Hi everyone – my 8 year old female holland lop is currently in care of my vet for an abscess I spotted yesterday in between her legs near her rectum. I’m waiting for the exotic vet to examine it to determine if it’s even operable, in the meantime I wanted to see if anyone had experience with the surgery or recovery of abscesses in that area in their buns. As a bit of a background, Lily was a rescue so her exact age is unknown but I believe she’s about 8 now (I’ve had her for 6 years). She was given up by a breeder and they know she had a litter before I had her spayed when I adopted her. She recently lost her bonded mate, he lived for about 8 months after undergoing removal of a dental abscess – he recovered well, as it appeared minor, but months later all of a sudden had a seizure and passed away. I had wondered at that point if there was a risk of bacteria spreading between the two of them (that had caused the abscess) so they were kept apart during his recovery. After he passed away, Lily did seem slightly depressed, less inclined to eat and drinking more water, but still happy to run around and binky and she never stopped eating fully. Her abscess however, does not look anything like his dental one – while his was on the side of the jaw and more concave like an open wound, hers is bulging circle that’s not open (in between her leg and rectum) and it’s quite large for appearing so suddenly. I’m also a little stumped because there were a lot of dried blood markings in her condo when I arrived home, however the abscess itself doesn’t seem to be burst, and I couldn’t figure out if it came from her bowels or bladder. The vet did initially say there is a possibility of cancer as well, but they advised on not doing the test to determine unless I was already definitely going to try to have it removed. My issue is this, my vet has quoted me a price of ~$3000 for the removal of the abscess IF it can even be removed, even if I went through with it, it seems to have a poor prognosis with high recurrence or seeding of the abscess. I do have concerns about putting her under anesthesia again (her spay was very tough on her), especially without the bonded partner now, as well as my ability to handle the recovery or aftercare. As I work ~9 hour days that is a huge chunk of time I can’t be with her to make sure the area remains clean and I’ve never administered anything subcutaneously in any of my bunnies. Basically has anyone ever gone through with the surgical removal of abdominal or flank abscesses and seen a positive recovery with low to no recurrence? I feel more inclined not to subject her to the stress or surgery and possibility of a poor quality of life even if it’s successful, and consider letting her go peacefully.