Spaying

[DaisyBun]

Tomorrow my Daisy will be getting spayed, and I am very anxious.
For one, her cage is very small however I always attach the pen that came with it so she has more room to play during the night since she can’t stay in my room. The door that leads her into her cage is a ramp and I’m concerned whether it’s okay or not. Will her climbing up the ramp rip her stitches or should I keep her in the tiny cage?
Also, we don’t use actual litter for her litterbox since we had some litter eating problems, so instead we use hay. Will hay be a problem for her stitches? I wouldn’t be able to put her hay anywhere else because her hay rack requires her to reach for it and I don’t want her to feel uncomfortable by doing that.
I also had recently begun giving her one piece of romaine lettuce and I was wondering if that would be enough for her recovery process, and she loves her pellets so would it be encouraging for me to mix water and pellets and leave it for her in a bowl?

Thank you

[Muchelle]

I wouldn’t worry too much about the ramp, even with stitches buns can stretch and hop to a certain extent. As for the litter, if you’re concerned that hay might get stuck to her wound, you can do like they do at some vet’s clinics and just leave flat paper in her litter box (it has to be changed very frequently for sanitary reasons). I don’t think the hay will be a problem though.

As for food, keep giving her her usual diet: she needs her hard pellets and hay to keep her teeth and GI organs going Keep an eye on how much she eats/drinks so that you’ll notice right away if she’s eating less

The main thing you have to worry about is that she doesn’t lick compulsively or bite her stitches, in that case keep her from doing that and contact your vet to discuss what to do

[Bam]

Make sure the vet sends pain meds home with you. Pain is a common reason why buns chew at their stitches, and that must be avoided. Girl rabbits also get less GI complications if they are given pain meds after a spay.

Sometimes the bun gets cold when it comes home, so handwarmers or a hot water bottle is good to have on hand.

The most important thing is to get her to eat when she comes home, but if she wont eat volunatrily, you’ll need to syringe feed her, so a feeding syringe is something you’ll probably need. Pellets soaked in water will do. Don’t go to bed for the night until she has eaten something. Romaine is fine. Many buns prefer fresh veg when they’re just out of surgery and might not be at all interested in pellets.

I think hay will be fine in her litter box. Maybe fill half with torn up newspaper and keep hay in one half so she can eat comfortably but with less risk of sth getting stuck.

[DaisyBun]

So we picked her up at around 5, and the lady (I’m not sure who she was) explained to me that she’s still pretty groggy, and that between 8-9 I should feed her the medicine that I had received from her. She told me that by that time the anesthetic for the surgery should of worn off so it’s okay. However she did tell me that around night time she should start eating, but she really hasn’t. I offered her pellets, romaine lettuce, and her favorite piece of hay to eat but she didn’t even bother sniffing and just ignored it, going back to sleep. It’s now 11:30 and for the past few hours I’ve been syringe feeding her a mash of water and pellets. She was not happy with the syringe and did not want to voluntarily eat the substance but she was eating it once it was in her mouth. But she was more than happy to be drinking water from the syringe, even biting on the syringe a few times to get more water I suppose. After drinking water she immediately started grooming her paws and mouth.

My question is, did the medicine (metacam) make her lose her appetite? I set an alarm for myself during the night so i can feed her again and give her more water.

[Bam]

It’s probably not the Metacam that made her lose her appetite. A spay is a pretty big surgical procedure and many, if not most, girl buns don’t have an appetite right after. It’s good you’ve given her food and it’s good she’s been wanting to drink. Hopefully she’ll perk up very soon and start eating on her own – if she doesn’t, you should call your vet again. It’s very good she groomed her mouth and paws after feeding. Grooming is a sign of strenght and health, a bun that’s really out of it won’t bother with it, and cleaning is a very central need with rabbits.

Pain medication as a rule makes appetite better, not worse.

[DaisyBun]

So when I had woken up, Daisy was shaking the bars (which is normal behavior for her) as she usually does to show her outrage to being confined in a small portion of my room. Not only that, but she was sitting on top of her pillow where she usually likes to dig or lay down on, and she was either digging on the pillow or smoothening out the wrinkles on it. Anyways, I noticed both pee and poop in her litterbox, her poop being either small or normal sized and very glossy looking. When she decided to poop, she was sitting in her litterbox for a very long time and eventually had to loaf in the litterbox mid-way. When she got out she had two poops stuck beneath her tail but they had come off very easily, and she had pooped a bit on my floor, which isn’t something she usually does. * My biggest concern is her stitches. The lady had told me that it shouldn’t be a concern because they put glue on her skin as well as the stitches so if she does rip out her stitches it is not a problem, but I would still like to confirm this with everyone else: While she was grooming herself she had noticed the stitches and began to tug at them for 5 minutes. I was really shaken, and had no clue what to do so I nudged her a bit so we should slowly slide off the pillow, which made her stop tugging and go to sleep inside her cage. Will she be okay while I go to school? I have people at home that can check on her… I haven’t been able to upload any pictures, so if any pictures are needed please let me know, I’d be more than glad to send them.

[LittlePuffyTail]

I would definitely have someone check in on her several times during the day. It’s normal for the bunny to want to groom but any picking or biting at the area and she may need to wear a cone. I recommend checking her incision twice a day to check for any open spots or bleeding. Most girls are fine but some can be very insistent with irritating the area.

Poops is good. Poops can often be mushy or a bit strange several days after anesthetic.

How is her appetite?

[DaisyBun]

In the morning she ate a piece of lettuce from yesterday. When she got into her litterbox she would munch on a few pieces of hay before falling asleep while pooping, probably because she was taking her time letting a few poops out. She accepted some solid pellets that’s i left out if she wanted to eat it. And she ate some lettuce while I am at school, according to my brother. He couldn’t feed her the water and pellets mixture, but I had struggled too, getting the mixture in her mouth. My brother says that she okay right now. Thank you for all the help everyone.

[LittlePuffyTail]

Glad to hear. Sounds like she’s recovering well.

[DaisyBun]

She seems to be doing better, I noticed that she prefers to eat the hay outside of her litterbox rather than pooping and eating. When I came home from school there was no poop just pee. So once I layed out the hay in front of her once she was out of her litterbox she ate a lot and gave me some small poops. I’ve been trying to check her stitches but I noticed that once I put her down she pees? When I pick her up she starts to make a sound so i immediately put her down since she’s not enjoying me picking her up, but right after I put her down I find a puddle right where I put her down. Is she trying to give me a sign? Or is she just scared to the point she accidentally pees? I tried using a pellet to make her stand but she’s not quite motivated by the pellet.

Edit:
I found a pee spot on the pillow that she sits on, why is she peeing on places outside of her litterbox?

[DaisyBun]

She no longer pees outside the litterbox but the smell of her pee is terrible! I typically clean it once a day since I only use hay as her litter but ever since getting spayed her pee has smelled so terrible and I’ve had to clean her litterbox twice today and try to air out my room by opening my windows and keeping the fan on. Is there any explanation as to why her pee has smelled so terrible?

[LittlePuffyTail]

Not sure about the pee smelling terrible but the out-of-litter box peeing is def hormonal behavior from the spay. Her hormones will be going nuts for about a month so be prepared for pee and poos outside the box for some time.

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