Spayed female – pulling fur for nest??!

[Emandme]

Hi,

This morning as I was laying in bed half awake, with both bunnies zooming around nearby, Zinga – my female – jumped on the bed and was nosing around as she normally does.

I decided to let her under the covers for a little dark hideyhole, which she promptly went in and ‘dug’ down toward the bottom of the bed. After a minute or three she came out again. I thought nothing of it because I’ve done this before for both my buns.

I closed my eyes and snoozed again but woke up to the odd sound of.. I don’t know how to explain it. Kind of like ripping. So I opened my eyes and lifted my head. There was Zinga literally ripping out her fur in several spots. I LOST it. Because I’d never seen her or Bunneh do this before.

I quickly did a search online and found out about false pregnancy. So I cajoled her back under the covers so she would spit out her mouthful. Argh.

I gave my vet’s office a call and they swore (for the second time) that her spay was complete and suggested there might be another problem or a skin condition and suggested I bring her in for a look.

I wanted to check here first with you good bunny mom’s and dad’s. 

Can anyone tell me the medical names of the proper complete spay procedure? 

Has anyone ever seen this before in spayed females? 

She was spayed in late January 2013 and she is now just over a year old. 

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Lisa

[Sarita]

I’m curious as to why you have reservations about her being spayed since you said it was your second time to contact the vet about her procedure. Has this particular behavior happened before or was this the first time?

I think if it’s just a one time occurrence I’m not sure I would be too concerned.

I used to have a neutered male who would nest also and I think it was due to stress.

[Emandme]

I had reservations before about it being done properly because Zinga has been off and on mounting Bunneh. It bothered me because I can see how Bunneh dislikes it. But I ended up putting it down to the fact that Bunneh doesn’t like to groom Zinga and does it very infrequently. Which I think makes her feel as if she needs to force the issue.

Anyway, the vet office did say it was done properly. 

So Zinga hasn’t done it again since this morning, and seems to be acting normally. 

[MoveDiagonally]

A complete spay is called a ovariohysterectomy and both the ovaries and uterus are removed. Mounting isn’t always hormonal it’s a way rabbits display dominance. So I wouldn’t say that humping alone is a sign that a spay wasn’t done properly. There are a couple reasons rabbits will pull fur that aren’t hormonal/false pregnancy related so I do think a check up might be a good idea.

[Stickerbunny]

Stickers was spayed and she actually has humped my boyfriends shirts before o.O and Powder is neutered and he still humps Stickers occasionally (when he can catch her that is) so that isn’t hormonal behavior a lot of the time. Fur pulling is worrying, but it could be many things, so yes have her checked up. Hope whatever caused it can get sorted without too much stress on the little girl.

[Author]

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