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FORUM HOUSE RABBIT Q & A Post neutering care

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    • MistySox
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        Hi ?
        My 14 week old mini Rex was castrated yesterday mid to late morning (so roughly 32 hours ago) and although he’s been eating and drinking (a little) and pooping since, he seems VERY lethargic. We’ve placed him in a small hutch indoors (as he normally has free run of a converted wendy house outside with his sister) as we were keen to be able to easily monitor what he eats / drinks / poops and prevent him from being too energetic / jumpy (if only!) and / or be manhandled by his dominant sister!!! Since the surgery, he tends to eat a little and then retreat to the ‘bedroom’ section of the hutch and flop out (legs sprawled behind him). Normally if I were to open the door of this section and put my hand in he would run away but he barely bats an eyelid. Just lies there looking very sorry for himself.

        Having not had rabbits since I was a child I wasn’t sure what was ‘normal’ behaviour post surgery. I’m hoping I’m just being overly paranoid and it’s possible he’s still just feeling the effects of the anaesthesia.

        Any thoughts gratefully received


      • Bam
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          Do you know what type of painkiller he was given before he was sent home? It was buprenorphin, this could be a side effect. It can give drowsiness that lasts quite some time. If it was Metacam, I’d be slighly more worried. Have you seen any poop? Has he been eating anything near normal amounts? If he has eaten only very little, syringe feeding Critical Care or soaked pellets made into a mush is necessary since it’s been 32 hours. The pellet mush/Critical care can be mixed with something yummy to increase appetite. Did the vet send you home with any pain meds to give him at home?

          It’s good you have him inside, because hypothermia is a common issue post anesthesia in rabbits. They can get cold indoors too, if they don’t eat, because their cecum (part of their intestine) is a “heating-factory” that keeps the bun’s body temp normal . It only works if the bunny eats though, or there’s nothing to make body warmth from. You could try offering him a warm water bottle or handwarmers wrapped in a blanket, he might like it or he might not want it. He must have space enough to move away if he doesn’t want it.

          For a boy that young I’d rather expect a quicker recovery, many young boys are acting quite normal, almost as if nothing ever happened, when they come home from their neuter. All buns are different though. It’s very good that he’s eating. Have you checked the incision site? Sometimes there’s blood/fluid leakage into the scrotal sacs. One or both sacks can be get pretty big and the condition should be seen by a vet.

          I’d give the neuter-vet a call and ask, but first check the surgical site so you know what to tell them. You can’t really determine a bunny’s core temperature by feeling its ears, but you can get a tiny bit of an idea if the ears are ice cold or very hot. They should be neither, although for a resting bunny, cold-ish ears are normal (unless it’s very hot in the environment).


        • Asriel and Bombur
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            Asriel was quite dopey and lethargic the first few days after his neuter. He didn’t recover from the anesthesia and pain meds as well as Bombur.

            As a side note: bunnies don’t recognize family units. If your girl hasn’t been spayed yet, keep them separate at all times as he can still produce sperm for up to one month after his neuter. Also, now that he is fixed (and if she isn’t) he will still act off of her hormones and quite possibly end up causing her to have a false pregnancy, which is very stressful on a young does. And lastly, both bunnies need to be fixed before you can bond them. Now that he will smell different to her, they could very well get into fights, and bunnies can fight to the death. So you’ll need to go through the proper bonding process before they should be together.

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        FORUM HOUSE RABBIT Q & A Post neutering care