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Forum DIET & CARE My bunny story – Spay, Transfusion, Uterus Infection

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    • Wakka
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        Hello everybody,

        I have a female bunny (Belier) with 1 year and 10 months, she came to us when she was 7 weeks old. Her name is Tiki (It is read Teekee in my language). The name means “Candy” in my autist nephew language. So we named her that, so he could be able to call her.
        I decided to make this topic to share my story, i’ve been reading this forum for almost 1 year, however on the past month i’ve been spam reading it since Tiki got sick.

        Tiki is a very happy bunny, she lives inside my house and in the summer goes out and jumps like crazy, inside she loves to destroy his cardboard safehouse, she’s always running around us rubbing her chest in everything she finds, she loves to sprint from her room to the living room . She only gets caged (it’s a big cage) at night and during work hours. However 4 weeks ago she left a blood drop in the urine which got us kind of worried but it never happened again.
        1 week later, when we got home her litter place was very very red, we couldn’t tell if it was that red urine or actual blood. We went to the vet and he prescribed an anti-inflammatory and gave us a syringe to collect a blood sample.

        She didn’t drop any blood for another entire week. She kept eating, drinking running and doing everything as usual.
        During a Sunday, she started stomping their back legs as usual when we are not giving her attention, when we looked back, the entire floor was filled with blood, we took an entire syringe of it (8mg) and cleaned the rest. We took the blood to the vet but he told us that what he asked for was a urine sample and not a blood sample.

        We got really pissed off and went to another vet on the next day, an animal hospital vet, this new vet did an ultra-sound, took some blood samples and urine samples, much more professional in my opinion.
        After the ultra-sound it was found that she had an uterus infection and that the only way to save her was to perform a spay. This was on last Friday (April 8th).
        Tiki came home with antibiotics and the vet gave her a pain-control injection.

        On this night she stopped eating, drinking, peeing and pooping, she didn’t want to move from the couch and her teeth were shaking
        During the night i didn’t know what to do, i was afraid she wouldn’t survive if she didn’t eat, so i used the syringe the doctor gave me to administer the anti-inflammatory and used it to “force feed” her with water, she took it willingly 3 full syringes (8mg x 3), so it was not actually force feeding. 1 hour later she still wouldn’t eat so i made a pellet, orange juice and carrot paste and she once again took it willingly. As soon as the vet opened i took her in and she was put into IV. She had a profound anaemia…and a very very low platelet count so she couldn’t be spayed or the risks were too high for her.

        The vet suggested to perform a blood transfusion on Saturday night and fortunately it went all ok. The next day (Sunday) she went into surgery to be spayed immediately.

        The spay went all well, Tiki was a beautiful girl and behaved very well during anaesthesia. The doctor saved the uterus for us to see it and it was so different (the right side from the left), the right side, the one that had the infection was 4 times the size of the other and had a blackish color.

        After the spay she didn’t want to eat at all, we went to the vet everyday to visit her (she stayed at the Hospital since Saturday) but she still wouldn’t eat. Doctors had to force feed her Critical Care everyday with a syringe and were getting worried because she didn’t have any appetite for 3 days in a row.

        Finally yesterday i took her home to her room and to my surprise she started eating everything and back to destroying her cardboard house again we were so happy!!

        She is still recovering now from all what she’s been through but she is much better than on that fatidical Friday. She still does not eat the pellets but she is eating a lot of hay, grapes, oregano, parsley and drinking water. In your experience, does it take long to eat the pellets again?

        Sorry for the long text but it was actually some veryyyy resumed 4 weeks.
        Moral of the story, if you ever see blood in your rabbits urine go straight to the hospital and never go to the next-door vet, find a specialized vet.

        I’ve spent over 1500$/€ to fix her but i’m so glad she is ok!  

        Here’s a pic of her normal self:

        and another when receiving IV:

        Thanks all!


      • Crashley
        Participant
        372 posts Send Private Message

          I do not have spay experience yet, but she is a beautiful girl and I am so glad she is doing well!


        • Bam
          Moderator
          16838 posts Send Private Message

            Thank you for sharing your story and for providing helpful and important information to others. I didn’t even know they gave blood-transfusions to bunnies. You really managed to find an excellent vet, the second one. I’m so happy she could be saved, it must have been terrible for you while it was going on. Tiki is extremely lucky to have you.

            She is a truly beautiful girl. So fluffy!


          • LBJ10
            Moderator
            16870 posts Send Private Message

              Thank you for sharing Tiki’s story. This is something that can happen, but it seems like it’s something not everyone is aware of. This will certainly help others. I’m so glad that Tiki had a happy ending. With your love and the right vet, she was able to pull through this.


            • Wakka
              Participant
              8 posts Send Private Message

                Thanks for all your answers and support.

                She is doing very well after the surgery but still recovering. For now she won’t let me hold her like before, i need to spray her incision with a spray the vet gave me but it’s being a hard task as she won’t let me hold her anymore, i have to do it while she is stretching 

                I didn’t know bunnies could receive blood transfusions either, also as a curiosity, they don’t have blood types like we do, so they can receive blood transfusions from most bunnies. The hospital Tiki’s been to also perform a test to make sure the blood receiver is compatible (even though there’s no blood types, the receiver could destroy the donated blood thinking it was a threat). Tiki received blood from a big female bunny (9,2 lbs).


              • Bam
                Moderator
                16838 posts Send Private Message

                  It’s very clever to do it while she’s stretching. No need to stress a bun out more than you have too =) I hope she’ll come around and let you hold her/cuddle her again once all this has settled and she’s back to her “old self” again. Apart from this having been an ordeal due to the infection and all, all bunnies that are newly desexed can go through a period when they become a bit standoffish or even aggressive. They can also pee and/or poop-mark, perform courting and mating behavior etc. It’s about hormone levels dropping and the body adjusting to the discontinuation of the production of sex-hormones.

                  Again, really cool about the transfusion. It must mean pet-rabbits are rising in status.


                • Wakka
                  Participant
                  8 posts Send Private Message

                    Posted By bam on 4/18/2016 9:06 AM

                    It’s very clever to do it while she’s stretching. No need to stress a bun out more than you have too =) I hope she’ll come around and let you hold her/cuddle her again once all this has settled and she’s back to her “old self” again. Apart from this having been an ordeal due to the infection and all, all bunnies that are newly desexed can go through a period when they become a bit standoffish or even aggressive. They can also pee and/or poop-mark, perform courting and mating behavior etc. It’s about hormone levels dropping and the body adjusting to the discontinuation of the production of sex-hormones.

                    Again, really cool about the transfusion. It must mean pet-rabbits are rising in status.

                    Doing it while she’s stretching was the best way i found 

                    Regarding to the hormone level, i’m not a doctor and i don’t understand much about it. I do not now if she received blood from a spayed or non-spayed bunny. Probably if she received blood from a non-spayed bunny and she had more hormones (or more active hormones) than my bunny, those hormones were also transferred with the blood. This might explain some changes in her behavior, i have to give her time.

                    She might also be afraid of being held because she was held a lot in the vet and most of the times it was to “hurt her”, blood samples, IV, etc.

                    The transfusion was in my country (Portugal) and in a specialized vet. I don’t know if it is a usual thing to do in the rest of the world. I did a google search and came up with no results, so i guess it’s not that common. At least i know here pet-rabbits have a high status 


                  • Bam
                    Moderator
                    16838 posts Send Private Message

                      I just assumed you were in the USA! That’s cool that it’s available in Europe =) I’m in Sweden, I don’t know if bunny transfusions are available here but I’ll ask my vet when I take my Yohio in next week for his yearly vaccination.

                      We’re not doctors or vets here either, we just try to learn as much as we can =) Sex hormones travel in the blood throughout the body, which is rather a slow signalling-process in terms of bodily signalling. The hormonal spikes seen after a spay might be due to an “excess” amount of hormones right after a spay because the uterus, which is one of the target organs for estrogen, is gone, so the hormones already produced and present in the bloodstream have fewer places to “land”. Anyway, the hormones eventually get broken down, but it takes a while. It generally takes longer for girls than for boys.


                    • LittlePuffyTail
                      Moderator
                      18092 posts Send Private Message

                        Just want to say Welcome to BB and am glad your beautiful girl is recovering well.

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                    Forum DIET & CARE My bunny story – Spay, Transfusion, Uterus Infection