Spay recovery time frame:Please advise

After a rabbit done a spay, how many days would it take for her diet to return to normal?

She had the surgery from 12 pm to 2 pm on Wed., as of Thursday morning till the evening, she only ate a little bit. Just her favorite bunny treats, no hays, no pellets, she wouldn't eat them.

But her urine level is normal except the color is not the milky yellow. It's quite clear, I assume it has to do w/ the surgery and the pain killer given to her before/after the surgery yesterday and this morning.

The poos seems much bigger the evening after the surgery, but tonight, there are some slightly soft poos (It could be night time poos that she didn't bother to eat). Needless to say, the volume of the poos has greatly reduced.

I would say normally about 2 days. After about 12hrs i syringe fed my Nala as she still wouldnt eat but she did start to eat on her own after about 24hrs. Put water in a bowl and surround her wiht yummy veggies or foods she is used to. Their poos can be small for a couple of days, i think its to do with fact their intestines will have been moved during their op.

Okay, she did start to eat, but just a little bit after the 24 hr. period. In fact, she starts to eat around 8 am on Thurs. in which the surgery finished approx. around 2 pm on Wed., so it is only 16 hr. later that she eats on her own, which is very good.

But the problem is, the amount of food she eat is very low. How much did your bunny eat 24 hr. after the surgery in a percentage wise compares to her regular diet?

If your one eats normally after the 48 hr. time frame, there is no way my one can get near that diet. How any animal gain back full diet status in 2 days after a surgery like that? And by this coming Fri. afternoon, I don't see how she can regain full diet status, what should I do?

hi

as long as she is eating, drinking and passing poo and wee, don't worry - The painkillers wear off on day 2 after the op, so this is when they can get a bit shocked and withdrawn, and stop eating - that's today if her op was Wednesday.

She will need to be tempted with her favourite veg, if she's eating veg usually - they don't usually want pellets when feeling bad.

If she's really bad tomorrow - not eating anything - then take her back to the vets for another shot of painkillers and some gut stimulant, otherwise she will get her appetite back slowly and should be fine in a couple more days - Good luck with her recovery

Was just going to pass on our advice and experience but Elve and Diddeen have said it all really.

Yalta took 2-3 days to get back to anything approaching normal.

I would say the fact that she is interested in food is a good sign.

The only extra advice really is to keep her warm - especially with it being so cold.

Good luck

Martin+Pam

Thank you guys. The vet actually prescribe 3 x 0.12 ml of Metacam, once daily for 3 days. It's a painkiller. I'll keep a close eye on her in the next few days.

I do have one other concern: I don't see her drinking any water at all. However, her urine level is normal. How can that be?

Mine took about 4-5 days to get back to their normal eating habits. As long as they are eating something they will be ok. Amber would only have water if I put a spoonful to her mouth. They seemed to prefer fresh green food to anything else, mainly dandelion leaves and fresh grass.

Hi,

If a woman had the same operation she would be off work 6 months!!!

It's a big operation for a little bunny so she will take time to get back to normal. Little and often is the best judge as long as she is making the effort to eat she is going in the right direction.

She will get liquid from veggies if you are giving her any, I had a bunny that took a week to get back to normal once but usually it's a good 4/5 days.

I'm sure you vet will have no problem you taking her back for a check up if you are worried.

Best wishes

Maureen

hey, thanks again every one. Because she wasn't 6 mth. back then, I didn't give her any green in a regular pattern although I let her eat the spinach grown in the garden in the summer. But she's almost 6 mth. old now, since she needs the green, I'll take care of it.

hi

If she's not used to eating veg already, now is not a good time to start introducing it as her tum will already be unsettled by antibiotics - When introducing veg you must only give a tiny piece every 2 days, so that you can monitor the effect on her gut - a tiny piece is not enough to hydrate her or get her eating her dry food again, and a larger amount of veg will probably upset her stomach as she doesn't have sufficient quantities of bacteria present to digest it - How did she react to the spinach in summer?
Hope she's OK soon anyway

When she was raise as a baby, her breeder allows her to hop in the garden for a limited time. So she has been eating bits of green since she's young.

I don't want a rabbit to eat too much green (or none at all) in the first 6 mth. because I was afraid she might develop a green diet and abandon the hay.

So when I fly her back since end of Aug., she only hops to the backyard when the weather is good, sunny and no wind. And she ate one to two piece of spinach on my garden as well as some grass, and she has no problem with it.

I no longer feed her w/ spinach in the past 2 days, but I did switch to carrot, in which she has eaten some nice baby carrot in my garden, just 2 - 3 in the entire month of August. She is also drinking water on her own.

Currently, her diet is moving towards normal, she eats the carrots, the hay, her bunny treats, but still hasn't eat any pellet yet. But her diet is definitely increasing gradually since Wednesday.

On unrelated matter, I'm trying to understand rabbit psychology. When she came back from the surgery, the vet said I should limit her in a small room. IN that small room (my bedroom) she is willing to use the litter tray at the corner for those 3 days (wed. & thurs & Fri).

Now that her diet is approaching back to normal, and she is getting better, she is not willing to use that litter tray, she rather go back to the old spot outside the bedroom.

But the bedroom is her favorite place at night time when I sleep, as she rather stays in my bedroom than her own room in the past months. And the litter tray was there all these months.

Why won't she use the litter tray in my bedroom?