bunny pulled out his stitches after being neutered

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SnowyShiloh

SnowyShiloh

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 3, 2007
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Location
Alaska, USA
My new boy was neutered on May 15th, so 12 days ago. When we got him last Friday (the 22nd?), his balls were dark colored and kind of shriveled, and he had pulled out a couple of the stitches so there was a tiny amount of dried blood on one of his testicles, but no visible wound. His "foster mom" (what I call the girl who had him for a week and got him neutered) is a vet tech at the vet clinic I take my bunnies to, and she said it was all normal and he was fine.

Well, apparently those stitches are itchy because when I checked him a few minutes ago, he now has torn more stitches and has an open wound on one of his testicles! It's about the size of a pencil eraser and looks to be a healthy pink. No blood or anything. I've been checking his surgery site every day and it wasn't like that yesterday.

I'm worried now! Will he be okay? Will he get an infection? He could have been like this for a whole day since I last checked him yesterday evening. He understandably gets stressed out when I hold him so I can look at his "owie" and I'm trying to foster trust.

I plan on calling the vet in the morning. I get home from classes at 3 pm, Paul can take us to the vet then. Please hope that our vet is on duty tomorrow and can look at him, not one of the vets who know nothing about bunnies.

I know I already asked, but will he be okay? What are the chances of him getting an infection? He was neutered almost 2 weeks ago, should he be healed more by now? How much pain is he in? Will they need to knock him out to sew him back up? They are dissolving stitches. :nerves1

Poor baby has been through so much in the past 3 weeks, he doesn't need this too. Oh he's been eating, drinking, pooping, peeing, etc just fine and is acting normally.
 
Umm....wonder how many neuters the vet that did this has done? I didn't know vets still used external sutures for neuters (or for spays for that matter). If sutures are needed for these procedures, our buns have internal sutures and final close with Vet Bond (tissue glue). Good stuff as we use it for deglovings on wild rabbits. I am wondering if these are absorbing sutures if they are still in there. But our neuters don't have any sutures....just glue since there is very little if any pressure on the scrotum post-op. This also prevents any irritation caused by external sutures.

I think it might be a good idea to have a vet take a look. Any vet should be able to look at it.....you would probably need to do the restraint for the PE. This is another one of those "better safe than sorry" issues. In the unlikely event that there is a problem, it would be better to start treatment earlier rather than later.

Randy


 
Yeah Randy, I thought it was kind of weird too? Ive had 2 bunnies and a rat neutered there, and they did the surgery like how you're describing.

In any case, Little Man has a sort of appointment for 3:30 which is when I get out of school. I'm taking summer classes and today is the second day, my English teacher warned us that if we miss today our seats will be given away to someone on the Waitlist... I really need to take this class. I may be able to get out of my second class though so he can get to the vet sooner.
 
At least they are dissolving stitches. It's good to have him in there for a look. As long as he isn't biting them at the moment, he can probably wait until your classes are over to get to the vet.

edit: wouldn't they have dissolved by now? I had dissolving stitches for my wisdom teeth and they were gone in a week, I think. Also if they were normal stitches I would think it would be time to take them out. It makes me wonder if these stitches are somehow irritating the wound and not letting it heal properly.
 
Our little dude is very mad at the world right now. I swear he's glaring at everyone! The doctor put some fancy kind of New Skin on his owie, and gave me trimeth sulfa to give him .6 mL twice a day for 10 days. Does that sound appropriate? The vet we saw doesn't normally see rabbits (as was clear by how she tried to hold him), but was nice. Because he keeps trying to lick and tear his wound, he has to wear an e-collar. He looks like a sad little blue clown. We just got home and he's in his cage recuperating, but in half an hour or so I'm going to take him outside to play and take off the collar since I'll be able to keep an eye on him.

Photos pending of him wearing his collar!
 
Well, sulfa drugs don't do a whole lot of good, but the New Skin is good. Poor guy with his collar! Make sure he gets to eat his cecals when you take the collar off.
 
Well, little dude is now collarless. I kept checking on him every 2 minutes because I was concerned he was going to strangle himself. I heard him flailing around just a minute ago and went upstairs to find that he somehow got his front legs through the neck hole and was doing a remarkable impression of a pissed off ballerina.

I took off the collar for now, not sure what I want to do about it. He doesn't lick his wound constantly or anything, I've actually only seen him do it twice. But it won't heal up if he keeps harassing it! The vet said that once the antibiotics kick in, it should stop itching so much. I'm sad to hear that his antibiotics may not work very well :(
 
SnowyShiloh wrote:
and gave me trimeth sulfa to give him .6 mL twice a day for 10 days. Does that sound appropriate?
Click to expand...
That's a broad-spectrum antibiotic.
The only thing I worry about with oral antibiotics is the chance that it may interfere with the good gut bacteria.
It might be a good idea to simultaneously treat with a pro-biotic like Benebac.
 
SnowyShiloh wrote:
to find that he somehow got his front legs through the neck hole and was doing a remarkable impression of a p*ssed off ballerina.
Click to expand...

The collar might not be fitted tight enough.
You should only be able to slip a finger under it when fitted right.

Our Binkie had to wear one for several weeks after some surgery, and eventually became accustomed to it.
 
Jim, it was tight enough that the vet could only slip a finger on it! I don't know how he managed to get his paws under it. I'm going to try putting it on him again when I can observe him for a while in case he gets in trouble. It's one of those soft e-collars, not a hard plastic one. He's started shredding it already. The vet said we could come back tomorrow for a hard plastic one if necessary...
 
That story made me laugh out loud. Poor guy. I wouldn't put it back on if he isn't bugging it much. The drug is a broad-spectrum, but very few sulfa drugs work very well. It may help a bit, and putting some neosporin on it might help too.
 
Bo Bunny has made a very soft e-collar for one of her buns I don't have time to look for the topic but I would tke the hard collar off him as soon as you can make another one.

Iknow that you are in Alaska soI know that you don't have tremendous choices with vets.
Did the experienced one do the neuter or the other one. /"

it's really a shame that this has gone on so long; a good neuter should be drying up in 2-3 days.

If you didn't see the experienced oneI honestly would try to go back as it is unclear what is really going on with his testicular sacs
 
Angieluv, the soft one is the one he has. He's shredded the edges by now. I didn't actually ask yesterday who did the neuter, but the vet said his progress with healing looked fine except for where he'd pulled it open. She said that if he leaves it alone and the medicine works, it should be all healed up in a week. Seeing the vet is really pricy here (hooray $150 per visit!) and he's doing fine so far, so I probably won't bring him back to the vet unless he doesn't make progress or hurts himself more. Hope that doesn't make me seem like a bad bunny mom.
 
That's it Autumn :)Thanks

"You're faster than a speeding bullet....

able to leap from forum to forum in a single bound"


but

way too young to know where those lines comes from

Ask Jim D :p
 
You mean Jim D, the KISS version of Superman?:dude:
My fingers fly across the keyboard, at liquid lightening speed!

(ahem)

back to the e-collar...;)
 
NorthernAutumn wrote:
You mean Jim D, the KISS version of Superman?:dude:
My fingers fly across the keyboard, at liquid lightening speed!

(ahem)

back to the e-collar...;)
Click to expand...

yeh Jim D the KISS version of Superman


maybe everyone knows those lines..............

"Faster than a speeding bullet

able to leap tall buildings in a single bound

it's a bird
it's a plane

No...It's a great big rabbit :)

bACK TO THE ORIGINAL CONTENT OF THIS THREAD....
 
Hey, that towel collar looks great! I vaguely recall seeing that picture before. How do you think I should go about making it? I think it needs something in the center other than just rolling up a wash cloth. Gosh, I'm terrified that he's going to strangle himself with anything around his neck...

Good news is he love love LOOOOOVES his medicine. I think it's the same kind that Tallulah got a couple times. She would go crazy licking everything in sight and even Rory would run off with the medicine bottle.

Here is her reaction to her medicine:



I miss her so much... tomorrow will be 1 year since she died.
 
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