to get him standing on his hind legs, he has so much fur down there, it’s very hard to see or check anything!
Other than not eating hay or drinking water, he seems pretty comfortable! He started hopping around and even jumped on top of his cage (I’ve been told this is not advisable to have him hopping on high levels since it hinders with recovery, but I guess he wanted his exercise) :T Now he’s sprawled out on his playmat with his hind legs spread out flat, but I’ve noticed very faint pinkish-red smudges of his blood here and there where he sat (but nowhere near as much blood as from yesterday)… is this a natural part of the recovery process and will he be ok? Is it even ok for Teddy to be sprawled out like that? I feel like he shouldn’t be squashing that area on anything since it probably hurts! And from your experiences, when do boy bunnies get around to start eating hay and drinking water again after the neutering surgery?
Also, the vet gave me 3 syringes filled with pain medication (one is metacam and the other two are something else), she said to start giving it to him tonight (one each for the next 3 days), so I will be doing that later today.
Sorry for the long rambling and thanks for reading, any kind of tips or advice would be immensely appreciated!!!