Hi all!
My Suki bun got spayed a week ago, and I almost thought I’d lose her the first two days. Vets in South Africa, at least in my part of the world, don’t know much about rabbits but having read up alot beforehand, I requested pain meds to be taken home which I gave her twice a day. I also took her back to the vet a few times last week to make sure she was doing okay, no fever, etc.
Around the third day she was feeling much better, but I noticed my boy bunny, her bonded and neutered mate Renji, chasing her around my little flat. At first I thought they were just playing (although not happy that she was running around crazily with unhealed wound) and tried to stop the chasing whenever I saw it. Fearing that they’d become unbonded, I stuck both of them in the carry case when I took her to the vet the next day for her check up and they were calm enough. Back home, though, the chasing started back up again and Suki took to staying in my room, under my bed or in one corner next to the curtains. Whenever Renji came close to her, she would sprint in the other direction, and at some point she seems to have become terrified of me as well!! Probably from me having to force feed her in the beginning when she wouldn’t touch any food or water and I was afraid her stomach would stop working.
I can’t come within three meters of her now or she runs away. Yesterday I blocked off my bedroom door with a cage so that she and Renji can still see each other without him chasing her everywhere, but she shows no interest in coming close enough to that side of the room, she only feels safe under my bed or in her little corner. Renji checks out the cage now and then, looking for some way into the room, but he can’t see her at all in her hiding place.
Does this mean they’ve come completely unbonded, and what should I do? I spend every spare minute I can in the room with her, far enough away for her not to feel threatened, reading my book out loud or singing softly, sometimes just napping on the floor, but her fear of me hasn’t lessened at all. I’m thinking of keeping up this arrangement until next week when her stitches can come out and I can start rebonding them, or should I rebond them immediately? Should I keep her in my room where she feels safest or try to get her into the little cage where Renji can still see and smell her?
My buns are not at all used to cages, they have free roam of most of my 2-bedroom flat all of the time and I’m just afraid sticking her in a cage is gonna stress her out even more when she should be focussing on recovering right now. Though I read that bunnies need their bonded mates to recover well from yucky surgery?
Please help, I’ve done my best, but I’ve come to the point where I’m not sure how to proceed.
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Thanks again!!
