Buttercup was lactating...? Despite having never been bred?

[Kipcha]

So we took Buttercup in to be spayed yesterday and the vet was saying that her ovaries and fallopian tubes were enlarged and that she had actually been lactating! In the year and a half we have had her, we have NEVER bred her, and as far as we know she was never bred with the original people she was with who had her since birth. They also commented on how easily she was bruising, they shaved her leg for the IV and she has this rather dark bruise on her leg now! They were also saying that she bled more then normal.

We had blood work done on her before the surgery and it all came back okay, there was nothing odd there. Buttercup is a 4 year old doe who spent 2 1/2 years free roam in a back yard and roaming the neighbourhood and living off of whatever she could find, a large amount of fruits and veggies (The selection was almost entirely bananas, apples, spinach and broccoli)and Beneful dog food. Could her lifestyle before have effected this? I just don't understand why she would randomly lactate!

Poor girl hasn't pooped yet, although she has peed, we just managed to get 30 cc of critical care into her, as well as a little bit this morning so hopefully she starts pooping soon! Poor girl just isn't feeling good I don't think.

Her incision looks a bit odd to me as well, I think it might just be because they opened her with a usual sized incision and realized she was enlarged so they would need a bigger one.

 

[missyscove]

Mammary development can be associated with pseudopregnancy. As for the bruising and bleeding, sounds like a hemostasis problem. Your vet should be able to do further testing to narrow down the hemostasis issue if you'd like.

Did she come home with any pain meds?

 

[Kipcha]

I'll ask about that.

She most definitely came home with pain management, I can't imagine going through something like that without them.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

ray:

 

[missyscove]

Just checking since you mentioned she wasn't feeling well and pain meds can really make a difference.

We just learned about hemostasis issues in a canine patient so presumably similar tests could be done in a rabbit but for a lot of people the testing to figure out what is wrong isn't worth the cost of the tests. Even so, it's nice to know what all your options are.

 

[Kipcha]

I agree that pain meds would make an enormous difference, I personally would never let a bun go through a surgery without them. That would be awful for the poor bun.

We'll definitely be looking into asking about those tests, we'll just let her heal up before prodding her anymore. She seemed quite distressed when we were leaving the clinic and was scrambling to get away from the clinic staff she being picked up and they were showing us her incision, which is very uncharacteristic for her to try so actively to escape, although I can't really blame her, she went twice and neither was a good experience, poor girl. We'll just wait until her incision is healed before more tests.