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Rabbits and Pain

Jack's-Jane

Wise Old Thumper
Just read this on a Vet Website

Over the past few years rabbits have quickly increased in importance as pets in the UK, currently being the third most commonly kept pet in this country.
General knowledge about rabbit medicine and surgery is therefore developing quickly, but there are still some basic areas that remain poorly studied and understood. Pain recognition and relief is one of them.
Pain is defined by the Committee on Taxonomy for the International Association for the Study of Pain as:
"An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage."
In view of the difficulties in pain recognition, an anthropomorphic view is often applied to rabbit analgesia, where analgesia is provided to an animal undergoing any procedure or pathology that would be expected to cause pain/distress in a human.
In a survey published in 1999 by Lascelles et al on the use of analgesics by British small animal veterinarians, some worrying results came to light. While analgesics were administered by 71% of surgeons to dogs and by 56% to cats undergoing laparotomy, only 22% would give small mammals peri-operative analgesia
. Two factors were thought to be responsible for this:
Veterinarians and veterinary nurses were not familiar enough with species of small mammals and could not recognize signs of pain in them.
Dose regimes for analgesic drugs on small mammals and their possible side effects were not known.
To date no controlled study has been carried out to design a pain scoring system in rabbits in a clinical environment.
In the wild rabbits are a "prey species". They cannot afford to show any signs of pain or distress, as this would only alert potential predators in search of an "easy catch". Therefore, a sick rabbit, or a rabbit in pain, will try to hide, staying still. Pet rabbits have retained this instinct. Unfortunately, humans are a potential predator for rabbits, and they tend to display this "displacement behavior" in front of us.


How much do you think things are improving with regards to Vets recognising and treating pain in Rabbits ?
 
I couldn't agree more. It is my experience with small animals that vets rarely give pain relief unless it is a rabbit in stasis. I have had two rabbits and a guinea pig spayed, and received no prescribed pain relief, other than the injection given directly after the operation. The same goes for mice, hamsters etc. When I had the guinea pig spayed, they wouldn't even prescribe Metacam after I asked for it! :roll:
 
I would blooming well hope so! The bunny figures are terrifiyingly low, but still only just over half for cats and two thirds for dogs is also very alarming. I'd like to get those non-pain-relief-administering vets and perform a laparotomy on them without any pain relief and see how they like it. I bet they'd start doing it 100% of the time on patients of all species, then...
 
I would blooming well hope so! The bunny figures are terrifiyingly low, but still only just over half for cats and two thirds for dogs is also very alarming. I'd like to get those non-pain-relief-administering vets and perform a laparotomy on them without any pain relief and see how they like it. I bet they'd start doing it 100% of the time on patients of all species, then...

:lol: I was thinking the same!:thumb:
 
I just get so exasperated when I read on hear how some Vets fail to address pain control in Rabbits. It is almost as if Rabbit Pain is a blind spot for them, it never seems to cross their mind :?
 
At my old vets, not very well at all. When Mini dislocated her hip they only prescribed two drops of cat metacam a day and they didn't give post neuter/spay pain relief either. That was a few years ago now though.

The first time I took Smudge in with stasis symptoms to the emergency vet I had to ask for pain relief there too. He was initially only going to give metaclop. The second time the vet examined him to check for obstruction or spurs and then said 'what would Mark do?' so I replied that when it had happened previously he got metaclop and metacam injections. So I don't really know if he would've given it or not.

At Trinity they are always very good about giving pain relief, even when I took Nutmeg in with her bonding wound the locum seemed very clued up and she came out with metacam.
 
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As with all vets it depends on their individual rabbit knowledge and interest! The last vet we saw for Co-Co was adamant he was not in pain and didn't need painkiller. Despite the fact he was weeing blood and not eating! He died within 24hrs of her statement!! Fortunately, we knew enough to argue his case and at least get him pain relief! :(
 
It's still shocking how many posts we see where people return from vets (even sometimes having paid a huge OOH fee for rabbit to be seen) and the vet deems the rabbit not to be in pain, so therefore didn't give pain relief :? Why not err on the side of caution and cover it in case they are in pain?

Frances told me recently of a study being discussed at a conference she was at where they had video cameras in a room with sick rabbits. There was quite a marked difference in behaviour when there was someone in the room and the rabbits pretended to not be in pain and when no one was around and the pain behaviour was more easily observed. .... so, isn't it obvious that in a consultation it will be very difficult to judge whether or not a rabbit is in pain?
 
I just get so exasperated when I read on hear how some Vets fail to address pain control in Rabbits. It is almost as if Rabbit Pain is a blind spot for them, it never seems to cross their mind :?

I think it just reflects a real lack of understanding of small animals and how they behave. I've so often heard vets say 'they hide their symptoms well'. Well, that should give a clue if they understand that much really, shouldn't it? :roll:
 
I remember consulting a Vet out-of-hours and when I asked about pain relief for the Bun I was told that it would be 'too risky' to give any :shock:

When I argued I was told that my Rabbit would die of Kidney failure if given Metacam :shock:

Then they got their drug reference book out :roll:

I am just glad that not all Vets are like that. Mine are fab and pain relief is ALWAYS given when needed.
 
I remember consulting a Vet out-of-hours and when I asked about pain relief for the Bun I was told that it would be 'too risky' to give any :shock:

When I argued I was told that my Rabbit would die of Kidney failure if given Metacam :shock:

Then they got their drug reference book out :roll:

I am just glad that not all Vets are like that. Mine are fab and pain relief is ALWAYS given when needed.

I was told something similar recently about a rabbit (not one of mine). Needless to say I pushed anyway and rabbit was put on a tiny dose and then removed once we found it helped (smart). So she will be taken, by me, to my vets to see what we get out of that. My vets, rthankfully, are very good with their pain relief. They have a brilliant chart they all refer to (which I thankfully have a copy of) and instructions on how to use it.

Have had some blips with misinformed nurses though.
 
I've often had to ask the vet if I can give my buns pain relief (I always have some at home). He has always gone with what I feel as he recognises that I can tell when one of my buns is in pain better than he can. He does work the dose out for me as I am hopeless at doing it myself - I get really confused.
 
I would blooming well hope so! The bunny figures are terrifiyingly low, but still only just over half for cats and two thirds for dogs is also very alarming. I'd like to get those non-pain-relief-administering vets and perform a laparotomy on them without any pain relief and see how they like it. I bet they'd start doing it 100% of the time on patients of all species, then...

Our vets are excellent with rabbit pain and now even give a free 10ml bottle of metacam with each spay. But when Theo (cat) had that huge cancer op the day after he collapsed with the pain because he hadn't been sent home with any :? :(
 
Our rabbit vet worked in the UK for 6 years and tells me that the veterinary treatment for rabbits there is 5 years ahead of that in Australia. But, he also says you cannot successfully treat a rabbit for anything until you get any pain issues under control.
 
My old vet didn't give Gypsy any pain relief after her spay :( This was around 7 years ago. It took a very tearful me to literally barge into the surgery and plonk her on the table after endless phone calls. I could see that she was in pain and I had to force her to eat. She was all hunched up and not herself at all :( No one would listen to me!
Luckily they gave her pain relief and she got better again. It should not have been such a fight though, should it?
 
My old vet didn't give Gypsy any pain relief after her spay :( This was around 7 years ago. It took a very tearful me to literally barge into the surgery and plonk her on the table after endless phone calls. I could see that she was in pain and I had to force her to eat. She was all hunched up and not herself at all :( No one would listen to me!
Luckily they gave her pain relief and she got better again. It should not have been such a fight though, should it?

I remember vowing to NEVER have a Rabbit spayed again after my first experience of it back in 1999. It was horrendous, both the actual surgical wound and the lack of pain relief (from the RSPCA Hospital!!) :evil:

Infact one of my first contacts with the RWAF was a letter to RO stating just that.

I obviously have gone on to have numerous Does spayed, but ONLY by a Vet who knows the importance of pain relief for Rabbits.
 
I remember vowing to NEVER have a Rabbit spayed again after my first experience of it back in 1999. It was horrendous, both the actual surgical wound and the lack of pain relief (from the RSPCA Hospital!!) :evil:

Infact one of my first contacts with the RWAF was a letter to RO stating just that.

I obviously have gone on to have numerous Does spayed, but ONLY by a Vet who knows the importance of pain relief for Rabbits.

I can remember feeling the same way. I just kept asking myself " what the heck have I done???," :( I felt awful. I really thought I was going to loose her :( and all because it was inconvenient to ME to have a crazy hormonal bunny shredding up my pillows and trying to make nests out of my hair while I was trying to sleep in my own bed :shock: I felt selfish :(

As time has passed and Gypsy isn't franticly ripping up everything and making us both bald by pulling hair, I realise it was the right thing to do. It still does not take away any fears I may have in the future about getting another doe spayed.
 
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