Bunny chewing on her incision site after spay!

[Tamiiiz]

I was wondering if anybody had any tips on how to stop my bunny from chewing on her incision site from her recent spay? 

Lola underwent the surgery on Tuesday (2 days ago). The vet said it was fairly uncommon for bunnies to chew at the site so badly, so I’m at a loss for what to do.

Yesterday (the day after surgery) we noticed that she had chewed open the wound, exposing her muscles and flesh. Luckily, it was just the skin opening that she had undone.

The vet re-glued it together temporarily, and Lola is back at the vet this morning for another op to restitch her. She was wearing a temporary cone over her head, that I got at another vet clinic to stop her from causing further damage to the site while we waited for the restitch surgery today, but she would slip her mouth out the bottom of it and start aggressively biting at the wound at any opportunity! After her 2nd surgery today, I want to ensure that she doesn’t chew it open again, as it was already infected yesterday and I can imagine how stressful this must be for her. The cone is very impractical as she would get it stuck in her mouth, choke herself or somehow slip her mouth out the bottom of it. She slept in my room last night, and woke me up four times by banging her cone around the cage, getting it stuck around her mouth and at one point I caught her trying to bite it open again – obviously the cone cannot stay on her until the incision is healed, and can’t be the only method of preventing her from getting at the wound as it seems a bit dangerous.

Any ideas?

[Tessie]

When Luna was spayed I didn’t have a cone and she was fussing over the incision so I folded a tea-towel and wrapped it round her tummy and secured it with string so she couldn’t get at it. From what I can remember, it worked quite well. 

Here’s a pic:
 
The blue and white check is the tea-towel and the green is the string
The other thing is just a hot beanbag thing for her to cuddle.

[kirstyol]

does she have painkillers? when bramble was neutered the vet told me chewing at the wound was a sign that it was painful. Most vets try not to give rabbits collars unless absolutely necessary because it stops them being able to groom properly and eat their cecals.

[CookiesandCream]

I had a stitch eater too and she was very determined  and after a few attempts at all different types of cones ect what I found worked best was a large sock with the end cut, I then rolled it into itself to make a thick donut and slipped it over her head just make sure it isn’t too tight or loose, it should look like a thick collar, she could still eat and move normally with it on but she was unable to tuck her chin under to get to the spay scar, after 7 days I removed it so I could give her a brush and left her for 5 seconds while i got vegies and she ripped all the stitches out very quickly, luckily she was all healed and didnt need then done again

[LittlePuffyTail]

How is your girl doing now?

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