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Post-spay help badly needed!

A

Annie_90

Young Bun
Hi all,

Our bun was spayed yesterday. All is well now except that she is often cleaning the wound, which John said is okay, but every now and then she's biting it.

Reason help is needed is that between me an OH we've supervised her the entire time up to now but OH can't keep staying off work and as much as I'd be happy to stay up with her, I can't go from now until Friday evening without sleep, obviously.

John has suggested we put a t-shirt on her but we haven't been able to and don't want to upset her - he's also said that we need to keep her liking us (which she is - she's pretty much back to herself already).

Any tips? We're both exhausted - she's got herself in cycle of 15-25 mins sleep, eat, clean, repeat, so while we've got a camera set up while we need to make food etc, we can't leave her long time as is.
 
My 2 girls were spayed a month ago. Our vet gave us a list of things to watch out for-swelling, discharge, blood and fortunately they displayed none of these problems and they were fine after a few days. We kept them quiet inside in a restricted area and then back outside after 7 days. Both recovered well. We didn't watch 24hrs but just checked every so often - and certainly didn't give up our sleep. If you are confident with your vet, follow their advice and unless the biting gets excessive, relax and let nature heal.
 
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Thanks mrsmag. The tiredness is getting to us. I'm thinking I'll stay up as long as I can then go to sleep for a bit, check her as soon as I'm up. Aside from us taking more holiday we're going to have to leave her for a few hours and see what happens. (We tried the cloth collar thing but she shook it away before it was properly around her head.)

She's just done a full-out rabbit flop and is lying on her side with her head on her current favourite piece of cardboard. Oblivious to the worry of her humans :lol:
 
Are you sure the rabbit isn’t just trying to clean around the area as they get tangles and they look like they are biting but just washing really.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Are you able to pick her up to check the wound as they do tend to remove some of the stitches, if she has them.
 
Got 5 hours sleep, I'll take it lol. There's no bleeding and she's just as much herself as she was earlier.

Loopyloo - no, there's some biting mixed in unfortunately. She's a big chewer and tends to eat what she chews so we have to be careful.

tonibun - yes. it's a bit of a challenge but I'll be doing it in a bit (we checked yesterday afternoon). I'm also checking the fur near it frequently. She got stitches and then glue.
 
Thank you, Zoobec :)

I will have a look for a baby vest, that might work. She's been putting her head through her willow ring all morning of course, no problem with that :lol:
 
If memory serves, I think our girls had a little nibble at their wounds when they'd been spayed but nothing major. You have to bear in mind that the skin must irritate them a little - it's just been cut open, don't forget - and so they're licking and nibbling, which is natural, just like we'd have a rub and a scratch. As has already been said, unless it becomes excessive and she is evidently and obviously pulling at the stitches, I wouldn't worry. Licking and and minor nibbling is a very natural part of the healing process. Personally, I would avoid putting a vest or anything on her if possible as not being able to lick her wound may stress her out. Imagine having a desperate itch and not being able to scratch it - it's the same thing. Obviously if she's pulling her stitches out then you'll have to, but if she's not and is only licking, then I would try to avoid covering it if you can.

I presume that your vet sent you home with a good few days worth of oral pain relief?
 
Hi Angie. She's on metacam until Saturday night. Loves the stuff.

Yes, it must be irritating, especially as they don't know what's happened. I'm hoping a vest can be a just-in-case thing but it'd be good to have it there ready.
 
Good, then she shouldn't be in pain with it, it's probably just itching a bit which is only natural.

I'd just keep your eye on her and providing she's not actually trying to pull the stitches out and the wound doesn't become red/inflamed/swollen/pussy then leave it. Try and distract her with your company as much as you can, or toys, or food, but of course don't let her jump or climb for about 2 weeks so she doesn't over-stretch her tummy area (this includes going up/down any ladders she has if she has a 2-storey hutch, going up/down any stairs at all). Ours stayed indoors for a fortnight (they're outdoor bunnies) which was a right royal pain in the butt, but it was worth it as they healed beautifully.

It sounds like all is going well though, from what you have said, which is great!
 
There's some redness at the moment - OH said it looked like when we rub/scratch our skin a bit - but nothing else, and the glue has absorbed. She has jumped a few times unfortunately but we're trying to keep it to a minimum. She's in a small pen at the moment, and unfortunately did today jump onto the bars at the side when food/medicine is coming towards her (usual thing she tends to do, gets very excited), and she's hopped away from us a couple of times when we've been checking her wound. She's very good at getting into mischief and the medicine seems to have worked enough that she's very much herself, which isn't brilliant in this situation but difficult to change. She's also doing a full stretch when she wakes up which was a surprise. I'm guessing (and hoping) that she wouldn't do it if it hurt.
 
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Hi Tonibun, no, she has one next week as requested by the vet. Unless you mean us checking her over which we do once a day.
 
I don't recall taking ours back to the vet at all, but we're talking 6 years ago so memory may not be serving too well :lol:.

Annie-90 said the glue had been absorbed, so maybe there aren't any external stitches?

Providing there is a post-op check (as in the one next week) and no problems prior which require the vet, I'm sure all will be well :).
 
That's right, no external stitches - there are some but they're inside, with the glue having been on the external area.

She's doing well. Just had her last dose of metacam and the wound is now a small red line. The metacam has maybe worked too well - more throwing herself around the place yesterday though it doesn't seem to have hurt her.

When should I start letting her out for more space? And I'm assuming I start with an indoor area until we've had the check up?
 
It's only been 4 days since she was spayed - another few days of caution wouldn't be a bad thing. I am very pleased her wound looks good. :thumb:
 
To update (and thank you for that, tonibun, we kept her in) she's got to be inside a few more days but after that the vet said we can start the pre-bonding process. Reason for the extra bed rest is that in the understandable process of going stir-crazy, she pushed past me one evening when I was feeding her, and hopped around the room for a few minutes before I could catch her, so there was a bit of a scab mishap. Of course, unfortunately now she's going even more stir crazy, but we're spending more time with her.

I'm happy to say we've managed to keep the temperature low, too.
 
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