Bunny WONT EAT after spay. HELP

[Hogden]

My rabbit was spayed yesterday and I picked her up in the afternoon. She was popping solid but I have paid close attention and she didn’t eat the rest of the day yesterday. It has now been over 24 hrs and she still hasn’t eaten. I started to try and force feed her carrot baby food through a syringe an hour ago. She seems to get frustrated after a few minutes and I don’t want to stress her out too much. I called the vet and they instructed me to not give her the pain medication today since she is not eating. I am not sure how much carrot baby food I need to make her eat? I have a 10 ml syringe. But over two trials I have only got her to eat 7 ml. My plan is to feed her a few millimeters every hour until the morning where I can get her to the vet. Any advice please. How much to feed???

[Hazel]

Not eating after a spay is usually a sign that the bun is in pain. I don’t know why the vet would advise you to stop giving pain medication at this time. Did they give you an explanation?

I’m not sure about how much to feed her, but I’m sure someone else will give you some advice about that.

[tobyluv]

I assume that you don’t have any Critical Care. You can grind up some pellets and mix them with water and put them in a syringe, until you can get some Critical Care. That would give her more nutrition than the baby food. You could even mix some of that mixture with the baby food, if you think that might be a little more appetizing to her. Do you have her favorite veggies and fruits on hand to tempt her? Metacam (if that is what the vet prescribed for pain) can cause loss of appetite, but being in pair will certainly cause that too, so it seems like she needs her pain medication. I would think that whatever they gave her after surgery would have worn off by now, and she is likely in pain.

[Azerane]

I agree, that she definitely needs to be syringe fed some pellet mash. It’s very important that her gut keeps moving and it won’t do that if she isn’t eating. Yes syringe feeding can be stressful, but it’s to her great benefit. If you’re not getting much in during each syringe feeding, do them more often, hourly if you can. It can also help to offer food from your hand directly to her. Sometimes rabbits in pain won’t go and eat, but sometimes will take food if it’s offered directly to them.

[Bam]

There are some GI side-effects to Metacam that some bunnies experience, that might have been why the vet wanted you to stop it. But if she’s in pain, she won’t want to eat because of that. I think you sholud ask your vet again, because a spay is a big surgery and rabbits feel pain just like humans and other mammals.

It is vital that she gets food in her. Even if she hates it, she must eat. Fresh herbs like cilantro or mint can sometimes entice a bun to eat. Pellet mash with water or mixed with canned plain pumpkin or baby fruit- or veg purée.

How much you feed depend on the buns size. If you’d had Critical Care, the recommendation is 45 ml of mixture (CC and water) per kilo body weight and day, divided into 4-6 feedings. Example: If she’s 4 lbs she should have 90 ml per day, divided into portions of 15-20 mls, 4 to 6 times per 24 hours. Or just say what she weighs (approx) and we’ll do the math.

If you use pellet mash, which is the best for her now, better than carrot purée even if you very well can use carrot puree to mix the ground up pellets with, you can use the same portion-size as with critical care. Mind you getting that amount of food into an unwilling bunny isn’t easy, so don’t worry if you can’t make her eat all that. This is to get her starting, very often food revives a bun so it soon starts to eat on its own.

[Wakka]

Hello Hogden,

My girl was spayed 1 week ago and she had a lot of complications pre-spay. Anyways she did not want to eat for 3 days (she stayed in the hospital for 3 days and was being syringe fed with Critical Care), i took some treats for her to make her want to eat again but it did not work. After 3 days the vet sent her home to be in her environment, she started eating immediately, she is most-likely depressed or in pain, you must syringe feed her asap!

[vivi]

does this happen a lot? bunnies not eating after surgery? now im worried im having my beny fix in june ….

[Wakka]

Posted By vivi on 4/20/2016 11:23 AM

does this happen a lot? bunnies not eating after surgery? now im worried im having my beny fix in june ….

I heard it’s pretty common on females but i don’t know for a fact as i only had 1 female so far. So in my experience it happened 100% of the times 

[tobyluv]

 

@vivi Some of the bunnies that I’ve adopted were already spayed or neutered and recuperated.  I have had 2 rabbits that I took to the vet for their surgeries, and 2 that were spayed or neutered the day I picked them up from the shelter.  I don’t know if I was lucky, but none of them stopped eating.  I remember one vet saying that my Isabel ate her greens afterwards.  They all acted quiet or subdued when I got them home, but they did all start eating, maybe not as much as normal, but I never had to supplement any of their food.

[MimzyBun]

My bun was spayed a week ago and was on meloxicame. She has been off it a day now and I can already tell a change in her behavior. She won’t touch her food, she avoids us and no matter how hard she tries it seems like she can’t get comfortable. She is my first bun and it has me extremely worried! I plan to call the vet in the morning but I don’t know what I can do to help her aside from give her what left over medicine there is. ?

[jerseygirl]

Posted By Mimzy_mae_bun2015 on 4/21/2016 11:23 PM

My bun was spayed a week ago and was on meloxicame. She has been off it a day now and I can already tell a change in her behavior. She won’t touch her food, she avoids us and no matter how hard she tries it seems like she can’t get comfortable. She is my first bun and it has me extremely worried! I plan to call the vet in the morning but I don’t know what I can do to help her aside from give her what left over medicine there is. ?

When was the last time she ate?  I think it would be wise to give her the last dose. How much is each dose?

 Try give some food right after, even if you have to syringe feed her critical care if you have it, or some puree pumpkin or other fruit. Has she been drinking? 

Will she settle if she sits on your lap? The warmth from your body heat might be a comfort to her.

If you like, click here to start a new topic. That way members responding wont get your rabbit and the one in the original post confused. 

[RosieBunny]

Hi Hodgen,
Buns should actually be on metacam (pain killer) AND Metroclopramide aka Reglan (anti-nauseant-motility agent) plus syringe fed critical care… naughty vet not fully educating you as to post op care. I find many bunny vets under-prescribe the painkillers and forget about the motility agents. I had a male bunny last year whose testicles blew up like balloons post neutering and grit his teeth all night till I could get him more painkillers… it was heartbreaking!

Reglan is a good one at any time any buns appetite gets low… Its also been a miracle drug in humans in the last few years for nausea & migraines… go figure! your buns is likely feeling a little nauseous from the anaesthetic drugs.

Good luck… hope she kicks back fast.

[SA2208]

I had my boy neutered yesterday at 1 pm and its 5 pm now and he’s not eating pellets. I saw him nibbling some hay, managed to make him eat a bit of carrot last night, but that’s it… he’s active, today he came out of the cage too, but he’s not eating or drinking water (its a bowl, not the bottle)…
But he is chewing on cardboard alot! I gave him a paper bag to play with and he shredded it. Should i be concerned or is this normal?

[Muchelle]

Posted By SA2208 on 3/01/2018 8:44 AM

I had my boy neutered yesterday at 1 pm and its 5 pm now and he’s not eating pellets. I saw him nibbling some hay, managed to make him eat a bit of carrot last night, but that’s it… he’s active, today he came out of the cage too, but he’s not eating or drinking water (its a bowl, not the bottle)…
But he is chewing on cardboard alot! I gave him a paper bag to play with and he shredded it. Should i be concerned or is this normal?

Hello, welcome on the forum As a general rule, please do not respond to old topics but open a new one. It will be checked faster and with less confusion.

About you bun, is he on pain meds? Not eating or drinking for more than 12 hours is something that needs to be assessed by a vet, so I think you should call your vet as soon as possible to discuss what to do. 

[bernardthebunny]

hi, my bunny was just spayed today and she’s not eating it’s only been a few hours but i’m not sure what to do. We’ve tried all her favourite foods. not sure if i should wait it out or if i should try force feeding? pls help

[Bam]

You shouldn’t go to bed on her first night home without having seen her eat at least something. If you have access to any fresh herbs, (parsley, cilantro, mint, basil etc) that could help spark an appetite).

You can syringe feed pellet mush if you dont have critical care or other rescue formula. You can also make hay tea (steep hay in hot water, let cool, sieve off and feed in a syringe).

It is important that she gets food in her so she can keep warm. Rabbits can get hypothermia after surgery, and this is very dangerous. She could benefit greatly from a warm waterbottle or handwarmers wrapped in a towel. She must have space enough to move away from the heat source if she doesn’t want it.

It’s not uncommon for girl rabbits to not want to eat post their spay, which means we need to help. Did you get a pain killer for her to give her these next few days? (I’m assuming she has had all the pain relief she can have today).

[NalaBunny]

My rabbit was spayed a little bit ago and she didn’t eat for quite a bit so what I did was take pellet dust at the bottom of the bag and mix it with water and feed that to her. I just made sure she kept pooping, I also gave her a crap ton of treats and this helped her digestive system keep running.

[bernardthebunny]

thx so much i tried this and she’s doing better now, eating on her own and being more her self now.

[Bam]

I’m very glad to hear it! Thank you for the update!

[Author]

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