Not drinking after spay

[Wenet]

Hi all,

Wenet was spayed yesterday, I brought her home at 2 pm. She didn’t want to eat for the first hours, but I was able to feed her a piece of barley biscuit (her favorite treat) in the evening. She has a bottle of water and a bowl, and I saw her licking for like 5 seconds the bottle of water yesterday, but unless she drank while I was sleeping, that was it. Today I force fed her through a syringe smashed pellets and water, she wasn’t happy about that but she got to eat something at least. Then I bought parsley and cilantro which she has never had before, and I gave her a couple of sprigs which she literally devoured. After that I handfed hay and she ate it, and even a few pellets. She’s not eating as much as usual, but at least she’s eating. The problem is that she’s not drinking! Whenever I put her bowl next to her, she’d push it away with her forehead. Thirty minutes ago I was able to force her to drink a bit of water (or did she just soak her lips?) from the bowl. Apart from that, and the fact that she doesn’t get out of the cage, she’s behaving normally: she licks my hand, digs in her cage, lays down, jumps to her litterbox… I have seen her peeing, and a bit of droppings. I’m concerned about the water though. I called the shelter where they spayed her and they suggested that I go to an emergency vet if she doesn’t get better. If I can, I’d like to spare her a vet visit which would mean a car ride and more stress for her, but I’ll of course go if it’s necessary. How was your experience? Do you think that this is normal? As long as she eats hay, veggies and treats is she ok even if she’s not touching her pellets? And how about the water? Thanks!

[Bunny House]

Well did the vet give you any pain meds? You should have pain meds for3-5 days. If she doesn’t have meds, she can be in a lot of pain and that can lead to stasis, which is very scary for bun parents. If she doesn’t eat or poop within 8 hours I would call the vet. My girls do horrible whenever they go under for surgery. They usually aren’t themselves for 12-36 hours even with pain meds, they still eat and poop but very minimally. I would offer her whatever she will eat, hay and if she wants veggies-put water on them so she gets water when she eats them, buns get a lot of their water from their veggies . Mine don’t usually drink from their bowl unless It’s hot or they don’t eat a lot of veggies. You can always offer her small amounts of pumpkin to see if it stimulates her appetite but I’m thinking the anesthesia just really hit her hard, females usually have a harder time with it.

[Wenet]

Thank you for your reply! An update: she jumped out of her cage, hopped a bit around my studio and went back to her cage to eat all the remaining parsley… and drink!! Just a little bit. But she did it. Now she’s laying and she appears relaxed.
As for the pain meds, yes, they gave me three days worth of meds, and I gave her her first dose this morning (they gave her a shot the day of the surgery as well). She doesn’t seem in pain, because she sleeps and behaves normally, apart from the loss of appetite/thirst. I’m going to follow your advice and put water on her parsley. How much parsley/cilantro can I give her considering she’s not eating pellets, and only a few of hay? This is also the first day she’s tried parsley/cilantro. Before today the only veggies she has taken were an occasional leaf of arugula, and tiny pieces of mandarin. Her breeder told me to give her only Oxbow barley biscuits as a treat besides pellets and hay, which I find really odd.

[Bunny House]

No problem! I’m glad she’s doing better!

I wouldn’t give more than a handful of each to her as you don’t want to cause an upset in her tummy and cause her to feel nauseous and then not want to eat. Buns also love basil and mint! My buns is recovering from stasis and he wouldn’t eat anything besides basil haha. If she still doesn’t want to eat in a day, I would see if they can give you an anti nausea med and maybe even a appetite stimulant. You can even go buy some sweet hay like botanical by oxbow and it might make her perk up!

I mean oxbow is a great company- a little over priced on treats but I personally only give pellets as treats and then they get their regular veggies as my buns act like pellets are crack.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

[Bunny House]

No problem! I’m glad she’s doing better!

I wouldn’t give more than a handful of each to her as you don’t want to cause an upset in her tummy and cause her to feel nauseous and then not want to eat. Buns also love basil and mint! My buns is recovering from stasis and he wouldn’t eat anything besides basil haha. If she still doesn’t want to eat in a day, I would see if they can give you an anti nausea med and maybe even a appetite stimulant. You can even go buy some sweet hay like botanical by oxbow and it might make her perk up!

I mean oxbow is a great company- a little over priced on treats but I personally only give pellets as treats and then they get their regular veggies as my buns act like pellets are crack.

Let me know if you have any other questions!

[Nutmeg]

Hi Wenet – glad to hear she was doing better – my bunny was spayed last Wednesday and the vet said that because of the fluids they gave her – plus she was only wanting to eat mixed green lettuce she was getting fluid from that – PLUS the water you mixed with the critical care – they weren’t worried about dehydration yet. Thanfully she started drinking on her own the next day. You can also syringe feed her water along with the critical care. 

** A test you can do if you think they are dehydrated is pinch/pull up on their back… if the skin stays kind of tee-peed up than they are dehydrated, if it goes right back down they aren’t.

** I also noticed that you said the next day she hopped out of her cage and hopped around your studio – my vet (and from what I read a lot on this forum) is that they need to stay confined to their cage anywhere from 10 to 14 days so that they dont’ hurt / damage their spay site – which they can easily do by over jumping or running as the pain meds make them not feel the discomfort as much.

How is she doing now? I was lucky that mine didn’t really bother her spay site, so I didn’t have to put a cone of shame on her lol, but she’s going stir crazy right now.

[sarahthegemini]

It sounds like she’s eating pretty well. I wouldn’t worry about dehydration unless she isn’t peeing. If she is peeing then she has got enough fluids in her system. If you’re really concerned though you could syringe her some water but it doesn’t sound necessary to me.

[Ellie from The Netherlands]

Dutch vets often advise hay tea for bunnies who don’t drink enough. It’s best served in a bowl so your bun won’t have to stretch out to reach the water bottle.
I’ve made a topic of the recipe, because I’ve been posting it in several topics already today

https://binkybunny.com/FORUM/tabid/54/aft/168220/Default.aspx

I hope that Wenet and Nutmeg will be back to normal soon again!

[Nutmeg]

Thanks Ellie! My two monkeys are back to being little terrors hahaha. (Can’t wait for those hormone surges to settle lol)
And also, THANK YOU for that awesome Hay Tea recipe!!!
You are right in that I’ve never heard of it out here – Canada – but it makes so much sense!!

[Ellie from The Netherlands]

Glad to hear that they both bounced back to normal!
You’re welcome about the recipe, I was so surprised that it’s not known in other countries.

Maybe it’s because Dutch medicine focuses on avoiding medication as much as you can. Sometimes it gets a bit extreme though, up to the point of: “Epidurals? Pffft, your great-grandma delivered all her 6 kids while she was harvesting potatoes or milking the cows…”

Many people are still encouraged to do unmedicated home births with a midwife. No thankee… One more reason for me to take the pill.

[Nutmeg]

Posted By Ellie from The Netherlands on 7/23/2018 10:43 AM

Glad to hear that they both bounced back to normal!
You’re welcome about the recipe, I was so surprised that it’s not known in other countries.

Maybe it’s because Dutch medicine focuses on avoiding medication as much as you can. Sometimes it gets a bit extreme though, up to the point of: “Epidurals? Pffft, your great-grandma delivered all her 6 kids while she was harvesting potatoes or milking the cows…”

Many people are still encouraged to do unmedicated home births with a midwife. No thankee… One more reason for me to take the pill.

BHAHAHA OMG you just made me spew water out of my nose LOL. Pill for the win over here too! LOL

I do like the idea of a more natural approach over medication…. Canada (where I am) and the US are very medication driven. I personally left my last family doctor as she was a big “Pill Pusher” – they get compensated for prescribing certain drugs. 

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