Hi! I am getting Sophie spayed this Friday and I am extremely nervous, but they are excellent vets over there so I shouldn’t be. I am having all the same questions you’re having, but they told me they will walk me through everything on Friday when I take her. As soon as they tell me I’ll come back and post here what they said

I would first talk to the vet who will be spaying her about what they use as far as sutures since there are a variety of ways that vet’s suture rabbits and then he/she can talk to you about the particular care/concerns for those types of sutures.

As for keeping her confined – it’s usually recommended at least for the first 3 or 4 days to keep them confined but you want to limit her activity for a full week.

When you talk to the vet about what type of sutures he/she uses also talk to them about pain medication. Spaying unlike neutering is very invasive and you WANT pain medication to take home for the first 3 or 4 days after the surgery. Don’t go home without it.

Most females take about 3 or 4 full days to recover. I would not expect her to want to eat right when you get her home. She will just want to be left alone – make sure to keep her area warm and free from drafts too. After anesthesia she may have a harder time regulating her body temperature. Honestly she will probably want to be left alone for the rest of the day to recover so try to limit fussing with her – I know that’s just our nature to want to fuss though but try to limit that so she can recover.

Also ask your vet about Critical Care – this is good to have on had for the next few day if she seems like she doesn’t want to eat which is highly likely. Try to entice her with some fresh fragrant greens that she likes (dill or kale or mint or basil). Most of the time the pellets are the last things you will see her eat and that could be 3 or 4 days later which is why you want critical care to handfeed her if needed.

You may also notice mushy poops and such a few days after the surgery – this is perfectly normal from the surgery (anesthesia, pain meds, etc…).

Sarita pretty much explained it all very well.  The spay area for the incision is shaved and that allows you to monitor the incision to see that it is healing well.  There are many layers of sutures with a spay- not just the external layer of glue, sutures or staples that you can see.  The restricted activity is key in preventing too much stress and strain on the sutures as the healing process begins.

Even though they are on pain meds- Metacam is usually used and that is a NSAID- it will control the pain but any major movement or stress on the area should still stimulate discomfort/pain.  Which in the healing process can be a good thing- the bunny will still know that it is uncomfortable to jump and run and will limit their activities according to their pain level.  If the bunnies were on narcotics or other major pain meds they might be too active which is determental to the healing process.  As the incision heals the pain lessens and the bunny will increase activity.

Cotton would not eat the night I brought her home- and the next day I had to give her a butt bath to clean some soft mushy poo off her bottom.  Soft. mushy stool after a spay and an interrupted eating pattern is not too concerning since you KNOW why the bunny is not eating as much and might have mushy stool.  As long as it gets better and the bunny returns to normal- that is normal post-bunny spay.

Good to know. I am going to schedule an appointment for Bella soon. She just turned 2 months on 9/15, so I have to wait 2 months or so I guess. Thanks for the info.

Check with your vet but it seems pretty common that most vets wait til 6 months to spay a female- but will spay a male as early as 3 1/2 months if the testicles have dropped out of the abdomen and are “external”.  A spay is more invasive than a neuter- so that is a reason some vets like to wait.  And if you have a small bunny- even for a boy the vet might prefer to wait til 6 months until the rabbit is more developed and weighs more. 

My vet is making me wait until Monkey is 6 months or older, partly because she’s so tiny.