Nervous after spay

[SirBunny]

Maby got spayed and she has been home for almost 3 hours now but she has barely moved at all and I haven’t seen her eat or drink. The vet said she didn’t eat or drink much either after the procedure and she rejected the critical care they tried to give her with a syringe, but she has never used a syringe before so maybe that is it.

They gave me some critical care that i can either put in her water bowl, or if need be I can try to force her to ingest it with a syringe but I really don’t want to have to do that.

I know spays are harder on a bunny than a neuter and maybe i am just nervous, but at what point should I actually be worried? It is the middle of the day and she is normally napping right now so maybe she is just exhausted.

Thoughts/advice??

[Bunny House]

I’m glad she made it !
If she doesn’t eat within 8 hours of I’m coming home you will need to force feed her. I know my girls always aren’t themselves for 48 hours after going under but they eat within a couple of hours. If she doesn’t get food in her, her gi tract will slow down and can shut down. Offer her any and all bunny safe foods. If she has a favorite treat, offer it to her and see if she eats it. Did the vet send you home with pain meds? But you will need to force feed her according to her weight at least tonight to see if it gets her tract back and working. Did they show you how to properly force feed her?

[SirBunny]

I provided fresh water, hay, pellets, and some wet veggies but she hasn’t touched any of it yet. They told me how to use the syringe, to try to get it in from the side and to be careful because bunnies have small mouths or cheeks. Should I force feed her even if she starts eating and drinking, just to be sure?

[SirBunny]

Also, the fur around her eyes is kind of hard or crusted over – what is that from? Do bunnies cry? I don’t want to fuss with her too much since she is probably sore so I’ll leave it for now but I just feel so bad for her.

[kurottabun]

Did they give you pain medication?

Sending healing vibes for Maby xx

[SirBunny]

Yes they did. With Moby, when he got his neuter, I jsut drizzled the pain meds onto a slice of banana and he gobbled it up. But Maby doesn’t eat banana or other fruits yet so i dont know if that will work with her, i might have to syringe feed that to her as well. She is going to hate me if i syringe feed her both pain meds and critical care

[kurottabun]

She definitely needs the pain meds. If she hasn’t had it yet, the pain she’s experiencing could be why she’s not eating. Spays are more intrusive and normally hurt more than a neuter. Syringe feeding is pretty easy once you get the hang of it, especially since Maby is still sore and will probably not fight it.

You can try giving her a favourite piece of treat after the syringe feeding session. Bunnies forgive pretty easily!

[Bunny House]

If she eats a lot then no you don’t need to but if she doesn’t eat a lot then you will need to force feed her.

[SirBunny]

Okay so she still hasn’t eaten anything… I tried to syringe feed her critical care and I was able to get her a little bit but not much. Same with the pain meds. She really does not like the syringe. I don’t know what else to do. Should I wait until morning to see if she has eaten anything, and if not then take her back to the vet? And what will they do, just syringe feed her for me? I am a college student so frequent visits to the vet are a really heavy financial burden, the surgery was already expensive. Sorry for ranting I am just very stressed out and concerned for my bunny

[kurottabun]

Rabbits generally don’t like to be force fed, but it’s necessary to do it sometimes. Is she swallowing the meds and CC or just letting it drip out of her mouth? Make sure you hold her head firm enough so that she can’t move it around.

[SirBunny]

Hi just wanted to update, Maby seems to be doing much better today. She hasn’t touched her pellets but she has been eating timothy hay. I gave her pain meds first thing in the morning which she hates but I think it helped because she has been moving around much more.

Question though – when keeping an eye on her recovering incision from the surgery for the next week, how can I tell if something is going wrong like it is getting infected?

[Nutmeg]

That is so great to hear!
Keep her cage super clean – pick up any stray poops and change her litter twice a day so you can track how much she is peeing/pooping.

With my girl, once she finally started to eat again, I would use Kale (her FAV!) and hold it up through the top slats of her cage so that she had to reach up and get it – then I would look at her belly… watch for any really red / irritated swelling or bleeding… also make sure she isn’t grooming her self there! They can really do damage by chewing at the site.

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