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ASSISTANCE NEEDED pregnant Rabbit knowledge Required

TPvsHP

Young Bun
Hi All, Just registered as i'm hoping to find some help. I have two males and two female rabbits and the age old thing happened my males got out of there cage whilst the girls were having a run in the garden. I now think my girls are pregnant. They are sisters and have lived together since birth. Does anyone know whether they can stay together in the cage they share? I've put a rabbit carrier with some hay in the run part of there cage, so that they both have their own space ....but is that enough :?
 
You could get them to the vets for an emergency spay.
Unless you have the time/space to care for lots of bunnies for the next 10 years :)

Your girls would need to be spayed anyway, to prevent uterine cancer, so getting them in for an emergency spay would be helping in 2 ways.
 
I'm sure I just replied to this...or was it a duplicated thread that was deleted...or maybe I'm going mad??

Anyway, I'm sure I suggested an emergency spay. And I suggested spaying is best for both females anyway as it greatly reduces the risk of uterine cancer (80% or 85% of female buns get uterine cancer by the age of 5 if unspayed) so you would be increasing their lifespan drastically by having them spayed asap.
 
Am I missing something?????Yor the third person thats mentioned me spaying my rabbits. I've had rabbits for over ten years and 6 of them were females most of them live past five and i didn't spay any of them. Two of my rabbits died due to an anestetic overdose by two different vets one was going in for a routine tooth operation and one male was being spayed. Please for give me if i sound harsh but it kinda put me off putting my bunnies under unecessary stress and possibly loosing any more.
 
Sorry i changed the title of my thread because to begin with nobody was answering ... oops my bad
 
Living past 5 isn't that old, many rabbits are now living to 8, 10, 12 years old.
I have had rabbits for nearly 20 years and never considered spaying due to the risks, but those beliefs we're based on treatments from 10- 20 years ago, rabbit anaesthetics are much safer and most vets are much more experienced in doing rabbit ops.
I lost a rabbit 5 years ago to uterine cancer, discovered the risks and all are now neutered where practical, often rabbits we take in from 3 onwards already have tumours when the vet opens them up.
If your vet has lost rabbits recently during routine dentals it may be wise looking for a more experienced vet.:)
 
I know what you are saying my oldest rabbit was 12 and a half : Lucky who is in my pic. My 5 year old was the one who dies under anestetic , i have one female die at 6 years but the vet could not find any underlaying cause. I've had another die at 6 with a brain tumour. one male died at 4 years ...3 months after having the mixamatosis jab and a few died younger unsure now of the cause as it was a long time ago. I just I'm just so scared of loosing anymore rabbits to incompetant vets. :(
 
Well forgive me for sounding harsh, but your 10yrs of bunny ownership hasn't exactly taught you much has it. With all the thousands of lovely bunnies already in rescue, and the terrible ordeals god knows how many of them have been through, you're just the type of nightmare the hardworking rescues dread, bringing even more unplanned bunnies into the world. No one is saying that every doe will develop uterine cancer, but most of us care about and love our bunnies to much to take our chances when there is over an 80% risk of it happening. You obviously weren't using an especially knowledgeable rabbit vet, because rabbits don't get overdosed with anaesethic, but the majority of vets don't know how to maintain the buns airway or intubate them, and then problems arise, and by the time they have got an airway in, the bunny has gone. Personally I think all bunny owners taking their buns in for surgery, would have a very good indication as to how knowledgeable their vet is, if they asked if the airway is maintained or not, and if the reply is 'not', hop away immediately!!
 
Sorry yes it was unplanned but i've not had any issues before so had so reason to worry. All my Rabbits are rescue rabblts ... I totally agree that there are to many rabbits in shelters that's why as soon as I have space a re-home another. So please dont judge me on one mistake ... you dont know me and i cant write my whole history on here for you to realise. I am an honest hard working bunny lover that just wanted some advice on how to deal with the issue that has arisen.
 
I do think you really need to find a good reputable vet who is experienced with buns. In this day and age, the risk of anaesthetic is negligiable when done by a good rabbit savvy vet. It is sad that you lost two under anaesthetic, but that really is down to either very very bad luck, or very very bad vets.

I have never lost a bun under anaesthetic...and Pebs has been under anaesthetic about 10 times in last 3 years, twice in last 5-6 weeks. But I totally trust that my vet knows exactly what he is doing.

If you do decide to continue with your buns pregnancies, then I would seperate them , and make sure that you keep your males well and truely locked away (padlocked would be good) as females can get pregnant again as soon as the litter is born.

Let's just hope they are not pregnant.
 
Spaying bunnies is really essential to prevent uterine cancer.
Plus you don't have x-ray vision and can't see what's going on inside them.
Both my does i've had spayed both had problems inside.
Angel is a rew lionhead and had a cyst on her ovary which was causing her god knows how much pain and hormonal fluctuations, she had quite a few phantom pregnancies.
Willow is a cross breed and she had an underdeveloped uterus and her right ovary was adhered to the womb wall. She also has no internal body fat at all.

Getting a vet that specialises in rabbit's reduces the risk.
Ask on here for a recommended vet in your area :)

In regards to your 2 females, I really would consider getting an emergency spay done, depending on how far gone they are.
If you are unable to get them spayed you could be looking at trying to rehome as many was 16 babies!!
With over 67,000 bunnies already in rescue struggling to get rehomed you may find rehomign them very difficult.
Plus you don't know of any health problems that the buns may have, as I assume you don't know the genetic lineage of all your bunnies?

Poor wee willow was an accidental litter as well. I don't know what other health problems may arise with her :(
 
Sorry yes it was unplanned but i've not had any issues before so had so reason to worry. All my Rabbits are rescue rabblts ... I totally agree that there are to many rabbits in shelters that's why as soon as I have space a re-home another. So please dont judge me on one mistake ... you dont know me and i cant write my whole history on here for you to realise. I am an honest hard working bunny lover that just wanted some advice on how to deal with the issue that has arisen.

in this case emergency spay is the best way forward.
Whereabouts do you live and maybe we can find a rabbit friendly vet for you?
 
Getting them spayed asap would be the best course of action. If you start a thread on here with the title "Rabbit vet needed in Pontefract" someone may be able to help you find a better vet. :wave:

If you won't spay them, then they need to be separated. Then when the babies are older, before the males reach sexual maturity, you'll need another two set ups to separate the males. If each female has 6 babies, then with your original four, that's 16 lots of vaccinations to pay for! :shock: And as the babies get older, they may start to fight if not neutered, so that's even more set ups you'll need...

Could you at least get the males neutered, which is a much simpler operation, to make sure there are no more accidents?
 
It does sound like you need to get more experienced vets, then perhaps consider getting all males castrated to begin with. It's a much less risky op and will remove the chance of any more pregnancies while you decide on your options.
I have not lost a rabbit to an anaesthetic yet, and had some fairly poorly ones go under. There have been a couple of times when the vet has not proceeded with the op because they had concerns about the rabbit- in one case it was 8 years ago and he was a dental bun with abscesses and the other was an 8 year old female we just took in who had mammary tumours, we wanted her spayed at the same time but was struggling so the vet took her round after removing the tumours. She died a year later due to uterine cancer.:(
 
Well forgive me for sounding harsh, but your 10yrs of bunny ownership hasn't exactly taught you much has it. With all the thousands of lovely bunnies already in rescue, and the terrible ordeals god knows how many of them have been through, you're just the type of nightmare the hardworking rescues dread, bringing even more unplanned bunnies into the world. No one is saying that every doe will develop uterine cancer, but most of us care about and love our bunnies to much to take our chances when there is over an 80% risk of it happening. You obviously weren't using an especially knowledgeable rabbit vet, because rabbits don't get overdosed with anaesethic, but the majority of vets don't know how to maintain the buns airway or intubate them, and then problems arise, and by the time they have got an airway in, the bunny has gone. Personally I think all bunny owners taking their buns in for surgery, would have a very good indication as to how knowledgeable their vet is, if they asked if the airway is maintained or not, and if the reply is 'not', hop away immediately!!

Hey hey hey! C'mon now please! It's not OP's fault that their vet wasn't knowledgeable about bunnies and I'm sure they were devastated to lose their pets. At the end of the day the deed has been done now so the best we can do is offer support for the well-being of the bunnies and help the OP find a better vet. I can fully understand their concerns about anaesthetics- I have the same fears myself. Please, just htink how horrible it is to lose some pets in certain situations and then how much you'd put off entering that situation again.

TPvsHP I'm sorry for the tone of some of the posts here, what we're trying to say is that in female bunnies there is a terribly high risk of female cancers so it may be worth when the pregnancy situation has resolved itself looking into having the bunnies spayed with a competent vet. A few years ago anaesthetics were dangerous for rabbits, but that's not the case any more, they're no worse than for cats or dogs. I'm sure someone more knowledgeable can explain why (or if you like I can dig out the leaflet from my vet that explains why) but it's because they changed the way they do it (or at least at my vet they did). But I can understand your concern completely.

RogerRabbit, I'm quite disappointed to see your post...

Please remember this from the forum rules:

Tone of Posts
The forum should be a supportive place to visit. It is possible to disagree with something without turning it into an insult. Sometimes it's not what you say but how you are saying it that causes a problem. For example, if someone is feeding their rabbit in a way you consider bad you could say:

"Why are you feeding your rabbit that rubbish? You should have done more research and fed it this instead. You better change it quickly before your rabbit dies."
Or

"Have you thought about swapping to pellets? Quite a few forum members feed these as they have more fibre so are better for their gut."
 
How late can a pregnant rabbit be spayed

If my rabbits are pregnant they will be three weeks on the 6th April. How late can it be done safely?
 
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