Issues after Spay - help and advice please?

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ok so my doe, Poppy, was spayed on Monday. Picked her up and she was quiet as I expected. Since then she has only eaten one little bit of veg and the tiniest amount of water. It’s now Day 3.

She pooped a little yesterday but they were smaller than usual then last night she had a large lump of squishy poop stuck to her. She got super distressed when I tried to clean her and managed to wriggle our of her surgical shirt. She is now refusing to let me close enough to her for a look at her bottom and tummy. Will her incision be ok not covered? She doesn’t appear to be scratching it or going for her stitches.

She’s still much quieter than normal and I’m really worried about her. I have follow up vet appt tomorrow, but I’m thinking maybe I need to take her sooner?

Vet gave 1.4 of metacalm each morning and I’ve done my best to give her it today but she’s really not wanting to be picked up so.

I’ve never had a doe before, gratefulfir any advice.

Thank you.
 
I've never had a female get spayed, but I had my buck neutered. He had to wear a cone, and he hated it. He would get it full of poop every few minutes. He got the cone off while I was gone, and so I put it back on. He got cecals stuck to the incision. I called my vet and she just told me to keep it there, but he couldn't walk with it there and it looked so uncomfortable. I took the cone off and let him get it.

You could call your vet and ask if you could bring her in today. Ask if she needs to keep it on. Tell them she doesn't seem to go for it. I would recommend keeping it on if you believe she may go for it.
 
ok so my doe, Poppy, was spayed on Monday. Picked her up and she was quiet as I expected. Since then she has only eaten one little bit of veg and the tiniest amount of water. It’s now Day 3.

She pooped a little yesterday but they were smaller than usual then last night she had a large lump of squishy poop stuck to her. She got super distressed when I tried to clean her and managed to wriggle our of her surgical shirt. She is now refusing to let me close enough to her for a look at her bottom and tummy. Will her incision be ok not covered? She doesn’t appear to be scratching it or going for her stitches.

She’s still much quieter than normal and I’m really worried about her. I have follow up vet appt tomorrow, but I’m thinking maybe I need to take her sooner?

Vet gave 1.4 of metacalm each morning and I’ve done my best to give her it today but she’s really not wanting to be picked up so.

I’ve never had a doe before, gratefulfir any advice.

Thank you.
I had 2 females spayed, both of them had very little appetite for 24h, and the first poops happened on the morning after. I didn’t touch them at all to check for the wounds, for fear they’d wiggle out and break the wound open. I only tried to take a sneak peek when they were on their side, looking for blood markings in the cage, but they were both perfect. Neither of them received the shirt you mentioned, pretty cool thing I must say, surely stops the access to the wound (some buns apparently might chew the stitches). They did perfect without it though, maybe because the vet used a surgical “glue”. Anyway, by day 3, the wound should be on the mend now, I wouldnt worry.

To be fair, I had a follow up visit with the vet the morning after, where he made sure the wounds are fine, meaning, they didn’t open. The first 24h were apparently the critical ones.

And that was pretty much it - simply no garden time for the next week, no jumping or crazy exercises for the bun.
If there are any poops, it means there is no stasis, which is good. The squishy poops are normal - it means the bunny’s body is getting rid of the anesthetic. Look for further poops, if there are none, immediately do take her to the vet!

Her appetite should be getting back to normal by now. Behavior wise, both of my buns were back to normal by the end of day 3, but give it some time.

You’re better off not picking up now. How do you apply the meds? I managed to syringe feed one of the buns without picking her up. Let me know if you’re interested in any techniques.
 
We will be going through this next month possibly, hope your bun will be alright
 
If she is hardly eating then she needs to be getting regular syringe feeds. You need to get into the vet today and get some recovery food(and instructions for syringe feeding if you have never done it). A rabbit shouldn't go more than 12-24 hours without adequate food intake or their digestion slows, and if it slows too much they can develop GI stasis, which alone can be life threatening. If the vet was closed and I couldn't get in til tomorrow I would either go to an out of hours vet, go to the pet shop and see if they carried rabbit recovery food mix, or make a pellet mush at home with her usual pellets soaked in warm water and made into a slurry to either syringe feed with a large tip feeding syringe or maybe spoon feeding might work.
http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/ileus.html

If your rabbit also hasn't been drinking well, she's likely dehydrated and I would either want sub q fluids given by the vet or I would syringe an electrolyte fluid to her. Something like plain childrens Pedialyte(not sure of the UK equivalent).

You also need to ensure she is staying warm as rabbits not feeling well will often have a drop in body temp. I can usually tell by how cold the ears feel, if their body temp is low. If she is outdoors in a hutch, I would have her indoors.
http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/opcare.html

If you are not able to check her incision for swelling, infection, chewing open, etc, that needs to be done right away if it can be done safely without risk of injury, with the vets help if necessary so she doesn't struggle too much and cause internal injury or rip open the incision. Sometimes when doing it on my own, burrito wrapping the bunny first can sometimes help minimize their struggling so it's possible to check.
 
Ok so I phoned my vet who advised I go in straight away. He gave her subcutaneous fluids and a probiotic to get her tummy moving. She ate whilst with the vet.

Got her home last night and she ate some greens and parsley but not really any liquid intake. Did some little poops.

This morning she isn’t interested in food especially but did eat the parsley I offered her. No poops that I can see, and still not bothered with water.

I’m going to keep an eye on her for a few more hours and see what happens, possibly ring the vet again for advice but I’m really not sure what to do at this point?
 
She’s eaten some parsley and I’m soaking her veg in water so hopefully she’s getting some fluid that way. Some very tiny poops.

Going to try some water via pipette tonight and hopefully have a feel of her tummy to check it’s not hard.

If still off tomorrow I’m going to take her back in for s check over and advice.

This is SO stressful, I hadn’t realised how easy kitties are!!!
 
If she will eat greens/veggies, I would just keep offering them to her as much as she will eat, every half hour during the day and every couple hours during the night(if possible). I had one rabbit that was like this the first 48 hours after his neuter. He would only eat a small amount of leafy greens, so I just kept offering them to him throughout the day, until he got back to normal 2 days later. Luckily cumulatively he was eating enough of them that syringe feeding didn't become necessary. But if your bun won't eat enough greens/veggies that you feel she is getting an adequate enough intake of them to keep her digestion moving well enough and keep her hydrated, then I would be syringe feeding something like oxbow critical care mix or supreme recovery feed every 4 hours.

Yes, rabbit post surgical care can be extremely stressful.
 
Will she be getting water intake from veggies do you think? I’m conscious of not stressing her out by needing to syringe her water.... she keen to eat the parsley and wolfs it down. I did catch her having a couple of nuggets earlier but her bowl looks basically untouched.

She’s not terribly active, but I assume this might be because of her op and feeling sore?

I just really need her to poop properly now!!
 
Yes, veggies/greens provide plenty of fluids. In fact if she is eating enough greens/veggies, you don't usually need to worry about separate water consumption.

I would just keep offering her greens/veggies then, since she seems inclined to want to eat them. Also if you don't already, always make sure she has access to free fed grass hay(never runs out). After surgery, rabbits are more likely to first eat greens/veggies and hay over eating pellets/nuggets. Pellets are usually the last thing they get back to eating again.

You don't want her to be too active. For the first week to 2 weeks her activity needs to be restricted so she doesn't cause any internal damage due to the surgery. Space should be restricted to limit excessive running, and no jumping up on things.
 
She has just eaten a whole leaf of spring greens and a handful of parsley. She’s not interested in her hay at the moment.

She’s limited to the dining room since her op so she’s having a bit of a hop around but not up on things (normally she’s a monster a hops onto everything!).

The poop situation is still worrying me abit, she doesn’t seem to be producing much in the way of poops or wee to be fair...
 
Their digestion slows down because of the anesthesia and surgery, and because of not eating much. If you can keep her eating greens consistently, her pooping and peeing should gradually improve. Don't be surprised to see a few odd or mucousy poops due to the digestive slow down.
 
Ok so we have just now had a little pile of poops. They are teeny compared to her normal offerings but I’m taking it as a good sign. Fingers crossed she’s on the mend now. Thanks so much for all your help. I booked her op for this week as I am off work, and boy was that a good shout - I’m exhausted from sitting up with her and checking on her. Zzzzzz!!
 

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