Change of housing in preparation for spay recovery

At the moment, they live in two petshop cages which are open together, so there is a jump for them when moving between the two cage trays.
The spay is going to be done one at a time. Ada is going first and she pines if alone for long, so it won't be a good idea to shut Beatrix away from her - and it wouldn't be good for them to be in just one of those cages together for the best part of a week (perhaps risk to stitches if they started getting frustrated. Also no idea how I'd manage to just let Beatrix out for exercise an make sure Ada doesn't jump out after her.

So, I have been thinking that they'll need to live in the puppy pen (height over a metre), lined with towels or blankets, for a while.
This is the only other housing I have. Would you agree that is better for this?
Having read that it's better for them to get used to the new accommodation for a while before the op, so they return to a familiar place, I want to prepare it this weekend. A friend is coing round this afternoon who can give me a lift to pick up some lino for pen flooring.

Other concerns I have about spay recovery accommodation...

How do you clean them out? I am really worried about lifting a very sore bunny. Normally I will either have them sit in one cage whilst I clean the other, or they would be in the carrier - but they would have got into where ever it is by themselves.

Does an indoor rabbit need a Snugglesafe? (I will need to order some covers!)

On old threads I have read that fleece blankets are a better lining than towels. I have no shortage of the blankets BUT the washing instructions say 30 degrees, and I would want to do a boil wash for post spay cage linings to keep them as clean as possible. What to do?

Would you recommend letting the non-recovering bunny out for a bit of exercise? Though I guess not for many hours at a time, so the sore one doesn't feel sad and lonely.

ETA: Feel a bit silly posting another thread when there are so many about spay recovery, but haven't been able to find the answers here.

Would love some feedback on the suitability of the pen / lino idea before this afternoon if anyone knowledgeable has the chance. The other stuff isn't nearly so pressing of course.

Hey

I was the same when my girls were spayed :lol:

How come they are being done seperately?

The puppy pen sounds fine. Don't put any bedding in just some fleecy blankets - incase bits get in the wound.

My vet told me they have 3 lots of stitches - skin, muscle and the further in part. The skin heals quickly - it will start to knit together in about 24hours! But still need to be careful - the ones on the inside take longer, but should be fine as long as the skin one heals.

You need to pick them up to check the stitches - I did thankfully and found Binky's had all come out - it was horrible! A massive open wound - she'd (or Bailey had!) gone through 2 layers. So it's really important to keep an eye on them.

I let them have too much space and kept them together post spay - so it's my fault - but she got sorted and is fine now.

Are your buns usually outdoors? The problem you have is bringing them in and out of cold weather - sorry if I misunderstood!

I didn't get my indoor girls a snugglesafe - they were fine. The heating will be on in the house so should be ok. A lot of people say their buns just ignore them anyway!

Just wash the fleece as normal I think - buns are going to wee/poo on them most likely so a low temperature wash shouldn't be an issue.

When Binky was re stapled after her stitches came out, she had to wear a collar. It was a nightmare lol she couldn't eat her ceacotrophes (sp?) and kept scooping them up with the collar haha - so not very clean!

Just keep your buns as close to each other as possible - switch bedding - let them together as much as possible but keep an eye on them.

I seperated mine into 2 cages next to each other and still had to rebond it was horrible.

But as long as you keep an eye on them, don't let them jump or get too excited and stretchy they'll be fine!!

When do they go in?

Thanks

What was "too much space"?

They are indoors but they have two separate cages which open together; I thought they should be together during recovery and it would be unfair to confine them both in only one of the cages for so long.

They have been unwell with sneezing. Ada is much better, though we're continuing antibiotics for a while to be on the safe side. The vet gave her a thorough check last week and said that she was fit to be spayed. B sneezes occasionally, and has just had tests as the antibiotics made no difference to her. Thread here. Ada is going next Monday; thought a Monday best so there's a full week of vet opening ahead in case of difficulties or questions, and I didn't want to do next week as I'm going to be away for over 12 hours on one day then.

They haven't displayed any aggressive or bad behaviour apart from food snatching and more recently a bit of mounting and un-litter training themselves, so I'd like to get the spay done before their behaviour got to the stage where it could affect their bond or become ingrained.

I'm going to ask the vet if we can have bandages as a precaution against pulling stitches out in the first place - though I guess I'd have to replace them once or twice a day when checking the wound. I really really don't want to separate Ada as I saw how much she pined when separated on the advice of a vet I no longer use. It may not be a coincidence that she got constipated (stasis?) after a day of it. My vet is *very* keen on keeping rabbits together when they are unwell.

The healing on the inside makes me think about a botched biopsy I had when I was younger which went through muscle. It hurt for ages and I wasn't better enough to do weights exercises with the area for about 6 weeks. Knowing what the pain was like from just a small wound makes me want to be very very careful with and for them.

I now have human snugglesafes (one for me as I am a hot water bottle addict) and one for a Christmas present, so I can see what she thinks of mine. She can ignore it if she likes.