Rabbits chewing stitches after spay

We have two 5 month old female buns that recently got spayed. The vet didn't send us home with a collar or anything. As soon as we got home and looked at the stitches, we noticed one of them had totally removed them. We called the vet and they said it was fine as long as the wound was healing and kept clean. A couple days later (yesterday) we noticed our other girl had pulled out her stitches too. I wasn't too concerned because the vet wasn't, but then this morning I saw one of their poops was hanging out connected to a stitch that had passed through their whole system.

The vets closed today so we will call tomorrow, but has anyone else had this problem? Is it serious for rabbits to eat their stitches? Any ideas as to what the best step is? Their energy levels and appetites have been amazing, they are very healthy and not depressed at all and don't seem to be in pain or anything.

How long since the spay? It's usually 10 days for stitches and the vets will usually use dissolvable ones, but they usually can longer than that to dissolve so animals may help them out. If it's after 10 days and they seem bothered by them then a vet/nurse can take them out rather than waiting for them to dissolve.

They tend to avoid giving rabbits collars unless they show they need them as it stops them eating their ceacal poops.

The stitches are non toxic so eating them shouldn't be an issue that way, and as they are usually quite short pieces so go all the way through. Lots of hay for plenty of fibre should help keep things moving. Obviously they are meant to stay in though to keep the wound closed! One thing the vets can do is glue the wounds closed in addition to the stitches. It might be they already did this if the wounds are staying closed after they've taken a couple out.

If the wounds open up at all they'll need to go back and get them redone, and they'll end up with collars and/or waistcoats.

Some vets use a lot of internal stitches and even surgical glue to keep the wound sealed even if a few outer stitches are gone.
After a spay, I always put my pet in a smaller enclosure for the first few days.

If you are worried then I would call the Vet. Some girls do pull their stitches out but if the wound starts to open up then some Vets staple them back up. It sounds awful but it doesn't seem to hurt them.

tonibun said:

If you are worried then I would call the Vet. Some girls do pull their stitches out but if the wound starts to open up then some Vets staple them back up. It sounds awful but it doesn't seem to hurt them.

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Agreed.

jmartin941 said:

We have two 5 month old female buns that recently got spayed. The vet didn't send us home with a collar or anything. As soon as we got home and looked at the stitches, we noticed one of them had totally removed them. We called the vet and they said it was fine as long as the wound was healing and kept clean. A couple days later (yesterday) we noticed our other girl had pulled out her stitches too. I wasn't too concerned because the vet wasn't, but then this morning I saw one of their poops was hanging out connected to a stitch that had passed through their whole system.

The vets closed today so we will call tomorrow, but has anyone else had this problem? Is it serious for rabbits to eat their stitches? Any ideas as to what the best step is? Their energy levels and appetites have been amazing, they are very healthy and not depressed at all and don't seem to be in pain or anything.

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How are things now? Tamsin gave very good advice ... I hope all is going well :thumb:

So far so good. We actually didn't call the vet yet because even though their stitches are out the incision held together very well. As much as we have tried to control them, they have been pretty active around the house and I'm pretty suprised actually the wound looks so good. It's been about 8 days now.

Thanks for the update - pleased they are fine!