Spayed female humping spraying grunting losing her litter training…

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BINKYBUNNY FORUMS

This topic has 7sd replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 15 years, 4 months ago by GrumpyBun.

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- 11/23/2010 at 8:36 AM
  aniahill
  Participant
  6 posts
  Hello again peeps
  
  I have already had some advice from here and now again I feel like I’m in crisis – I just need some rabbit minded people to tell me about their experiences. I’ll tell the shortened story of my rabbits:
  
  I got my first house rabbit, Benny then Mathilda and they got on very well. Unfortunately Mathilda died about 3 months ago.
  
  Benny bounced back better than I did, however he quickly started to seem lonely again, so I had been looking for a new partner for him. Harriet was from a private seller, 18 months old, black and white dutch. She hadn’t been spayed and never had her injections. She got the injections and a general heath check at the vets, but my vet doesn’t spay female rabbits…
  
  I managed to bond them quite easily although she was not spayed and about 2-3 weeks ago, Harriet started to spray, mount, quietly grunt and push her head between Benny’s back legs. Benny started to change and seemed more nervous and lost a lot of weight. I decided to take him to the vets and because I couldn’t get an appointment at their normal vet, I ended up going to a different vet. He needed worming and as this vet was very rabbit competent I got talking to her about Harriet and she said that they could spay her.
  
  The two of them went into the vets today (him for moral support) and I had a call midway through the procedure to ask where I got her and I said and basically they said that she had already been spayed. They said that they have had this a couple of times from a UK pet shop chain (anyone want to hazard a guess..) where a rabbit has been sold as unaltered, then been put through the stress of the surgery unnecessarily.
  
  Basically what I would like some help with is if she is spayed, will she ever stop spraying etc? I’ve had her for 2 months and it’s only recently started. As cold, hard and evil as this sounds, I am trying to rent out my spare room and I think I’m going to find it hard with rabbits roaming around the flat let alone with a spraying rabbit. I really don’t want to have to get rid of her, but I can’t afford to keep either of them if I don’t rent out the room.
  
  Please tell me she will grow out of it, or give me some hints and tips on the best way to deal with this! She is such a lovely rabbit I really want to be able to get over this…
  
  Thanks,
  
  Ania
- 11/23/2010 at 10:40 AM
  Deleted User
  Participant
  22064 posts
  Did the vet find anything wrong with Benny? Sometimes a sickness harbored by a rabbit can burden their bond. If his weight loss on the other hand is from her stressing him out, you might have success with rebonding them in proper introductory sessions. The idea behind this is that sometimes a new rabbit does bond easily but once settled in, becomes territoria with grunting, marking, etc. This is likely just a phase, however, since it is hard to put up with for Benny, you can take the edge off by having them re-introduced in neutral space sessions, such as car rides or in the dry bathtub. Those sessions don’t need to go on for long since they were already bonded, but I would give them a week’s worth of daily such meetings and then set them up in a habitat other than the one Harriet has been in previously.
- 11/24/2010 at 2:21 AM
  aniahill
  Participant
  6 posts
  Yes Benny had worms; when they started him on a course of worming medicine he started to gain weight straight away – he feels a lot more healthy now and is still gaining weight.
  
  They actually have to stay apart for 2 weeks as Harriet has had the operation, even though it was unnecessary, so it could be a good time to make them date again, as any time that they spend together has to be closely monitored. They are living in two rooms which is seperated by a baby gate, so they can still be near each other and see each other, so it is like their bonding time again.
  
  This is just the kind of information I was looking for – thank you so much!
  
  x
- 11/24/2010 at 2:39 AM
  jerseygirl
  Moderator
  22356 posts
  They said that they have had this a couple of times from a UK pet shop chain (anyone want to hazard a guess..) where a rabbit has been sold as unaltered, then been put through the stress of the surgery unnecessarily.
  
  Wow. That just seems bizarre. Why wouldn’t a pet shop promote that the rabbit has been spayed? I thought that would be more appealing for a pet owner. Are you able to contact the private seller you bought her from to see if Harriet originally came from this pet store?
  
  Do you know if the vet saw scar tissue from the previous surgery?
- 11/28/2010 at 1:19 AM
  aniahill
  Participant
  6 posts
  Sorry for the delay in replying!
  
  The only reason I can think for the selling without informing you that the rabbit had been spayed is the breader that they buy from doing it and not telling the shop/the shop forgetting to pass the information on. I have tried to find the contact details of the seller, but I can’t unfortunately.
  
  Harriet is recovering well, cleaning the outside of the cone that protects her wound while she thinks its her face… Heart-breaking but also funny at the time.
  
  She’s not been exhibiting the behaviour that I was worried about any more but that may be more to do with the different environment so I’ll just have to wait and see how that goes
  
  My new concern is when I was sat with Benny last night I decided to let Harriet in with us and Benny instantly nipped her nose… I guess it just means that I’ll have to bond them again when she is healed and doesn’t have the cone any more. I can’t wait for that cone to come off so that she can clean herself properly – I ‘ve been trying to do it for her but there’s only so long she’ll let me do that for!
  
  Thanks for your help guys!
- 11/28/2010 at 6:23 AM
  Beka27
  Participant
  16016 posts
  Are you feeding her the cecal droppings, or are you removing the cone for short periods thru out the day?
- 11/29/2010 at 9:18 AM
  aniahill
  Participant
  6 posts
  No I’ve not been feeding her the droppings – what I presume were her cecal droppings appear more wet and soft than normal (sticking to the floor) so much so that I took her back to the vets. They said that it was probably a result of the anasthetic and that I should give her a day of just hay to sort it out however it appears not to have worked. Should I be feeding that to her?
  
  The vet scared me into not removing her cone as she said if Harriet takes the cone off she could rip open the stiches very quickly.
  
  I’m taking her in for a second check up on thursday so I’ll ask then about removing it.
  
  Thanks guys
  
  X
- 11/29/2010 at 10:07 AM
  GrumpyBun
  Participant
  643 posts
  Posted By jerseygirl on 11/24/2010 02:39 AM
  
  They said that they have had this a couple of times from a UK pet shop chain (anyone want to hazard a guess..) where a rabbit has been sold as unaltered, then been put through the stress of the surgery unnecessarily.
  
  Wow. That just seems bizarre. Why wouldn’t a pet shop promote that the rabbit has been spayed? I thought that would be more appealing for a pet owner. Are you able to contact the private seller you bought her from to see if Harriet originally came from this pet store?
  
  If it was pets at home, they will take an unwanted rabbit from anyone that drops if off and put it up for adoption in their store – in which case, they might not even know.
  
  Hope Hannah has a speedy recovery!
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