Thinking about her spay

[Snowballbun]

Hey everyone,
So my little Snowball is already 6 months old and I know it's time to get her spayed. She had the syphilis or I would have gotten her spayed back in April. After her last Pen G shot, the vets called a week later to see how she was doing and said they want to do a recheck in a month. I believe that is coming soon.

I was thinking maybe Memorial Day weekend because I have the Friday off and also the following Monday, so a really long weekend. I am just worried about having to work when I need to be watching her to make sure she eats/doesn't rip out her stitches etc.

Also, I asked the vet about pre anesthesia bloodwork which I think he said we would have to send out and that would need to be done about 2 weeks before the spay.

I am so scared about getting her spayed! This vet (the rabbit savvy one) says they do the gas and she would get sub q fluids before her surgery. The other vet I had been to previously said that she would have an IV during the surgery (and would be like a lifeline in case something happened) so I don't know which would be better.

What kinds of things will I need to prepare her for? Will she come home the same day? How many days of close observation will she need, etc? Also, I think this vet said that they would do stitches inside but to make sure you still watch the incision site. Sometimes they can also put cones on the bunny? What is the best?

 

[tonyshuman]

One thing to think about for a long weekend is that if you do have to go to the vet for any emergencies, it will be emergency/holiday charges, which are much higher. I know you want to keep an eye on her, but other than waking up completely and starting eating/pooping/moving around again, you don't have to watch non-stop. You might need to give pain meds every 6-12 hours, but usually you just want to let them sleep and rest quietly in a smaller cage than normal. It's up to you though.

It's good that you're planning on getting the bloodwork.

Usually anesthesia has gas and injectables. It depends on what your vet wants to do. Usually a sedative/antianxiety drug/muscle relaxer is given by injection first, and that calms the bunny down. They can then use gas anesthesia--isofluorane or sevofluorane. This has to be maintained during the entire procedure. Sometimes an induction anesthetic is also injected, and after the procedure a reversal drug is then injected and the gas mask is removed, allowing the remaining gas anesthetic to leave the body and the rabbit to wake up. Some rabbits are intubated during the surgery, some are not. Again, that's a vet preference thing, and it's a bit safer for them to do that but also a bit harder.

The sub-q given before surgery is good because she may not want to drink after. However, make sure the vet won't require you to remove food and water until about an hour before the surgery. The IV line is a good idea in case she needs additional anesthetic drug during the surgery, and it's how they can administer the reversal drug too.

I personally would rather see a vet use induction and reversal drugs although not everyone feels that way. I'll link you to a good site on surgery/anesthesia and the vets featured in videos there prefer just gas, but I would rather that the vet take their time, not worry about the gas wearing off, and such. However I'm not a vet.

The stitches--they should use dissolving stitches to tie off the tissue where the uterus was attached. They should then use wound glue on the outside wound to close it up.

Cones are rare and usually not a good idea. Few bunnies mess with their surgical sites and if you do, a soft e-collar can be made out of a towel, so that they can still eat their poops and not feel so upset with the cone.

She should come home with you that day. If they'd rather keep an eye on her overnight, that's fine, but many vet clinics don't have somebody there overnight so she'd be better off with you. After she's awake, and eating and pooping normally, you don't have to watch very closely. Just examine the surgical site daily, perhaps apply a bit of a disinfectant like betadine. You'll also want at least 4 days of pain meds. For a spay, something like buprenorphine or tramadol (narcotics) is a good idea because it's pretty painful. Something like Metacam (meloxicam) is more common, and might be enough, but I'd feel safer with a day or two of a narcotic in addition to the meloxicam.

Here's an awesome site with info on anesthesia, and it has a sheet showing the whole spay procedure. I don't know how interested you are in that, and how your stomach is with surgical pictures, so watch with caution.

http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Surgery/Surgery_main.htm

Sorry if I wrote you a novel--I spent 7 hours today watching cats as they came out of anesthesia at a spay/neuter clinic at the local shelter, so I got to see a lot of this in action and it's really interesting to me. I would ask them to do the same for my bunny as they do for a cat spay: that included a pre-anesthetic (to relax muscles), an induction med, isofluorane gas, intubation, and reversal. I know rabbits aren't cats, and I'm not an expert, but we had fat cats, a cat that was pregnant upon spay, a cat with an upper respiratory problem, all ages and health ranges. The other volunteers told me they had a great track record and had only lost one cat (of literally hundreds) in the last two years, due to a cardiac issue that's impossible to diagnose otherwise. They don't do any pre-op blood work. Here's a good video of induction of anesthesia in a cat:
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VByEDXsRIFI&feature=related]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VByEDXsRIFI&feature=related[/ame]

I like what both of the vets are saying, so it's hard to tell which is better. Make sure she can have food up to an hour before surgery, that they send home pain meds, narcotic if possible, and I'd prefer that they let you take her home the same day. I would ask the vet about injectible vs gas and go with what sounds right to you. They should not use stitches on the outside.

After 5-6 days in a small cage (no ability to run around or jump) she should be ok.

 

[Snowballbun]

It's fine with me if you wrote a novel The more information, the better. How do you administer the pain meds? I know with oral antibiotics we had to wrap her in a towel and it was a struggle...I just wouldn't want her to hurt herself even more.

Should she be on antibiotics before the spay to reduce the chance of infection? Or just rub something on the surgical site like you had mentioned?

Also, how long does it usually take for them to start eating again after their surgery? I have read that with female rabbits it sometimes takes a little bit longer. If she happens to not eat, should I get something on hand like critical care, or I've heard about canned pumpkin/mashed pellets? Also, then if we did her surgery on a normal weekend (cuz I hadn't thought of the holiday charges), (and maybe I could take a Friday off or something), how long does she need of close observation? I am just worried about my poor bun, being that she has been to the vet so many times because they couldn't diagnose her syphilis, and I know she gets stressed going there. Also, is a normal cat carrier okay to put her in or should I use like a laundry basket/something a little bigger.

I'm glad you think both vets sound good for the procedure. I liked the idea of the IV during surgery but it is not the rabbit savvy vet that is doing that. I was thinking I should possibly go with the rabbit savvy vet in case something went wrong? But the other vet fixes rabbits as well. So when I go in for her checkup/bloodwork, I should ask questions about the anesthethia, and recovery and methods for relaxing as well? Sorry now I have so many questions but I want to make sure everything goes well for her too

 

[tonyshuman]

The pain meds are usually oral. You might have to burrito her, although they make them taste pretty sweet. You only will need antibiotics on the skin surface, hopefully. Infection happens sometimes, but not very often, and there's always a risk that antibiotics cause GI problems.

She should start eating within a few hours (like 4). I would have some pumpkin on hand. If she hasn't eaten and it's been like 8 hours, that's probably ok, but you might want to try to give some pumpkin. If she doesn't eat after 24 hours, that would be time to go back to the vet. She probably doesn't need to be watched constantly once she's awake from the anesthesia, which should be shortly after you get her back.

For a carrier, she's small, so the cat one should be fine. I would go with the vet that's more rabbit savvy, like you said in case something goes wrong.