Bunny went for spay, incision, found out pregnant!

[Marhsbun]

I am hoping someone out there has some words of advice, experience in this, or anything to help.

Today, I took both our bunnies, male and female, to their vet for their neuters today. They’re 5 months old. Got a call after that His surgery went well and that he’s recovering nicely. Her surgery, not so much, as they made the incision and found babies inside, so they quickly stitched her back up! Our bunnies are housed separately, though we used to let them out to play supervised together, and then a few weeks back, only took one at a time out because of them slipping off quickly together, so that means that it must have been at least two or three weeks ago that she got pregnant, since they haven’t been together at all since then, only one at a time out.

I picked them up and they’re both at home in their separate spaces recovering. She is acting totally normal, eating, running around her pen, etc. Now, she’s worn out and sleeping. I’m really worried though that she will survive the pregnancy and that the babies will be okay. Anyone had this happen? I know it can’t be good to have an incision done like that while pregnant! 

Waiting to hear back from the vet who is supposed to call me this afternoon. I only got to speak with tech when I picked them up. 

[Mikey]

Why… Why did they stitch her back up without taking the babies out? Ill look for links to support the next few points, but its going to be hard to find as she didnt technically have a spay or an abortion during spay. What your vet did is potentially life threatening.

Its very unlikely the babies will make it through birth; its very likely theyll be stillbirths. Rabbits are usually pregnant for a full four weeks, so if she became pregnant two or three weeks ago, shes far enough along for problems to have occurred because the vet operated and left them in. Anesthesia and any medicine shes on now (pain killers?) couldve caused problems for the babies. Likewise, mommy bun is going to be in more pain as she just has her innards cut open for her almost spay. Her surgery wound will still be very fresh at the time of birth. Internal bleeding is possible during the birth; have an emergency vet on call. When she starts nesting, she may start tugging at her stitches as many mommy bunnies to be pull from their chest and stomach area when building their nest. If you have to cone her, its going to add more stress and stress can kill the babies as well as put her health at risk during this time.

Her age is going to cause problems too. At five months, her uterus has really just formed and her body has just started pumping blood to it. It is not as developed as an older bun, thus not as ready for pregnancy or birth. This can cause complications during pregnancy and birth towards her and/or the babies.

[Marhsbun]

I heard back, and actually, feel much much better about it. The vet said they had only cut through the skin layer when he saw that she appeared internally to be pregnant. So, the cut was not nearly as invasive as I first thought. The risk shouldn’t be nearly as high as I thought. I’m glad he didn’t try for the spay or take the babies once he saw she was pregnant. He actually thinks she’s pretty early on, so now I’m thinking she may have gotten pregnant through the bars that separate our two bunnies.
Of course, yes, her age is a concern, but I’m not as worried about the incision causing problems now, since it didn’t go deep. Thanks for your response, Mikey. I’ll update as she progresses. She is as happy as can be right now, and acting like nothing hurts at all and everything is normal. Time will tell, but hopefully she’ll be alright.

[Mikey]

Thats so much better for her that she might only be a week along, or less! Its also great he saw before cutting deeper so he was able to stop in time. Her age and the anesthesia/meds still could very well cause problems that are potentially life threatening during birth, so it would still be best to have an emergency rabbit vet on speed dial if needed

Good luck and I hope everything continues to go well for her!

[Author]

Messages