Poorly rabbit after spaying

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Andrea__xo

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I took theo to the vets yesterday to be spayed, when I went in I asked if they knew about rabbits and they said yes, they told me to ring at 2pm to see how the op went and when I could bring her home, I rang at 2 and they said ring back in a hour she is taking a while to warm up, I rang back at 3 they said come and collect her at 5.30 I said this was a while and she said she's fine she's just not warm enough still this alarmed me and I asked again if they were sure she was ok they said yes. I went to pick theo up at half 5 and she seemed pretty out of it but I thought this was normal from the anaesthetic, i asked about pain relief they said she had had some and wouldnt need anymore, at home she didn't eat just drank abit and was very quiet. This morning she was chattering her teeth and she hadn't pooed just a little wee.. extremely worried I took her back to the vet who gave her a painkilling injection and another injection to get her gut moving.. she's back home now and seems brighter she's eaten some parsley but still has not pooed! Also the vet charged me another £50 for today! Advice please x
 
If she's eating I wouldn't be concerned about the not pooping part yet. Rabbits can be petty sensitive little creatures and it's good that they were monitoring her and didn't want to send her home with you if she wasn't ready. Every animal is an individual and some take longer than others to recover from anesthesia. Also keep in mind that even with some pain meds, she had abdominal surgery and she's probably a little sore. I would have prefered to see her sent home with a few days of pain meds but we're still at a point where not every veterinarian is doing that. Keep offering her greens if she's used to eating them. Try washing them just before you give them so they're damp and she gets more water that way too. If she's not eating anything else and you're worried you could try some critical care or if you don't have any you can soak some of her regular pellets in water until they're sort of an applesauce consistency and try to syringe feed her that.
Remember to keep her incision dry and clean and limit hr exercise, especially any jumping, until her incision has healed.
 
Thanks @missyscove the vet gave me some critical care but I haven't given it to her as she's eaten some greens and a little bit of carrot.. she's not touching the pellets though do you think I should give her some cc?
She's lying down mostly in her cage which is indoors until her wound heals, she has been grooming herself also so I'm hoping she's feeling lots better than this morning
 
That depends on how much "some greens" is. If we're talking about several cups of greens she scarfed down then I'd skip the cc, but if she's had a single sprig of parsley I'd give her some.
Sometimes with buns who aren't eating having a little snack of sorts will sort of jump start their eating. Make sure she has access to pellets and hay too as that may tempt her.
 
Poor little peanut.. Do you have a hot water bottle or something like it that you can use to keep her warm? Are her ears cold? You can try hand feeding hay and greens and offer fresh water often. I don't think it's unusual at all for them to go off their pellets post op.
 
I agree that if she's eating enough greens throughout the day then you shouldn't have to syringe feed food and water, but if she won't eat enough of the greens then you will need to syringe feed to get her digestion moving so she doesn't develop a blockage. I had a rabbit that wouldn't touch hay or pellets for two days after his neuter, but he would eat a little bit of greens, so I gave him some every half hour throughout the day, and cumulatively he ate enough that he didn't need to be syringe fed.

Also agree to keep her warm. A hypothermic rabbit will be less inclined to want to eat. It's important to help them maintain a good body temp using a warm pack.

The vet should have sent you home with at least some metacam for pain relief. Any vet that doesn't know to do this following a spay, isn't a very rabbit savvy vet. All good rabbit vets know that pain relief is essential. I would suggest calling them and asking for some oral metacam to give her at home if she is still needing more pain relief. I personally wouldn't them charge you for more injections. To me injections don't seem necessary at this point(unless your rabbits condition declines) and are far overpriced, especially when giving oral meds will work just fine. For the extra 50 the vet charged you for two injections, they could have just as easily sent you home with oral meds that would have lasted you several days. It's a bit of a pet peeve of mine when vets do this to drive up costs instead of doing what is best for the client. And for future vet visits I would suggest finding a better vet. If you are in the UK, you have many good rabbit vets available to you.
 
Thanks everyone just an update, she's had a full bag of parsley and has done a few rabbit poops (yay) they are normal not runny or anything unusual, as I was feeding her the other half a bag of parsley she went to bite my thumb and growled! She has never done this so I hope that won't be a regular thing, she seems warm enough and not cold, I've got her inside in her indoor cage she has lots of hay which she has nibbled and plenty of water.. as for paying the extra charge for the pain relief which was metacam they charged me £7 for that and another £7 for the other injection to stimulate her gut.. The critical care food cost £28! I haven't even opened them or had to use them, should I ring the vets and ask for a refund if I bring those back? Also should I complain about having to pay for the pain relief as I'm pretty sure they should have sent me home with some as you said.. The whole experience has put me off going to that vet now, I am a dental nurse and I know for our patients we never charge a fee if a second appt is needed due to treatment we carried out previously! Really sucks
 
That's actually not a bad price for injections, and it's normal for it to be an extra charge unfortunately. I was charged $40 for one metacam injection, which is about 26 pounds. It was quite the shock let me tell you, and I was not happy about it as it was totally unnecessary.

Even if your vet had sent some oral metacam home from the start, it would still have been an extra charge unless they had specified before hand that it was included in the neuter price.

However, that is very expensive for a bag of critical care. I would see if they will let you return it if it has not been opened. It can be useful to have on hand though, but you can order it online at a much lower price usually.

I'm glad your bun is picking up and eating better. It's always a relief when that happens.
 
Wow the injections were not as costly as yours! I wonder where the vets get the prices from.. yes I will ring them and ask if I can return it as she doesn't need it now, she is showing signs of being more aggressive towards me stamping her feet and being generally annoyed I'm hoping that eases as time goes on
Thanks again
 

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