Has anyone had a rabbit die while being spayed/neutered?

My girlfriend and I are looking into getting ourtwo rabbits neutered, however, she heard somewhere that as many as 20%of rabbit actually die during the operation. Is there any truth to thisand has anyone had a rabbit die while being spayed/neutered?

it can and does happen.

there are a few members who have lost a bun during a spay, i am not sure about neutered. . .

spays are a much more invasive then a neuter, so the risk is greater with a spay.

but when weighing the risks and the benifits (health, and behaviour wise) i would choose the risk of altering the rabbit.

that is of course a personal choice, and some people do choose to not make it, but the key is finding a great bunny vet

Like any medical procedure there are risks, withrabbits the risks can be a little higher, my view (and I could bewrong) is that its higher as most vets don't have as good anunderstanding of rabbits as they do of dogs and cats.
If you find a vet that is knowledgable and experienced with rabbits you will more then likely have no problems.
Atthe vet clinic i work at we found halothane gas (type ofanaesthetic used) just didn't agree with rabbits and quite a few diedunder it. However we know use isoflurin anaesthetic and so far nonehave passed away.
However I agree with Kit, even though like with any animal there is arisk, I still opted to do the spey for Bangbang and I'm glad I did. Herbehaviour improved 100%, there is a reduced risk of cancer, noterritoral issues and she seems a lot happier.

I would definately say to get them neutered, butalso make sure it is a vet you trust. I know there is a liston here somewhere of the questions you should ask your vet.

Well, I have lost a bunny during a neuteringoperation. It was a wild bunny, and I don't know if that would have hadany impact or not, but it may be that the dosage of anaesthetic usedwas wrong for it (not sure what anaesthetic they used!!).

I was VERY nervous neutering my last bunny, because I loved him so muchand was just so terrified getting him neutered knowing what hadhappened in the past...but his behaviour certainly warranted neutering,and he came through the operation just fine!

If you can go to a rabbit savvy vet in your area, then do so. If you'renot sure, then ring up the vets in the area and ask about theirexperience spaying/neutering rabbits, what anaesthetic they use, andwhat they recommend regarding eating (vs fasting) prior to theoperation. Any vet that tells you to put your rabbit on a fast prior tosurgery probably doesn't know enough about rabbit care, as while youshould definitely put dogs and cats on a fast, you shouldn't do thesame for rabbits!!

Ultimately, I will get my next bunny spayed/neutered as well (don'thave it yet, so not sure about the sex ) I know I will be nervous asanything, though!!

Cheers
Fiona

You've had some great answers - but let me addone more thing. It is possible to get bloodwork done before getting aspay/neuter. I don't know what they look for in the bloodwork - but itmight be worth considering even if it is extra.

When I had 3 young bucks neutered - there was no problem. Now that I'mconsidering spaying Miss Bea (she's almost 3) - I'm much more nervous.She will get bloodwork done whether she likes it or not.

Peg

It does happen, but usually only when the rabbitwas already sick or had an underlying condition such as a heartdefect. From what I've heard, good vets rarely loose rabbitsduring routine spays and neuters. The success rate issupposed to be around 99%.

It is important to make sure your vet is rabbit savvy. Askhow often they treat rabbits, how many spay/neuter surgeries they do ina year (and how frequently they lose a patient), etc. Be sureto check out our Rabbit Savvy Vet Lists for someone in yourarea. If that doesn't turn anyone up, ask a rabbitrescue. I know there is an HRS chapter in Ohio, they'd knowwho is good in your area.

I've had three girls spayed and they all did just fine. Mytwo boys came to me already neutered. My local Humane Societyspays/neuters all their rabbits and I have yet to hear of a deaththere, and they get a lot of rabbits.

So didn't needto see this right now. I know the risk but my boy Connor is in now. Well some time today.

I lost my little rabbit Scooby when he went into be neutered. However (and I really want to emphasize the*however*)...I adopted a sweet little girl (Anna)from theHumane Society last year, had her spayed - which is a more complicatedsurgery - and she came through absolutely fine.

My vet is not very rabbit-savvy, as I discovered after the fact.Whether this had something to do with Scooby's demise willnever be known for sure. Anna was spayed by a different vet, one whohad more knowledge and experience with rabbits. With any surgery thereis always risk, but these days the incidents of losing a rabbit duringsurgery is very greatly minimized. I recall watching a show on AnimalPlanet a while ago, and a vet on the program was treating a rabbitthere...she said that she'd been in the business for over 10 years andhad never lost a rabbit to surgery. So while there arerisks,a good, rabbit-savvy vet will go a long way to easingyour mind if you do decide to spay/neuter.

My first rabbit Stephie died about an hour afterher spay surgery. She went into cardiac arrest as a result of a badreaction the the anesthesia. I elected not to take blood tests beforethe surgery. I will be taking my Danté to the same vet on Monday to getneutered. He has a reputation of being one of the best exotic vets inthe US. And I remain confident he will do a great job with Danté.

With an experienced rabbit vet, the rate is less than 1%. Ive had 4 girls spayed and 3 boys, all went perfectly fine.

We have had6 bunns altered...one cameneutered, the other5 were3 spays and 2neuters. I absolutely swear by the pre-surg bloodtests. They cost us $50 I think if I remembercorrectly. All our bunns were a piece of cake and had noproblems...however our one bunny Dandi is mentally retarded and whereit would take, say a level 5 anesthetic to put a bunn under it actuallyonly took about a level 2! So it requires a vet who knowswhat they are doing! There is no substitute for a rabbitsavvy vet!

Edited for errors!

I agree with everyone..it depends upon the vet.

Yup.:bunnydance:On my way to pick up Connor from his neuter. He is great!

Yay for Connor!! And he won't even notice he's a bit *lighter* in his step now, I'll bet...

He is fine. Licking me non stop.

My rabbit died a couple of days ago when being neutered. He didn’t die during the neutering process, he died afterwards.
We took him in at 9am and he was checked over to make sure he was fit and healthy first (which he was) and was told to ring them back about 2:30pm so see how the procedure went. So we got home and waited and rang them at said time and was told everything went well and was asked if it was ok for us to collect him ASAP because of how “busy” they were, so we did.
We took him home for us to notice he has been bleeding (no blood there when we collected him) so I rang the vets back straight away and told them about the blood so they asked us to come straight back to the vets with him because the bleeding wasn’t normal.
When we got there we saw the same vet that had operated on him and told us sometimes this can happen when the wound re opens itself or there’s a nerve that won’t stop bleeding but wasn’t very common and so he suggested putting him back to sleep to try and stop the bleeding but an hour later he told us his heart stopped during the second op and they didn’t know why as it’s not common for this sorta thing to happen but even I know rabbits are very sensitive and surely wouldn’t of been able to cope with that amount of anaesthetic in one day!?
I’m still so angry as they seemed to clueless and rushed about the whole thing that maybe it could of been prevented if they kept him in longer to keep an eye out on him instead of rushing him home
Never will I be using vets4pets ever again!!!

zoelsmith95 said:

My rabbit died a couple of days ago when being neutered. He didn’t die during the neutering process, he died afterwards.
We took him in at 9am and he was checked over to make sure he was fit and healthy first (which he was) and was told to ring them back about 2:30pm so see how the procedure went. So we got home and waited and rang them at said time and was told everything went well and was asked if it was ok for us to collect him ASAP because of how “busy” they were, so we did.
We took him home for us to notice he has been bleeding (no blood there when we collected him) so I rang the vets back straight away and told them about the blood so they asked us to come straight back to the vets with him because the bleeding wasn’t normal.
When we got there we saw the same vet that had operated on him and told us sometimes this can happen when the wound re opens itself or there’s a nerve that won’t stop bleeding but wasn’t very common and so he suggested putting him back to sleep to try and stop the bleeding but an hour later he told us his heart stopped during the second op and they didn’t know why as it’s not common for this sorta thing to happen but even I know rabbits are very sensitive and surely wouldn’t of been able to cope with that amount of anaesthetic in one day!?
I’m still so angry as they seemed to clueless and rushed about the whole thing that maybe it could of been prevented if they kept him in longer to keep an eye out on him instead of rushing him home
Never will I be using vets4pets ever again!!!

Click to expand...

I don't blame you, I would have been furious at that vet.

That’s awful I’m so sorry that happened to your rabbit (and you) I don’t know much about it, but I would think putting a small animal (or even a human) under anesthetic twice in a few hours is not a good idea.
You could make a formal complaint to the head office (if it’s a chain?) I think you are right in thinking they sound very unknowledgeable and may have acted unprofessionally.
Again, I’m sorry you lost your bun

zoelsmith95 said:

My rabbit died a couple of days ago when being neutered. He didn’t die during the neutering process, he died afterwards.
We took him in at 9am and he was checked over to make sure he was fit and healthy first (which he was) and was told to ring them back about 2:30pm so see how the procedure went. So we got home and waited and rang them at said time and was told everything went well and was asked if it was ok for us to collect him ASAP because of how “busy” they were, so we did.
We took him home for us to notice he has been bleeding (no blood there when we collected him) so I rang the vets back straight away and told them about the blood so they asked us to come straight back to the vets with him because the bleeding wasn’t normal.
When we got there we saw the same vet that had operated on him and told us sometimes this can happen when the wound re opens itself or there’s a nerve that won’t stop bleeding but wasn’t very common and so he suggested putting him back to sleep to try and stop the bleeding but an hour later he told us his heart stopped during the second op and they didn’t know why as it’s not common for this sorta thing to happen but even I know rabbits are very sensitive and surely wouldn’t of been able to cope with that amount of anaesthetic in one day!?
I’m still so angry as they seemed to clueless and rushed about the whole thing that maybe it could of been prevented if they kept him in longer to keep an eye out on him instead of rushing him home
Never will I be using vets4pets ever again!!!

Click to expand...

I am so sorry you lost your rabbit. Nothing will bring him back, but maybe the vets have a complaints procedure that you could go down. There is a risk with any surgery, but it sounds like you feel your rabbit wasn't treated in the caring way you would expect.

I don't know where you are in the UK, and some areas don't have a big choice of vets. If you decided to have another rabbit at some point, look up the Rabbit Welfare Association website for a list of rabbit friendly vets. There might be someone within reach who specialises in rabbits.

Sorry, once again. It's so sad to have this happen.