Suggestions For Checking Incisions

[bitterepiphany]

Well…

 

Meco had her spay today.  Bless her little furry soul, she’s home and sleeping in a litter box full of carefresh. (lord knows i sleep in the bathroom when i’m sick too.)  nothing in her cage, not even her beloved cardboard safety zone smells like her because we bleached, UV santized (yes, I own one.  i know you’re jealous of my paranoid geekery.  wait until i tell you about the bunny webcam that i’ve been watching from work since she got home ) and otherwise dispensed of and replaced it…to boot, we took away her second floor, put a box in front of her cage door to keep her from getting any funny ideas and put the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs. 

 

So far, so good.  She’s eating already – they fed her her pellets and a salad (which we usually reserve for night time) this morning at the vet to get her interested in her food and she’s already nibbling her hay.  They didn’t send us home with antibiotics or painkillers.  So, really, aside from making sure we restrict her from strenuous activity for 7-10 days and from the stairs for at least two weeks, we’re really only in charge of making sure her cage is hermetically sealed from bacteria and germs and checking the incision often.

 

Which is where we come to the usual cry of “help me!”

 

Meco does not like to be picked up.  We’ve learned that she’s calmest when covered in a blanket first (full on throw blanket, no measley towel shall restrain this Princess of all things prissy.) and then snatched off of the floor and firmly held.  It’s not until she notices that she’s been picked up about 15 seconds later that she starts to resist.  With that having been said, we need to get underneath her and, we need her not to freak out and start thrashing.  Which basically means we need to get a different rabbit

 

<---Kidding.

 

In all sincerity, does anyone have any suggestions for picking up a stubborn bunny and making them feel safest while being held?  For example, will she react differently if we pick her up, and then sit down of the floor holding her, or will she simply judge any distance between herself and the floor as problematic?

[bunnytowne]

Being closer to the floor helps sometimes.  Have you put a cover over her face sometimes that keeps them calm too. She may not squirm as much though I could be wrong.  Yeah sitting on the floor and examining her might work better.

Best wishes there.

[jerseygirl]

Best just to be around her alot. Often when they’re grooming you can get a good look. Also, getting them to stand for a treat gives a good view. Did they use glue and internal stitches of just stitches for her incision?

Glad she’s doing ok! Oh, and your “paranoid geekery” made good reading – lol!

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

lord knows i sleep in the bathroom when i’m sick too.) nothing in her cage, not even her beloved cardboard safety zone smells like her because we bleached, UV santized (yes, I own one. i know you’re jealous of my paranoid geekery. wait until i tell you about the bunny webcam that i’ve been watching from work since she got home )

LMAO

Just grab her quick. That obviously doesn’t mean frantic or fumbly…just get the towel on her, flip her over and look quickly-get the bf taking pics if necessary. Doesn’t take too long to check an incision…just ensure it’s not discolored or poofy-if you clean your hands ahead of time you can touch it gently too to ensure it’s not too sensitive.

[Beka27]

feel better Meco! how is she doing today?

[bitterepiphany]

Thanks everyone!

We haven’t checked her incision yet this morning, but we’ll definately try covering her face and taking pictures to make it quicker and less traumatic.  DJ, the vet, said that he was going to use internal stitchs and glue.  Which maked everything that I learned about ways to keep your rabbit from chewing out her stitches without giving her a cone collar completely useless, but we’ll take it

On the plus side, she seems to be eating a lot better.  Which isn’t to say that she was eating badly, but she’s going after her salad now with her normal zeal.  The only real thing that makes you aware she was recently traumatized is that when I put her bowl in her cage with her salad today, maybe a whole six inches in front of her, she reached forward as far as she could without stretching father than she wanted and layed back down, but when I came back with the water and moved it to right under her nose, she devoured half of it in the time it took me to read your posts   She still doesn’t seem too interested in pellets, but we’re going to take that for what it is and just keep giving her more lettuce when the bowl is empty until she feels better.

Oh, and relief of all reliefs!  We’re finally starting to get little remanufactored pellets around the cage   They’re not as big as the normally are and they’re harder, but she never went through the diahera phase that the vet told us she would – which I consider to be good news.

[Beka27]

eating pellets is usually the last thing to come back… it sounds like she’s doing pretty well.

do you know if your vet has hours over the weekend? some places might be closed for 4 days b/c of how the holiday falls… her pain meds will be wearing off about now, if not already, and there’s always the risk that the pain may cause her to stop eating. if you’re concerned and they’re not going to be open, you may call to see if you can get some “just in case” meds…

[bitterepiphany]

The vet we use is a 24 hour, emergency vet as well as our regular vet. They’re open, which is good.

For now, she seems to be eating OK. I just had a little scare when I looked over to find her supreme furriness laying there sort of…twitching in her sleep…and then she woke up and kept doing it. But then I turned the heat on and shook her salad bowl and she hopped forward to munch. The twitching is gone. Mostly, she just seems to be sleeping a lot….

I’m so redonkulous….I don’t know what is a sign of doom, so I assume everything is.

[Beka27]

oh that’s great then! i’m the same way, a total worry-wart about everything…

[bitterepiphany]

I just wanted to let you all know that, while checking her incisions is still an excersize in “pick up rabbit. attempt to flip rabbit over. stop rabbit from breaking her neck” her eating has improved so much. Yesterday we had an open day on lettuce, because she wasn’t drinking very well, so she got all the lettuce she was willing to eat. Today we’re going to have to scale back some because I don’t want to make her sick and she’s up and about in her cage, even doing the full stretch

Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks. This was a nerve racking experience for me, and by virtue of that, for M. I was paranoid the entire time and that was making him nervous.

[Balefulregards]

I never knew a rabbit spay would be so *personally* traumatic until Coco’s…when I lay next to her cage and stared at her for three days!

I used the “blanket over the head – flip – check – replace and uncover” method. Fast. Straightforward

When she was feeling better and got too fast for me, I would lay on the floor and wait until she telescoped…sometimes even holding a papaya tablet above her.

But of course, by that time things were pretty well healed.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

I guess I was lucky -the only spay I had to personally go through was Kahlua’s and she is super easy to pick up and put on her back. She prefers to run around like a psycho but has no problem being held for long periods of time either. It was definitely scary and I was giving her critical care just in case, through the whole recovery-NEVER getting a rabbit who isn’t fixed first again! LOL

Glad she’s doing well-and that’s fantastic your vet is open 24 hours!! What a relief!

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