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Forum DIET & CARE Collar After Spay?

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    • bpash89
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         So I got my little one spayed yesterday.

        She only had to spend the night at the vet and they let me take her home today

        She seems to be doing well

        The vet even commented on how much she eats despite her size

        She doesn’t seem to be in pain and they sent me home with plenty of pain killers anyway

        They did make her wear a collar though since she has regular stitches 

        But it isn’t like the hard plastic cone kind

        It looks like this 

        So it’s just like stiff cloth

        Idk if it’s supposed to be worn like a cone

        or like a skirt to keep her away from the incision or what

        She hates it though

        I took it off her as soon as we got home and have just kept an eye on her to make sure she isn’t pulling at her stitches or anything

        She just really wanted to give herself a good grooming and now she’s laying down taking a nap

        Should I put the collar back on her when I’m not home?

        I don’t want to stress her out or have her hurt herself trying to get if off

        But I don’t want her to mess up her stitches either

        I have to leave her home alone tomorrow when I go to work so idk what is best for her right now…

        Advice?

         


      • Roberta
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          The collars do serve a purpose and whilst she is still dosy and glad to be home she might not be bothering with the incision. That may change when you are not there to monitor the situation. I know it makes you feel bad and that you are causing her distress but having to go back under anesthesia and be resutured would be worse. I just spent a fortnight with a very vocal cat in the stiff plastic collar and it was a nightmare but the days do pass and at least I knew he could not do any harm to the area. As it is he scratched a scab the day after the stitches came out and it is only now healing.
          Use the collar, it’s better to be safe than sorry even if its just for the first few days.


        • Minhua Xu
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            Keep an eye on her all the time when you take the cone off!
            I had a bunny (Coco) who opened herself twice. The vet used regular stitches at first. She pulled the stitches out when she was still in the hospital. The vet had to put Coco under anesthesia again, and she used glue instead of regular stitches that time. She also put a cone on Coco.
            I took her home at 5 pm. Then we were at the emergency vet at 10 pm because there was a big hole on her tummy!! I thought she was not happy in the cone, so I took it off. I also thought I could just watch her. But she opened herself during the time I went to the bathroom.
            She had to be put under again. They cleaned everything out, put 3 staples on her, wrapped her middle part in vet wraps. I left the hospital with her at 3 am, felling awful.
            Our regular vet checked her out the next day morning, put more staples on her, told me not to take the cone off again. She had it on for more than two weeks. She had no problem wearing it.


          • Minhua Xu
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              Forgot to say,we had the same cone as yours.


            • bpash89
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                 Is the cone supposed to be worn like a skirt going around her belly?  Or like an actual cone just around her neck? They had it around her belly when I brought her home but she’s pretty small and the cone is quite flexible (and a bit big for her) so she might have moved it around or shoved her feet through it herself.  

                She was really just intent (and content) on grooming herself properly when I took it off and it wasn’t off for too long.  Her incision still looks fine and I’ll be uber careful if I let her have it off again.  Promise.  I’ll call the vet in the morning and see about maybe getting a smaller one but I don’t think they would have given her this one if they had a smaller size… :/

                My main problem right now is that the doctor gave me stuff (looks like iodine) to keep her incision clean and she went bat$*&! crazy when I tried to put it on her.  I tried a few different ways to get her to let me near her incision and she wouldn’t have it.  

                Also, everywhere says to keep them confined so they don’t over exert themselves but I normally have her out all the time and now that she’s in her cage she’s putting a lot of work and effort into getting out and I’m a bit worried that keeping her confined is going to be the reason she pushes herself too far.  

                My god this spaying business is stressful.  


              • Beka27
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                  It is somewhat unusual for rabbits to get sent home with collars unless they start messing with the area. My girl was spayed, she didn’t have a collar, and never bothered with the incision area.

                  Keep an eye on her and if you want to give her a little break when you are home and able to watch her, take it off then but put it back on when you’re not around.

                  Like Prada said, it’s an annoyance, but it’s only short-term. The alternative if she opens herself back up is much worse.


                • Minhua Xu
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                    Coco had it around her neck, but shaped backwards.


                  • bpash89
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                      I’ll text my vet in the morning then. I’ve tried to put it on like that, tying it as tight as it would go and she just shoves her front feet through the neck hole and turns it into a skirt.


                    • MoveDiagonally
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                        It’s not a skirt it’s a cone for around the neck. It might be too big for her if she can get her feet in the hole.

                        You can see a similar cone being used by Nora, Tanlover’s bunny, in this thread:
                        https://binkybunny.com/FORUM/tabid/54/aft/125415/Default.aspx
                        Scroll down and you can see the cone in use.


                      • BabyD
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                          It’s an Elizabethan collar and should be worn around the neck. It’s not a skirt. It will prevent her from messing with the external sutures until they her wounds are healed. You might need to hand feed her caecals coz she can’t reach while wearing it


                        • bpash89
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                            I’ve pretty much given up on her wearing the collar anymore. As she starts to feel better she is getting more feisty about not wearing it and the vet said it’s the smallest one they have. She managed to untie it yesterday and took it completely off herself and with enough squirming she can get it off even when it’s tied. She also gets really grumpy and refuses to eat when she is wearing it. She hasn’t touched her incision spot and it’s already starting to heal up nicely so I hope when we go too the vet tomorrow he will say she can go without it. No point in forcing it on her when she takes it off 5 minutes later.

                            She’s still not eating as much as I would like to see but she’s definitely feeling better. The only thing she really seems to like eating is spinach right now. Normally she never stops eating so it’s stressful to see her so uninterested in food. She’s eating enough to get by (hay and veggies mostly but a little bit of her pellets) but her poos are still super small. She seems to have released some of her grudge against me though. The first night she was home I wasn’t allowed within 10 feet of her but last night she was back to demanding grooming and jumping on me when she gets bored.

                            I’ll just be really relieved when she get’s back to normal again. I have been so stressed out because of all this…


                          • LittlePuffyTail
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                              I wouldn’t bother with the collar if she’s not hurting her incision. Not point putting her through the stress of wearing it for nothing. Most bunnies are fine and don’t need to wear one.

                              (((((Continued Recovery Vibes)))))))


                            • tanlover14
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                                I agree – I wouldn’t mess with the collar.

                                Only one of mine needed the collar (even though they were all sent home with them). She needed it only because she was tearing all the glue and stitches off the incision. It was quite obvious she was chewing on it so we didn’t have a choice.

                                My other groomed the incision spot but never tried to chew or pull on it – if you look at the site you should be able to tell if she’s irritated or not.


                              • bpash89
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                                  My vet is really adamant that she wear it. She hasn’t pulled any of the stitches out but she has chewed off the ends all the way down to the skin. It doesn’t look irritated or anything and we just got home for the vet and he said it looked fine and she was healing well but he still wants her in the collar. It took her all of 1 hour to pull the collar off by herself when we got home. I just really don’t know what I’m supposed to do. It’s too big for her and they don’t have a smaller size.

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                              Forum DIET & CARE Collar After Spay?