Emergency Spays..to do or not to do…

[fishi]

Hey All,

Just wanted to see if anyone has had a similar experience as the one I am going through.

We have female (unspayed) netherland dwarf, about 1.5 years old. Recently we noticed a change in her poop (hard and small) and a loss of appetite for food/water. More concerningly i noted some blood coming from her stool/urine. I did some research and was thinking it was GI stasis. After doing some xrays and describing the symptoms, the vet said there is a good chance she has an infection in her uterus (leading to uterine cancer). The choices were either perform an emergency spay (which is risky as she is not eating/drinking and rabbits are not all that resilient) to remove the uterus, and this is assuming that she survives the anethesia, or send her home with medication/pain killers and hope it resolves itself (which if it doesn’t, could spread im guessing).

I opted to take her home with the meds and see what happens. Id do the surgery in a heartbeat, although it seems risky that they might not even get to that assuming she doesnt make it past the anesthtia. She would obviously need time to recover which is better alternative than to lose her. Alternatively, if the meds dont work, and we continue to feed her, there is a chance that whatever is inside could spread. im stuck in between a hard place and hard place..

I wanted to see if anyone else has gone through this situation or has any other thoughts. there arent any right decisions, just tough ones i guess. Thanks for reading..

[Sarita]

It is a hard decision. What was the vet’s recommendation? Did the vet do bloodwork on her? What lead to the belief it may be uterine cancer other than not being spayed (which she definitely needs to be as it is the only cure for uterine cancer is to remove the uterus).

[fishi]

The vet recommended the Emergency Spay, after getting a second opnion to confirm his concerns..i dont believe he did any bloodwork, but he did do some xrays which showed her intestines were more towards her belly than normal. There were faint signs that something was coming from her uterus area and pushing her intestines down. from which he said they would need to do exploratory surgery and he had suspected that it was her uterus and not gi stasis as i had earlier thought..

..i just didnt want to decide to do the surgery with a chance that i could lose her right then..i thought maybe i could try the meds and see how she reacts to them over the next few days..as i researched more it mentions that if its early enough it can still be contained, but theres no guarantee that she would get pass the anesthesia, id like to giver her a fighting chance if at all possibile but ultimately know i have little control over it..

im def not hoping to get a second opinion on here but maybe another perspective that i hadnt considered?

[Sarita]

What kind of meds did he give her? An antibiotic? Are you just trying pain meds to ease the pain and get her to eat so you can perform the surgery?

[fishi]

the vet gave us buprenorphine, metacam, baytril and metronidazole, 2 are anitbiotics and 2 are pain meds..at this point we are feeding her with a syringe, shes not really eating or drinking..essentially he said if we didnt opt for the surgery, the min we should do is give these to her to ease the pain and try to reduce the issues inside..not sure if its possible for this to resolve itself or if the emergency spay is inevitable..she is a bit active when i give her play time, but still hasnt pooped yet..ironic these rabbits poo all over the place, what i would give to see another one..lol

[fishi]

Hey guys,

Just thought id give you an update..tough decision, but we opted for the emergency spay..

Got the call a few hours later that she had made it (yay!), and did pretty well..they kept her for 3 days after for observation. They said she was alert and eating a little hay..we took her home..she was still not eating hay/pellets or drinking, but otherwise was reasonably normal. We took her back to get a follow up to see why she wasnt eating they tried to get her off critical care and make her hungry..the vet gave us some gastric motility drugs. As of today she will eat kale/spinach and a little cilantro, and will nibble on pieces of apple and a little banana. With her meds we give her water and a bit of critical care, and she will eat hay only if its stuck in her face…She passes small shiny pancake like poos, and pees ocassionally..we try to give her exercise and have removed any traces of cardboard (she loves eating cardboard ironically) from her area..

The pathology results came back and asside from it being slight enlarged than usual, there are no traces of infection/cancer…Essentially it looks like we are back where we started, but she is without her uterus..and oddly enough she is the same weight as she was when all this drama began!..

the saga continues…

[tanlover14]

I’m sorry for all the troubles you are having with your girl – but the spay was not for nothing. This will prevent her from having uterine cancer in the future (theres an 80% chance unspayed females develop it). So you did the right thing getting her done anyways.

How long has she been on the motility drugs? Hopefully these will help. Keep us updated!!

Sending lots of healing vibes!!!

[Beka27]

Thank you for the update! I think you made the right decision. Now if she doesn’t return to normal, you can explore other options.

[fishi]

Hey all, its funny..just under a month ago i had a tough decision of choosing an emergency spay..that decision was a piece of cake compared to what we faced on Saturday..

After several weeks of putting our rabbit through various meds and force feedings, she became very lethargic on thursday.,we took her back to the vet and it turns out she had “fatty liver”..her liver and kidney’s were in bad shape, and things were deterioating quickly..our options were to perform aggressive therapy with IV fluids..but even with that, it was a long shot to reverse the damage that had been done, or the vet suggested we put her down as she was unsure if she would survive the night..i found it tough differentiating what was good for me vs. what was good for her..i wanted to say bye in my own way..we took her back and tried to feed her, but she wouldnt swallow..we checked up on her throughout the night, and she made it through the morning..but we decided that although we werent sure if she was in pain, she was defintely uncomfortable..so we put her down that morning..

its ironic..she was only a year and a half, but she made a big impact on our lives…as i write this i miss her dearly..but you can only control what you do, and whats going to happen is going to happen….thanks for reading

[LittlePuffyTail]

I’m so very sorry for the loss of your bunny. You obviously loved her very much and did what was best for her. ((((((Binky Free Little One)))))

[Beka27]

I’m so sorry to hear this… I was really hoping that the spay would take care of her and she’d be a happy, healthy bun for a long, long time.

It’s so hard to make that decision, but you did the right thing.

Binky free!

[Emmie]

Heart broken for you.

[tanlover14]

I’m so sorry for your loss – Fishi. Binky Free Baby Girl.

Rabbits do make an immense impact on our lives. You made the best decisions you could possibly make for her. I hope you will eventually be able to find a place in your heart for another wonderful bunny. You were a wonderful bun parent. We need more bun parents who truly care about their rabbits this way.

**Keeping you in my thoughts!**

[Mimzy]

So sorry for your loss. I am late in checking in on this. They do have a huge impact on us but rest assured she is no longer in pain. You did all that you could for her. Also keeping you in thoughts and prayers, *Binky free little one*

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