Staying with bunny after spay

[Okanah]

Hi all,

My bunny girl is scheduled for spaying on the 18th of October. I understand that it’s a fairly big surgery for bunny girls so I plan on applying for annual leave at work to stay with her. With those with experience with post operation care, how long should I apply for annual leave? I’m juggling between one week or two weeks. My bunny tend to sleep most of the day and I’m usually home by 3pm anyways. What do you guys think?

Also, what kind of hands-on care do I need to provide for her? Like do I have to hand feed her for a week? Or check her temperature very two hours? Check on her poop stays every few hours? I’m kinda nervous about the whole surgery and would like to provide as much support for her as I can. Any advice and tips is greatly appreciated!

[sarahthegemini]

Hiya! It’s good that you’re planning on having time off to make sure she is okay.

Every bun responds differently so honestly it’s hard to predict. My Buttercup ate little for the first day or two and then she was back to normal. She didn’t need force feeding as she was eating some (though in hindsight it would have been better to force feed just so I knew she would be okay instead of worrying so much)

She was spayed on a Friday, and she ate small amounts on Friday afterwards. On the Saturday she was eating a reasonable amount of lettuce and forage but little hay. By Sunday her appetite had almost returned to normal.

She was a rare case though, I don’t think bunnies recover that fast usually but as I said, it depends!

It’s really important that she eats so have all of her favourites on hand. Even treats (which usually should be limited) can be given more generously at this time. If she really doesn’t want to eat anything or eats very, very little then she’ll need to be force fed every 4 hours I would say. You can syringe either pellet mash (pellets soaked in water) or something like Oxbow Critical Care or Supreme Science Recovery. You should be able to get some of this from your vet but maybe call and ask if they have it in advance? That way, if they dont have any available you’ve got time to get some from Amazon or something.

In regards to poop, if she is eating (either on her own or by being forced), then in theory she should poop but if she doesn’t then you’ll need to take her back to the vet.

Bunnies can develop hypothermia after surgery so it’s important to make sure she’s warm. You can get heat pads and provide blankets for her. My Buttercup didn’t like her heating pad and didn’t appreciate me draping blankets on her so I ended up moving her cage to be near a radiator as her ears were pretty cold. She warmed up quickly

One thing I will stress is that it’s crucial you get pain relief for her. Metacam is a common drug used, I gave it for 5 days. A bun in pain is more likely to refuse food and irritate/scratch/bite at the wound. Plus obviously you want her to be as comfy as poss!

You must limit her space for the first week or so. My rabbits are free roam but I kept Buttercup in a cage with a small pen for about 5 days. Then I increased the space a little. After 2 weeks she was back to being free roam.

If I were you, I would probably opt for having 2 weeks off. You probably won’t need it but in case there are any complications, you’re covered

[Okanah]

Thank you so much for all the information. I’ll make sure I have everything I need by the time she comes home from her surgery; treats, heat pad etc. I will definitely push the vet to give me some metacam too. I didn’t know it was that important so thanks for letting me know.

I’ve taken your advice and applied for 2 weeks leave. Better safe than sorry. Can’t put a price on my bunny’s life. She’s everything to me right now.

[sarahthegemini]

You’re welcome Yes defo push for the metacam. I’m not sure why but some vets don’t consider it a necessity but she’s basically being cut open and having her insides messed with. She’s gunna need pain relief!

I don’t know what the protocol is where you are but my vets give a 24 hour pain killer injection as standard so I didn’t have to give her any meds til the next day.

Also, just in case you don’t know – unlike other animals, bunnies must NOT be starved prior to surgery. It’s important that there is always something in her tummy so do not fast her.

I’m sure she will be absolutely fine. Spays are such common procedures now so an experienced vet will have very very low risk of complications. Of course we all still worry tho

[Nutmeg]

I can’t add too much more to what Sarah said, but wanted to through in my timeline experience with mine – as it was a bit different and I also took some time off work to be with her (well both of them, as the boy was neutered the same day) and they were just done in July.

Ok, so they went in on Wednesday – I took Wednesday to Friday off (knowing I would have the Sat & Sun off already as well). Turns out I didn’t really need the Wed. off as I dropped them off at 8am, but due to some emergency appointments they didn’t have their surgery until 4pm.
The place I took them too keeps them until they can insure that they see them booth Poop and eat a little bit, so they kept them over night at no extra cost and I picked them up at 9am the next day. So I didn’t need to worry about keeping them warm as the vet took care of that. You will need to do this though if you pick them up shortly after their surgery.

Ok, so Thursday, they are now home. Rupert (the boy) was basically fine right away.

Penny – I actually called the vet to confirm that they saw her eat before I picked her up because she wouldn’t eat ANYTHING. They said they did. She ignored all food, her fav treats and hay… she wouldn’t even nibble. I found if I sat in front of her and just waved stuff in front of her face she would get annoyed and rip it out of my hand and have a few chews.

Thursday evening – time to give their first dose of pain killers, that also had anti-inflammatory in it. The vet said she had to have it on a FULL Stomach… but she wasn’t eating because she was in pain, but then couldn’t have the pain meds because she wouldn’t eat…. you see the problem.
~ So I ended up having to force feed her critical care (look that up if you havne’t, or learn how to turn her pellets into a mush that you can syringe feed her) and then go the medicine down. That was not fun as she had enough energy to fight me on it.

Thankfully she started nibbling after that…. TRUST ME when I say it does not matter how much you read up and prepare yourself that she wont want to eat – its STILL going to stress you out – I set my alarm to wake me up every 2 hours (not that I was really able to sleep anyways) to go and check on them.

Friday – Penny was slowly starting to eat on her own. Not a lot, not nearly enough, but she was. I still spent time waving things in front of her face to get her to eat. Giving pain medication still sucked.
*** Some people have luck putting the medication on their fav. treat or lettuce and the eat it right up – Mine HATED the taste of it and I could not trick them into anyway I tried and had to go back to get more pain medication to replace the dosages I lost trying to trick them lol

Saturday – Penny was still not eating as much as I would have liked. I was finally able to get her interested in her favourite treats and could hold them above her head to get her to stand up to reach them – this allowed me to better check her incision site.

Sunday – early morning – I was starting to worry that I may have to take Monday off work… but then something great happened. She had taken her last dose of Pain meds the night before (the vet said to call if I thought she needed more – so I had until 3pm to decide if she did) but as the day wore on and the medication was leaving her system she finally got her appetite back.
I think the anti-inflammatory portion, or maybe the pain killer portion, of the medication was making her a bit nauseous.

It was smooth sailing from there – I was SUPER lucky that she didn’t bother her spay site. (I’ve read that putting a cut off tube sock around their middle – just tight enough that they can’t wiggle out of it – can really help stop that and is less stressful then a cone) I’m sure the pain meds really helped with that.

** Last thing, the hardest part for after was keeping her confined for 10 days after (the vet said 14, but I just had her out in a little area where she couldn’t super run or jump up on anything) because she is going to feel fine again, but not realize that she can still pull or tear something inside still. I felt horrible, but it was for their own good.

Sending good vibes your way!

[Okanah]

Thank you so much Nutmeg for such an extensive and detailed response. I now know what to expect when she comes home. I have yet to read any response on this forum that gives a day by day report on what will happen after the surgery, so thank you for that.

My vet also suggested I keep my bunny overnight. I have a feeling i won’t me sleeping much that night knowing my bunny is in pain at the hospital.

I don’t live that far from the vet hospital so if my bunny doesn’t eat for an extended period of time, I’ll be sure to drive her over there straight away. I have stocked up on her favourite treats, the ones that makes her do massive binkies and crazy head shakes. Hopefully those might entice her enough to keep her eating. I will hate to force feed her.. I have a very bossy bunny and if I ever do anything that she doesn’t like, she gives me the foot flick and gets all grumpy. I hope spaying will fix that attitude of hers. Most importantly though, I just hope she stays healthy post op and for the many years to come.

Thank you guys for all the information. I know what to prepare for so I won’t feel too lost during her recovery period.

[Nutmeg]

No problem! I know I couldn’t find anything like that when I was preparing either.

Most people said they would usually start eating hay again first – I actually found they went to veggies first, then pellets and then Hay. I ended up buying a few other kinds of hay (orchard and such) to mix in with the Timothy to get them munching on that again.

Keep us posted!!!

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