Advide on making bunnies feel comfy after surgeries

[ALeahAlate]

I have two buns. Bear and Elle. Thry are both going to the vet in a month, and I just wondered if anyone had some good advide on how to make their home comfy for them. Should I let them have free reign of their room, or put them in a cage with a soft bed to keep them from moving? Is there anything I can give them to help them relax?

[Bam]

I moved your post to the Q&A-section. It’s about more than housing, I think.

Girl rabbits need at least 2 weeks for their wounds to heal internally. During that time, the girl’s movement should be restricted. No jumping, climbing etc. She’ll ideally be on pain meds for a week.

A boy heals faster because the surgery is much less invasive.

Both boys and girls as a rule go through a period of riding a hormonal roller-coaster while their bodies are adjusting to the supply of sex hormones from the gonads having been cut short. During this period, the buns can display a variety of more or less unwanted behaviors. They can become moody, aggressive, skittish, hyperactive, overly sexually interested etc. This subsides after some time, it takes longer for girls than for boys.

All these things of course has an impact on housing. There shouldn’t be levels, at least not the first week for the girl. It’s often best to keep a girl in a cage/smallish enclosure and let her out for a little bit of exercise-time after a couple of days. You’ll need to give her meds, so it’s good if she’s kept so you have easy access to her – chasing her to give her meds is obviously not recommended. The boy can be kept in a cage the first day after, but then he should be ok to move around more.

There can be loss of litterbox habits, that will mean you’ll have to clean more. The girl might need a heating pad (snuggle safe etc, not sth with electric wiring. Hand-warmers can work).
Water should be served in bowls, not bottles, because post-surgery a bun might not want to work a bottle.
Depending on what you’re using now in their litterboxes, you might want to change to torn up newspaper or other material that won’t stick to a healing wound.

I’m sure you’ll have more specific question as the date draws nearer, we’ll try to answer as best we can.

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