A bit of advice.....

Hi, I am basically just looking for some advice really. Last weekend I bought a dwarf lop 8 week old rabbit from my local pet store. After having him a day or 2 I noticed his eating wasn't that regular but was unsure if this was due to the stress of a new home or something more serious. The next day I popped him along to the vets who told me he had been fed tooo much of the pellet type food and had got a bit clogged up and gave him 2 injections and some liquid food but told me he would be fine as soon as everything started working and apart from that he was healthy. As soon as I got him home I noticed he was acting a bit strange so made him his liquid food and tried to feed it to him. To cut a long story short he seemed to go into some kind of fit and then slowly into paralysis passing away about 30 minutes later. All throughout I was trying to contact my local vets emergancy line aswell as other with no avail. I went back to the vets the following day to seek advice on what had gone wrong and they just said as he was so young his body couldn't cope.
This weekend I have decided to rehome a rabbit from a lady who unfortunalty is moving home and is pregnant and can not look after all her bunnys (she has 9) so I am adoping him. He is a ten month old mini lop but has not been neutered or vaccinated. I am quite anxious about the whole vet thing now from the ordeal of last week but know that it all has to be done. My question I am looking for advice on is about neutering. I have heard both good and bad comments and posts about neutering.....what has everyones experiance been? Would you advise to get it done or not and if so how soon after I have got him. I am thinking it may be better to wait a week or two so I can get an idea of his normal behaviours and routines to know if something is not right. Also vaccinations, should I get them done before the neutering? I also dont want him to have a bad experiance of either getting vaccinated or neutered so soon after I have got him and not liking me for it!!

Any advice would be greatly appriciated!
Thanks

:wave:

Welcome to the forum!

So sorry to hear about your bun

Are you intending to get your new bun a friend?

I'm not too sure really, he has been on his own up till now and as I am hoping to have him inside as much as possible, hopefully he won't get too lonely for the time I am at work!

I think if I was you I'd take things slowly. There's no rush to get him neutered if you're not planning on a friend for him straight away and like you said it will give you time to get to know him first. The only thing that might change your mind is if he starts spraying or humping everything, then you might want to start thinking about it for his and your sanity!!

I had Obi neutured within a week of having him. He started spraying me and my furniture. He also liked humping my feet which was a bit embarassing :? :roll:

I had previously had my girls spayed and had confidence in my vet. I found that his hormones were so uncontrolable i wanted to get to know him minus the randy side. He was fine, in fact i was sprayed twice within half an hour of getting him home. His way of protesting i suppose.

He's brilliant now, he's 95% house trained and now he doesn't cover me in pee, which is good.

I think you need to decide for yourself what's right. If he's being randy and your finding it's too much for you to handle then have him neutered. If not give yourself time to get over what's happened and get to know the new bun. It might be an idea to find a new vet especially if you feel you've started on the wrong foot with yours.

I'm sure you'll make the right decision for you and your bun.
Good luck with everything

Gem

I would get the new bun vacs straight away as you are not sure what you first bunny died from..better to be safe than sorry.

so sory to hear your horrific experience but saldy its very comon with pet store bunnies either that or they develop some horrific dental problems tunr out to have bunny syphilis etc all from being interbred..bad bunny husbandry etc and its awful..theyll sell any poor bun to make a quick pund. Your bun died of what is called gut stasis by the soun dof it or even an impacted gut..the jabs make that worse and hasten deat im afraid..
i lost one to gi stasis last year whereas i nursed my first bun..a pet store bun through it so much..she had misaligned jawbone..had been savaged as a baby by the ther buns..developed bunny oral syhphilis and needed so many dentals had eye infections and ear infectiosns constantly after hiing the 5 month old mark..

i would recommend the vaccs first.no matter what..unless the buns is being randy or spraying..your sanity will quickly vanish if so!
i go into the pet store whenever im in town which isnt that often and i see some terrible sights and the rspca have bene involved..even now the buns i feel so sorry for them.they pick up intestinal infections and die so easily fromall the stress of being made into pass the parcel.

How sad Hope things are happier with your new bun.

As the others have said, if his hormones are a problem then WHEN to neuter may be an easy decision. But if he's fine, then you can take a gentler pace and my thinking would be that the vacs will benefit him if done first.

I got Muppet from a rescue in early January and had his vacs done within the first 5-6 weeks (two weeks apart) and he was neutered in early March. Like you, I liked the idea of giving him time to settle in. He barely noticed the myxi jab and was subdued for 36 hours after the VHD one. He was quiet and dopey recovering from his neutering (seems reasonable :lol: ) but perked up that evening, starting lolloping about the next day and has recovered really well.

Somewhere between the jabs and the neutering I took him away for the weekend as well. He seemed more 'at home' when we came back, oddly enough.