HELP Can't decide over op. tomorrow

Background:

Parsley came to us as a stray of unknown age about 18 months ago. I would guess he is older than 4 and younger than 7.

He is THE friendliest, most companionable, intelligent, rabbit. He ADORES people and other rabbits and life etc.
He is probably the most important thing in my OH's life (I am not kidding here).

When he first came to us several vets thought he had an irregular irregular heartbeat and we decided not to have his plums off - you really wouldn't know he had then to be honest.

Parsley broke his leg very badly 15 months ago (no-one knows how).

He had it plated and pinned in a very long operation.

About 10 months ago he had to have some screws out that had moved - he coped well.

Since then the vets have been nagging us to have the plate and rest of screw out as they say in the long term they may cause the leg to weaken and be prone to breakage again.


NOW:

After several bookings and cancellations for various reasons he is now booked in again tomorrow.

BUT I do not want him to have it.

OH says he should have it as vets say we have to think of the future.

I think it is too much of a risk even though his other ops have been fine and present vet says his heart is fine.

We are at stalemate.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO???

Could he have a Full Blood profile before going ahead ?
Also an U/S of his heart

Neither of these would require a GA and they would give some info re Kidney/Liver function and the size of his heart (ie is it enlarged at all)

If the pre-ops were OK I guess I would go ahead if the Vet says leaving the metal insitu would be a significant risk in the future.

Haven't voted as I cant say def yes or def no as there is no 'yes, but only subject to pre op tests' option !!

I've said yes provided you trust your vets and they are confident that he will be ok..perhaps the pre op stuff mentioned by Jane is a good idea!

Good luck with your decision.

I have no experience of anything like this so can't vote. But I would go with Jane's suggestions

I would trust my instincts. Perhaps you could delay the op till you feel he's stronger or more ready for it? Talk to your vets about your concerns- I think getting tests as Jane suggests is good.sue:wave:

I have not voted either way as I feel his welfare should be decided by u and ur other half with the help of the vet.

Jack's-Jane said:

Could he have a Full Blood profile before going ahead ?
Also an U/S of his heart

Neither of these would require a GA and they would give some info re Kidney/Liver function and the size of his heart (ie is it enlarged at all)

If the pre-ops were OK I guess I would go ahead if the Vet says leaving the metal insitu would be a significant risk in the future.

Haven't voted as I cant say def yes or def no as there is no 'yes, but only subject to pre op tests' option !!

Click to expand...

My vets don't ever seem to do pre-op tests as far as I know - despite being brilliant vets etc. I did wonder if they should have done when little Snowdrop died whilst being de-plummed and they wondered if he had an abnormality not picked up on general examination. They had to bring one of my others round quickly once when she started to go, and the x-ray afterwards showed she had completely scarred lungs. I guess this time they are thinking that seeing he was fine with the other two ops then there is no need for any tests. But maybe we should ask about tests. I mean things can change and its 9 months since the last op. I did ask last time if we could x-ray to see if it looked like he really needed an op. but they got a bit impatient and said there would be nothing on an x-ray that we didn't already know. I think they are loosing their patience a bit with us over this one.

If the vet feels this is in his best interest in the long run I would go for it, but would wait until after Christmas. You took the risk with the op in the first place ( and spent a fortune) so it would be awful if the plates or screws moevd and undid all that good work.

But at the end of the day it is completely your decision so I'm not voting either

Just to say that I will obviously not just go with whatever the vote is - I put the poll up so that if anyone read it and could not think of anything to actually say they could still express a quick opinion.

Hugo's There - why till after Xmas???

Because if it isn't urgent it would be awful to have any heartbreak this close to Christmas, but I'm not suggesting in anyway that things will go wrong. Its just that if your OH is that close to him....

So that was just a personal feeling rather than based on anything medical. Hope that makes sense :?

I wondered if that was what you meant.

My OH has actually arranged his work so he is at home for 3 days this week for the op and post-op.

But I know he is also going through with it against his will really - just doing it because the vets say so.

If anything happened the heartbreak would be decades not just xmas - but I know you understand that.

Do you have any with pins and plates in them??

No I don't, we just have 3 with amputated limbs. Most of the ones that come to us have had breaks that have been left untreated so amputation is the only option, or to leave as is. When Elwood recently broke his leg the muscle was also so badly damaged that amputation was the only course of action in the end. Still have no idea how he managed it

Yes I realise that the heartbreak would last way beyond christmas Just thought it would be nice to have a really special Christmas together if it could wait