Struggling to feed critical care after spaying

[Haleyrose]

Hi all! I’m new to bunnies so I really need all the advice I can get. My girl Thelma was spayed yesterday (I got her home around 4 pm and its now 6 am the next day). Before anything else- Thelma does NOT like to be held or touched. Without going into the long and sad backstory, she was bought by a neglectful family member and was not socialized hardly at all, and she doesn’t even really like me. She is incredibly tense whenever I come near her with the syringe, and I’ve tried the burrito method, just using my arms, and nothing has calmed her enough to eat more that 10-15 ml at a time, let alone stay in the same spot to be fed (she slithers and jumps out of my grasp constantly). I also should point out that my vet did not advise me how much to give her, so I’ve just been going by about what the package stated (around 5 or 6 tablespoons and lots of water so it’s kind of runny) and because she refuses to eat we haven’t even gotten halfway through that in the last 3ish feedings. Is there anything more I can do, or is this a normal amount to be feeding? Obviously these are questions really for a vet but in case anyone might know I thought I would ask here as I wait for the vet to open to call. The critical care is helping because she is pooping, but I’m terrified I might hurt her if she keeps resisting the critical care, and she still has no interest in hay or veggies. Again, I’m going to call the vet in a few hours when they open just to ask, but you have any advice I’ll gladly take it! I also want to know if I should be sus about the vet not giving me the critical care dosage? It was weird because the tech that brought her out to me even informed me she probably wouldnt eat for a while, but didn’t give me any advice/guidance on what to do next. The vet has great reviews and they seemed to successfully finish her surgery with no complications. If you can, help!

[Wick & Fable]

I’m sorry to hear you’re having difficulty with her post-spay. For general guidance on post-spay care, see here: https://wabbitwiki.com/wiki/Spaying_and_neutering_rabbits#After_the_operation

For some methods of force-feeding, see here: https://wabbitwiki.com/wiki/Medicating_your_rabbit#Syringe_feeding

Re: how much to give, if she is not eating at all, the amount will be based on her weight. The goal is to make sure she always has something moving in her gut. You do not need to feed the entire amount in one feeding (and you shouldn’t!), but you should get an idea of how much she needs in a full day and break that up into 3+ feedings throughout the day.

Here is a guidance chart on weight, total amount per day, and how that looks depending on how many feedings you’re doing through the day.

If she begins to eat on her own, you can start to back down CC quantity.

… Also, did you get pain medication?

The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.

[Haleyrose]

Thanks for answering and for the advice! I got her some pain medication this morning, and I will be giving it to her again tonight if she continues to grind. As for the feeding, she has eaten one piece of hay (kind of ridiculous lol) but no other food besides that. I’ve tried pretty much everything to keep her calm to feed her, but she hates being touched so much that I can barely get her to eat anything at all. I am also slightly concerned because I know you shouldn’t handle them much if at all while they are healing, but she is constantly running from me when I have the syringe so I’ve been having to gently pick her up. She does fight me, and if she resists too hard, which is has every time, I just let her go and give her space for a couple of minutes. I was feeding her every 3-4 hours, even in the middle of the night, is that too much? I can dial it back to 3+ times during the day. My vet told me the pain medication might make her calmer and I might be able to feed her a bit easier, so I’m waiting for a bit for it to kick in and I’ll try to feed her again.

In terms of her weight, I actually don’t know how much she weighs believe it or not! She was very jumpy during the checkup so they let me know they would weigh her while she was under anesthesia, but they never let me know what her weight actually was. I forgot to ask when I called this morning and my vet is also closed right now, so go figure I can’t contact them about it. I’ve been gauging it off the weight of my other bunny (he is about 6ish lbs or almost 3 kgs), and she is slightly bigger than he is. Looking at the chart makes me slightly nervous though because all in all she’s maybe eaten 30-50 ml in total in the last 18 hours which doesn’t seem near enough 🙁

[DanaNM]

10 -15 mL at a time is actually quite good IMO! My vet would have me do 12 mL, 3 times a day for a bun that wasn’t eating. You don’t need to feed overnight, because buns need to sleep too.

Keep offering her a variety of fresh herbs and greens and shoving hay in her face. The first 48 hours are the hardest! You got this!

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[Haleyrose]

Okay, that makes me feel SO much better!!! I was really concerned I was feeding her too little. Believe it or not, about two minutes ago she ate a few pieces of lettuce on her own and ate a few more when I put more down :,) and she was chewing on her seagrass ball! Thank you so much for the comfort, all!

[DanaNM]

Great news! sounds like she’s on the mend 🙂

 

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[LBJ10]

I was going to ask about pain meds too. They are more likely to eat on their own when their pain in being properly managed. It sounds like she is interested in eating now, so that’s definitely a good sign!

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