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how old should a doe be before being spayed?

Lil_Luci

Mama Doe
Daisy is about 16 weeks, but still teeny tiny. I want to get her bonded with Gizmo, and neutered 3 year old male, before the end of the summer if possible. (they're currently in my housemates room to keep my room neutral, and she moves in at the end of the summer :lol:)
How old does she need to be before I can get her spayed? And are there any differences in care to looking after a buck post neuter?
How much roughly should it cost? And how do you establish if a vet is a good bunny vet or not?
 
Between 4-6 months. It is up to the vet doing it really, some prefer bun to be nearer 6 months and some are happy to do it earlier. Most will and should run pre-op bloods and health checks before continuing with a spay and bun should ideally not be underweight.

It is a much larger operation for a girl bun and far more invasive and therefore recovery is usually several days longer than a boy - if not more like a week to get back to normal. Good post-operative care, pain relief and lots of tlc can make this easier. Pain relief for several days after is important for girl buns as it is a ovo-uterine spay - removing ovaries and uterine horns - quite a big deal! Bun will need to be kept warm, hydrated and tempted to eat and if no improvement in 12-24 hours post-op they will need to see the vet again for more medicines to help the gut get moving.
http://www.vet2pet.co.uk/pethealth/rabbithealth/neutering_rabbit.asp

Cost - can't help you with that sorry - it differs from practice to practice and areas of the country. Both my buns were rescue and already neutered.

A good rabbit-savy vet is one who uses proper post-op pain relief, the correct and safest form of anaesthesia and who has a good history of successful spays and plenty of experience. An exotic vet is your best bet if you happen to live near one but as they are few and far between any competent vet experienced with neutering rabbits that you feel you can trust and ask questions of is usually a good sign. This article might help:
http://www.vet2pet.co.uk/pethealth/rabbithealth/choosingavet_rabbit.asp
 
Charlee was done at 4 months. Aftercare is incredibly important. They need restricted cage size for at least a week IMO. I put Charlee in her 6ft x 3ft pen a bit too soon and she went crazy doing zoomies and binkying - so much so that she tore open her wound at one end. I didn't let her freerange for 2 weeks following her op especially after her little incident.
 
Have found two possible vets, both only a short car journey away. neither seem to say exotic specialists, but one says small animal specialists?
 
Ring them up and check how confident they are dealing with buns, their success rate and how often they spay buns etc.
 
have phoned 6 vets so far this morning, all say they have experience of spays, with high success rates. Prices vary from 44.50-70!! and the amount of cage rest varies from a day to ten days!
Also, every vet i've spoken to, say pain med is provided via a long lasting injection, so she shouldnt need follow up paid meds. is this right? :?
 
have phoned 6 vets so far this morning, all say they have experience of spays, with high success rates. Prices vary from 44.50-70!! and the amount of cage rest varies from a day to ten days!
Also, every vet i've spoken to, say pain med is provided via a long lasting injection, so she shouldnt need follow up paid meds. is this right? :?

Er not for me that wouldn't be sufficient pain relief no.

The pain relief injection they are probably referring to is an injection of the NSAID metacam/meloxicam or similar. This only lasts 12-24 hours although some vets say longer, in my experience I would say the analgesia effects only last 12.
I would want to take home a bottle of oral metacam to administer over the next few days daily and I wouldn't have a spay with any vet who didn't let me do that i'm afraid, or atleast be open to me requesting this after 24 hours if bun is not eating normally. Most vets IMO underestimate the pain that a rabbit goes through, esp with a spay - it is highly invasive. If I was going to have my uterus out I would want pain relief for more than one day.
Here is an article you might like to read:
http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=500

Not every bun needs it for a few days but I would like to know that it was an option should bun not make a quick recovery and personally I would want to use it for a few days regardless to protect bunny from GI stasis.
 
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