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Problems from neutering/anaesthetic

DDD

Mama Doe
I had a rabbit called Steve this year, got him in April. In July we decided to have him neutered. He was happy in himself but felt it would make him less boistrous and easier to handle. anyway, he went to the vets. I had a phonecall 1 hour after i had dropped him off to say that he had had a reaction to the pre-med, and may have brain damage and it was touch and go. Later that night in the vets, he passed away. All he had was a pre-med. Does this happen alot?? Just would like some more info as was too distraught to find out more at the time. Thanks.
 
Awww that's so sad - so sorry to hear that :( It's the first I've heard of it so it must be rare - but that's assuming your vet is actually knowledgeable about rabbits as a lot have only done the basics at vet school for a couple of weeks, so it's important to check they know about recent developments in their health and care.
 
Awww that's so sad - so sorry to hear that :( It's the first I've heard of it so it must be rare - but that's assuming your vet is actually knowledgeable about rabbits as a lot have only done the basics at vet school for a couple of weeks, so it's important to check they know about recent developments in their health and care.

well, they said they did know what they were doing - im not taking Doug and Des there, ive registered them somewhere else
 
This link has a vet questionairre which should give you a good idea of how experienced your new vets are too - I asked if they had attended small animal conferences too, which are held annually for vets to update knowledge and skills :)
http://www.mybunny.org/info/vet_questionnaire.htm

new vet is def rabbit savvy. she keeps them herself and has lots of certificates for courses/accreditations.
just read the questionairre and she asked me mostly if i feed them right, etc so she knows what to ask for

would you go into vets with that questionairre then??
 
Well luckily the first vet I tried is really good with rabbits, but she did used to dread me coming in I think at first :oops: Anyway, she now tells me all what she's doing and explains it all so she must be used to me - there are 2 other vets at the same practise though and I wouldn't go to either of them as the 2 occasions I let them near my animals I regretted it :? I am not impressed by a white coat and a degree as I've been on this forum too long, heard too many horror stories :(
 
I'm lucky and have found myself a real rabbit savy vet, she goes to all the conferences, subscribes to a lot of rabbit updates and researches them a lot on the web (and has even contacted Francise Hardcort brown for me). However despite this when i booked in Rosie for her first attempt at a spay she didn't react well at all. The vet montiors the oxygen intake level for the animals under spay and an alarm goes off if it drops below 75-80% (can't remeber exactly) which is a bit before the threashold for brain damage occuring. The first time Rosie went in she kept setting off the alarm with a mask so they tried a throat tube (tricky in rabbits but better) which helped but as soon as they turned her onto her back her oxygen levels dropped again. They tried this several times but she was having none of it and my vet wasn't happy carrying out the op.

She rang me and explained that many rabbits don't like the taste of anesthetic, it's a subconcious reaction and causes some rabbits to hold there breath (causing in extreme cases brain damage) in even worse cases (and thankfully rarer) some rabbits will start screaming as soon as they taste the stuff or hold there breath until the point where they have to breath or die, tale one breath and then hold it again. She showed me the reports they have on it in various small animal journals and so far there's not a lot that can be done about it, even using the best anesthetics there is. In my case she advised me to postpone the spay until it was life of death and then she'd try her best and work through the alarm if neccesay. This could have given Rosie brain damage or killed her but if she needed the spay that badly it would be worth it.

In the end it turned out Rosie desperatly needed the spay (only a couple of weeks later as she had a rare womb condition where it filled with blood). I popped her in with her brother for moral support, waited at home terrified and then she didn't even blink at the anesthetic and breathed fine the whole time. Just shows rabbits are odd creatures, the baytril she was on before may have helped, or her brother being there but it paid off.

As another note, my vet says it's now very common and much preffered to neuter boys under a sedative and local anesthetic rather than knock them out. It's considered much safer and most good vets will give it a go.
 
I'm so sorry to hear about your Steve :cry: It's totally understandable that you couldn't bring yourself to look into it until now.

Well done on changing vets. I did too, mine did nothing wrong imparticular but I just hated the feel of the place and they were a little rough :? I could never have felt safe to leave Bobbin there over night.

It's completely acceptable to call round vets and ask them a few/all of the questions from the questionnaire. I found that sometimes the receptionists are unwilling to answer them and they probably don't know the answers to all of them anyway, but if they don't bother to try or to at least see if someone else is free then that surely is the wrong attitude:?

With regards the pre-med, I'm sorry but I can't shed any light on it. I'm by no means as experienced as a lot of people on here but since I've joined I've heard of nothing like this :?
 
I have never heard of a rabbit having such a volatile reaction to a pre-med before.

I have had nearly 60 rabbits neutered and more than that under a GA for other issue too and we have lost one who had a heart defect, it is by no means common to lose a rabbit under GA in this day and age.

A good rabbit vet considers neutering to be a routine operation and will have plenty of experience in the matter.

That said I have four practicing vets at one of my clinics and I will only allow two of those to operate as I have had some post-op problems with the others (rabbits recovering poorly or too heavily sedated).
 
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