Treat's Neuter - New to aftercare

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MinDearie

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Hello all,

I have two male rabbits, Trick and Treat. My original intention was to have the two of them neutered together, but Trick has been fighting an upper respiratory infection (talked about in another thread), and Treat has been getting pretty hormonal (spraying and humping his cage-mate), so the vet and I decided to go ahead with Treat's neuter.

My husband brought him to the vet this morning, and I brought him home this afternoon. I set up him up in a pen with a low litter pan, pellets, water, hay, and toys in a cool quiet room downstairs so he can take it easy.

He seemed to be getting around pretty well, so I left him be. I returned to give him his pain meds, and noticed he hadn't eaten much of his pellets, so I sat with him and tried to get him to eat a bit. For some reason he ate a few of the compressed paper pellets I use in his litter box (just the ones he kicked outside the liter pan), so I sprinkled pellets on the floor in the same spot, and he nibbled on that for awhile. He pecks a bit at his hay, and he took a few nibbles of spinach, so that was promising. Hopefully by morning he will have made some headway on the pellets.

What REALLY concerns me though, is he started nosing around "down there" while I sat with him. I tried to get his attention to make him stop, fearing he was messing with his incision (glued closed), but he pretty much ignored me until I gently lifted his head. I only did this because as he was nosing around, he wobbled a little unsteadily, and I was afraid he was hurting himself. I lifted his head up twice, and each time, he kinda hopped up and looked at me like "OUCH!" So I stopped futzing with him, and admittedly teared up a bit. :'( I'm HOPING he's just eating cecals. He stopped messing with himself and seemed to settle down, so I looked at his incision area one more time before I left to write to you all, and didn't notice any bleeding, so I think we're ok. I'm just nervous. I'll keep an eye on the incision area though!

Just feel kinda bad now, as he does seem uncomfortable. I'm not looking forward to watching my other little guy go through this later on. :cry1:

And for anyone wondering, I'll be giving Treat 0.5ML of Metacam (honey flavor!) twice daily for 5 days. Tonight's dose was the first.

How did everyone else get through seeing their buns all sad? :/
 
You're doing great. Keep a close eye on the incision, bunnies don't do well with cones so you just have to monitor well. After anaesthesia he may be groggy and chilly. He may like a warm water bottle to warm him up. They usually ignore their pellets after surgery from my experience too. Offer lots of hay and favourite greens. He should be back to himself in no time, neuters are easier to recover from than spays. Good luck!
 
I'll admit it : I cried like a baby when I left my first bunny to the vet for his neuter and I called the vet to check everything was OK after the operation like some kind of neurotic owner ^^. But a neuter is really not that big of a deal - the incisions are tiny and it's really not that terrible when you compare it to spaying. I watched videos made by vets of the two operations and the spay is SCARY while the neuter is surprisingly quick and simple. My bunnies have always bounced back really quickly after a neuter. Sure the first day they don't feel so good because of the anesthesia and that a vet visit is never a great experience (I guess that from the rabbit's point of view, being taken for a neuter is a bit like being abducted by aliens: you are taken to a scary place with white lights and strangers who do things to you you don't remember and you wake up kinda groggy and painful without knowing what was done to you, why, and if it will happen again ^^) , but they are generally back to almost normal the next day. Really, keep an eye on the wounds and on the litter box, but normally in 2 or 3 days it will be like it never happened (except... no spraying). Be strong! XD
 
Thanks for the support guys!

This morning I noticed that Treat hardly ate anything last night, so I mixed up some critical care and did my best to get SOMETHING in there. With much struggling, I gave him his meds. Then I tried syringe feeding critical care. I think I got him to take maybe a little over 5ML (with much more all over my lap), but its hard to tell as he fought like hell. Gave me some lovely scratches by the end of it, and then I left for work.

When I came home, he had eaten most of his greens, but I don't think he touched his pellets. So again I fought to get his meds in, and then tried more critical care. But this time I think I only got one bunny-mouthful in there as he fought even harder than this morning, and had to surrender for fear of him getting hurt. I tried hand feeding pellets, and he literally would push them away... though offering dried papaya (don't worry, I only gave him a few bites dipped in critical care to see if he would take it) is completely acceptable :rollseyes. At least he opted to drink a fair amount of water during the ordeal.

So we took a break and brought in his buddy Trick in to explore the room with and get re-aquainted. He mimicked Trick and ate maybe 2 pellets with him, and they got along fine until Treat decided to humpty-hump his friend. So I separated them again, and now have them both upstairs in the living room (their normal environment) in adjacent enclosures.

I individually gave them their evening greens, and Trick ate a fair amount, so I gave him another portion to work on (he's just eating the leaves and skipping the stems of his spinach, but at least its something). And now I see he's at his pellet dish munching a bit. I guess I should have put him in the living room right away yesterday. I just thought he would have liked a quieter traffic-free place to rest after surgery. :surrender

I'll keep an eye on his poops as I didn't see too many new ones initially when I came home today. The new additions to the litter box were few and large (but not clustery cecal looking). But he dropped quite a few normal-sized territorial poops when I penned him in the living room just now.
 
That sounds good. The pellets is generally the last thing they eat normally after something messed with their guts. And they are right, it's not the best to get things moving. If he eats greens, that's great, give him more than usual until he eats his pellets again and continue with the critical care if you feel like he doesn't eat enough of hay and greens so that he doesn't weaken. Pooping is good, it can also take a few days to get back to normal. Moving around generally helps to get things moving, so gently encourage him to do so by having him out of his cage as much as possible. He probably won't be able to have a peaceful relationship with his buddy until Trick is neutered too, though. For now, he is still hormonal (last until 6 weeks after the neuter) but even without hormones, a rabbit will display hormonal behavior when put with an intact rabbit. I learnt that when I first got rabbits - the neutered male was trying to hump the intact female and acted like a jackass everytime they were in contact until she was spayed... I hope that Treat will recover from his ordeal soon!
 
Just giving you all an update! Treat has been back to fully normal eating habits for a few days now, and his humping seems to have calmed down quite a bit. Yay!

Last week, after the first 3 days of giving him pain meds, he started taking them with no restraint at all! My hands finally got a chance to heal as he isn't scratching me up anymore, lol.

He was licking at his incision a little over the weekend (probably because his pain med doses came to an end), but it's scabbed over now and doesn't look infected or swollen. He's been very active, so I'm confident that he's feeling good now.

I freaked out for nothing. ^_^;;

Trick will be next, though I'll have to wait about 2 more weeks to finish out his current meds and then get him in for a follow up before we can schedule his neuter.

Thanks everyone for your tips and support!
 

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