Is speying the best option?

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping that all you experienced rabbit owners can offer some advice, or some reassurance...

We've had Minnie for about 18 months now, she came to us as a rescue rabbit aged about 5 months. She's a dwarf lop and we keep her as a house bunny. We've always had a few problems with her chewing and digging but recently she has upped the ante and my husband is at the end of his tether.

She has free run of the living room 24hrs a day, and she now chews anything and everything in sight. It started with her scratching, digging and chewing at the carpet in the corners, progressed to areas of the carpet all over the room, and now she is also chewing the walls right through to the plaster board, the door surrounds (like skirting on the walls iyswim?), and the final straw for my OH, the leather sofas.

I've tried everything I can think of - all possible toys, boxes, etc as a distraction - unfortunatley she only seems to like things that she can really tug at, and the toys and boxes seem to move too easily for her. We've tried the chew spray stuff from p@h, but this doesn't seem to stop her... I've tried blocking off the areas she starts in, but she just finds a new spot to start on and the room now resembles an obstacle course!

The only thing left that I can think of is getting her speyed (sp?) in the hope that it calms her down - or with a view to bonding her to a new rabbit in the hope that companionship would alleviate any boredom (Husband not keen on this option as he thinks then we would just have double the trouble!).

I spoke to the vet today to arrange an appointment (friday), but I am troubled by the vet's talk of how rabbits can have an adverse reaction to anaesthetic and the risks involved. Minnie seems quite content on her own (in fact she came to us from an owner with other rabbits that Minnie could not get on with) and we don't need to get another rabbit, so no risk of pregnancy etc... The vet suggested as this is the case perhaps we wanted to avoid the risks of an operation.

However, we NEED to stop her from destroying our house... Does anyone have any suggestions of things we haven't tried, or some reassurance on putting her through the operation?

Any tips on before and aftercare would also be appreciated if we are to go ahead with the neutering.

Thanks so much
Beccy

yeah i would advise getting her spayed. yes theres a risk with the anthestic as there is with every human and animal but providing you've got a rabbit savy vet i'm sure she'll be fine. you can buy spray to stop them from chewing. provide her with a digging box (get an old cardboard box and put some hay in it). i trained mine not to chew when i first got them by shouting no everytime they went to chew or by clapping. they still can't help themselves with cable however. you should read this book "why does my rabbit...." you can get it from your local library, very interesting read. good luck.

yeah i would advise getting her spayed. yes theres a risk with the anthestic as there is with every human and animal but providing you've got a rabbit savy vet i'm sure she'll be fine. you can buy spray to stop them from chewing. provide her with a digging box (get an old cardboard box and put some hay in it). i trained mine not to chew when i first got them by shouting no everytime they went to chew or by clapping. they still can't help themselves with cable however. you should read this book "why does my rabbit...." you can get it from your local library, very interesting read. good luck.

The best benefit of getting her speyed, and the reason I would suggest speying IS a necessity, is that 80% of females over 5 will develop unterine cancer.

That isn't the kind of odds I would want to take a chance with compared to the very small risk of a negative GA reaction in a healthy rabbit.

Aneasthetics for rabbits are so much safer these days....in the near 60 odd bunnies I have had neutered I only ever lost 2 under GA, one had a heart defect and one a belly full of ossified kits.

I even had a bunny with pneumonia scarred lungs pull through just fine.

how old is your bun now? some improve with age. Neutering can calm rabbits down in regards to aggression, terratorial natures, domminerring buns, for bonding them and helping litter training. I am unaware of any bennefite this may have towards chewing and distructive behaviour though.

Have you conscidered building her a play centre to confine her to for when you are not there to watch her? this can be done with nic cubes, i have built a very small one just for playing in out of fold away storage crates from wilkos and cable ties for about £1.65 each crate.

It forms dark tunnels to crawl into, i have filled the ends of the tunnels with hay for digging and nibbling on, there is a second storey that Velvet my more active bun likes to go up into, Captain my lazy lop likes to stay in bottom section, might make him a ramp so he can get into the second storey more easily though. Velvet also likes jumping on and off the top of the whole building aswell.

A larger version of something likie this would give her room to play and be similar to a natural bunny enviroment, filled with hay and toys and different levels it could be very entertaining for her and not just like a cage and means of trapping her. More like an activity centre that keeps her away from all the things you don't want her to chew, if shes a lop i would put ramps in to create levels, they are not as good at climbing/jumping as other breeds.

There are some examples of things built similar to this on this site in housing and accomodation I think.

I would have her spayed anyway as is better for her over all health, happiness and behaviour.

Also neutering rabbits is now quite common place in vetinary practice. I would try to find out if your vet deals with alot of rabbits in general. Although rabbits are more difficult to aneithnatise than larger pets, because of their digestive system and size, many many rabbits go through this operation very well.

My rabbits are both neutered and more rabbits than not on this forum are neutered. Unless your rabbit has known breathing problems or other serious health issues i would go through with a neuter and with a rabbit savvy vet your bun should be fine. I would go to a vet that has performed alot of rabbit neuters!

Thanks for all your advice, I do feel better with some of the examples of successful spaying you've told me about, and you're right about the risk of uterine cancer - that high a percentage is much more risky than a spay. We have a healthcheck meeting with the vet before he will agree to spay her, so hopefully he will be sure that everything is looking ok before the op.

I like the sound of the activity centre - have you any pictures you could show me? I'm hesitant to shut her in somewhere when we are not around though - mainly as if we ever even close her cage with her in it she goes a bit crazy trying to get out. However it might be good for keeping her more entertained.

I think she's about 2 years old now, so I'm not sure it is something she will grow out of - if anything she seems to be worse these days. We have tried the clapping and shouting when she starts chewing in our presence but she stops for 2 seconds to give us a filthy look then carries right on! :lol:

My advise would be to have her spayed and get her a boyfriend - a lot of her behaviour is normal (rabbits do dig and chew) but boredom will make her do this more than normal. Complete free range unsupervised isn't necessary and you can confine her/them as suggested.

Go to a rescue who will help you with the bonding as it may be tricky for you to do this yourself.

Please make sure you vet is knowledgeable about rabbits - anaesthetics for rabbits are no more risky than for any other animal if done properly. She must have pain relief.

After her op treat her as normally as possible - change is very stressful for rabbits. Make sure she eats and drinks within the first 24 hours - if not she needs to go back to vet for a metaclopramide injection (gets digestive system moving).

Good luck!

This is my storage crate contraption. There was a third floor also but i have taken that off to use for my own storage, rather than bunnies :lol:

You can go pretty much as high or long as you want, cut doors in or because the storage crates are fold away the grey side pannels flip up and can be held in place with cable ties to create openings. 1 side grey side of each crate has to be left down however to support the weight of the bunnies and stop crate folding down. So you can cut doors in some, and hold the flappy sides up with ties to create other openings.

here a few pics of my little one, they are both in there, but as velvet is black she is totally camoflaged :lol:

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I have left the top of mine open because velvet likes to jump straight into the top floor somtimes

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captain inside digging and munching. example of door i cut in and have peeled back so they can get in, also can shut this liitle cut out door

this is a thread from a few months ago with pics of nic storage cubes. There were some amazing pics of indoor set ups people had, I remember one was called 'bunningham palace' made out of a wardrobe on its side. There was also a chest of drws converted into a 2 level house with bamboo canes as the bars and alot of nic cube set ups but i can no longer find them, i think they have been moved/deleted.. Maybe you could start a thread asking people to submit their indoor housing/play centre set ups. If using the nic cubes and creating storeys/levels i would put lino or carpet tiles on the floor so the bunny can grip, walk properly on it.

http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?t=153084