Newly adopted bun, just spayed, not pooping!

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rpuckett

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Dec 16, 2010
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Location
Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
Just adopted this rabbit yesterday from the shelter. She was spayed earlier Monday morning. She came home around 6pm Monday night.

-Is drinking a small amount of water.
-Has eaten a piece of grass, a piece of timothy hay, and about 5 pellets worth of slurried water.
-Has peed once, but seems to be dribbling and standing in it. When I pick her up, she is damp and pee-smelling on her tummy and her fur is stained (scent glands smell awful, too, but I think whoever owned her before probably never cleaned them).

-NO POOP. Not a single one in almost 22 hours. FREAKING OUT.

-She is definitely more alert than yesterday as seems like she is starting to feel better, but I am terrified about the lack of poop. Never had a doe spayed before and I don't know exactly how the shelter went about it, which is appalling to me, and no one outside the vet team at the shelter knows, and I can not reach a single person in the vet team.

-I am worried her gut is slowed/stopped. But she did just have an invasive procedure. So am I freaking out prematurely or should I be on the line with my emergency vet?
 
I would say to get her to a vet. You can try to syringe some canned pumpkin into her, to get things moving, but not eating much is a concern.

A rabbits digestive slowing or stopping can take a turn for the worse quickly. It also is alot for her to be going through, a spay and then a new home right on top of that, it's kinda a recipe for this to happen.

Not trying to scare you but if it's already been a full day then imwould be heading to the vet.

So sorry you are going through this :( I hope your new girl is okay. Let us know!
 
That is what I was thinking...:( The shelter I got her from was really great...until I actually picked her up, I haven't been able to get a soul to talk to me from there since.
 
Going to go put her in her carry cage and put my shoes on. Hopefully we will be back without cause for worry soon. Keep us in your thoughts. We need strength.

~R
 
back from the vet. After some subq fluids, and some force feeding of critical care, we are still no poops, but the vet was glad I knew what I was talking about, and said I wasn't crazy for freaking out. I have some metacam for the pain of the spay and some more critical care for trying to get poops moving, I have some hope.

It is gonna be a long night though.
 
Oh wow. So bunny is home with you? What are the steps you are told to do??

I sure do hope things are okay! Let us know!!:pray:
 
Oh I hope she gets pooping! Poor little lady...If you can get your hands on Pedialyte (infant rehydrating drink) I woud syringe feed her that. Hopefully will help with hydration and getting things going. Someone above mentioned pumpkin which is a good idea too.

Good luck!
 
So sorry to hear about your lil' bun
It's good that you went to the vet and took some action. Also good that she got some fluids and some food.
Hopefully by the morning you will see some poo's.
Hopeing everything goes well
 
It is not always unusual to have a rabbit not eat or defectate for 24 hours after a spay, but they should start soon after that. Continue with the fluids and syringe feeding and most of the time it will happen. And definitely keep her on the pain meds. Good luck!
 
Houston, we have poop! Well, it is just a few tiny, hardened poops, but it made me breathe a sigh of relief. I am still going to give her another day on the critical care (which sucks, because she fights it so hard, it is traumatic to us both) and of course the metacam (she gets 2ccs every 24 hours).

I woke up to check on her early this morning and I heard what can only be described as the as the most welcome tummy rumbles from her ever! Like little bubbles rumbling around in there! But I even saw her munch a single piece of hay. I think she is going to pull through as long as we keep going in this direction. :D
 
hooray for poop!

what flavor of critical care did you get? I'm going through the same thing you are - both my babies got spayed early yesterday afternoon and have barely eaten. I got the anise flavor and they LOATHE it! I even got a warning nip on the thumb from Nala when she realized I was about to try to force some of that stuff on her. I tried mixing in some of their favorite flavor of baby food (apple/blueberry) but it didn't help so I finally gave in and let them have 3/4 tsp of straight baby food to get some breakfast in their tummies.
 
I'm not sure the flavor it is. I can't see it on the packet, and my vet gave it to me for free. Doesn't smell delicious though, and I thoroughly smell like it and rabbit pee. Very funny, stinky buns, making momma stinky too! I speculate it is the anise flavoring. I am gonna have to give in and go for baby food mixed in with it probably. I have a deep bruise on my hand from last nights feeding, and I can't be sure that she ate even as much as we were wearing. And she was grunting and trying to get away. And I was worried about her pulling a stitch. And she would jerk her head one way or another really hard, and I was worried about her hurting her neck if I tried to hold her too tightly.

So basically we were sitting in the floor, her swaddled in a red fleece blanket and both of us covered in stinky critical care. But after we exhausted herself, I put her back in the Recovery Tank (as I call the store-bought cage we have) and she gave herself a bath. So I am hoping that means she got some more of it down.

I tell you, there is such a horrible feeling when I tiny animal is trying to get away from you, and you just keep getting it again and forcing it to eat goo when it clearly doesn't want to. Even though I am doing it for her own good, it makes me feel bad because I know she is scared and angry.
 
Just had another tiny hard poop when I went up there, looked like a cecal because it was like three stuck together, but it was regular poop, and it was coated in a think layer of mucus. Weird. I can't remember reading whether that was kinda normal or not. Anyone know?
 
My rabbit loves the critical care. All I have to do is put the syringe by her mouth and she licks it all up. Not sure what flavor I have either. It smells like herbs and seasoning or something.

I hope your bun gets better soon :)
 
rpuckett wrote:
Just had another tiny hard poop when I went up there, looked like a cecal because it was like three stuck together, but it was regular poop, and it was coated in a think layer of mucus. Weird. I can't remember reading whether that was kinda normal or not. Anyone know?
it's normal for a day or two, but according to http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/opcare.html you should contact your vet if there's mucus in the stool more than a couple days after the spay.
 
Update: No more mucus but still hard, tiny poos and not very many at all. Not nearly enough for me to think she is back to normal, but I am starting to breath a bit easier.
 
excellent! by the way, when you're syringe-feeding, have you tried using a bunny-burrito? I was completely unable to syringe pedialyte to my bunnies until I tried wrapping them in a towel and holding them in my lap/left arm to syringe it.

I put the towel across my lap and encouraged the bunny to climb onto it themselves, then wrapped them up and lifted them into my arm. (I was sitting on the floor with them)

here's a good video on syringe feeding - around 2 1/2 mins in, she demonstrates a bunny burrito.
 

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