What should I ask the vet and what should I know before neutering?

I want to neuter my female bunny sometime in the next couple of months (she's already 1 year old and 1-2 months old). I don't like the idea of a surgery, but I see it's important for her first and then for us, 'cause she's making a lot of mess around here. I'm scared to be honest, but anyway, I'd like to hear some advice from people who've neutered their female bunnies, what they did before and after the surgery, what did they use to prevent the bunnies from pulling out their stitches (would a collar, like dogs wear when in a situation like this, work? 'cause my bunny is kind of big, I think she's almost 15.4 lbs = 7kg, u know, like a dog ) ), etc...Stuff like that.
Thanks in advance.

:wave: If you can find a good vet with a experience of neutering rabbits thats a start and they will advise you however, I'm not sure what you mean by her 'messing' around the house, it's quite easy to litter train your rabbit but I'm not sure if thats affected by hormones so you'd be able to do that with an unspayed rabbit or a spayed rabbit.

What you need to ensure is that she gets given pain relief and some to come home with, I notice your in Romania, we have a pain reliever called Metacam which isn't actually licensed for rabbits but works and probably will be soon.

She'll need lots of rest and a soft area to lie on (eg vet bed/towels) preferably with a heat pad near her but don't put her on it, you'll need to restrict her movements for at least 24-48hours minimum in the sense that she shouldn't jump around, she'll not want to anyway for about 24 hours at least, ask them to do internal sutures, that helps and I found both my girls did lick their wound a little (which is natural) but if you see them biting or nibbling then discourage gently, and you do need to check it regularly for infection, any redness/swelling, hot or seeping fluid is bad.

Avoid handling and provide a selection of all her favourite foods, hay to eat and boiled tepid water in a bowl is essential, it's best to provide an area to toilet in maybe use newspaper or puppy training pads are absorbent with hay in a basket or rack rather than in the litter tray, you need to be careful for about 48 hours that the hay doesn't get into the wound but she must have it to eat from a bowl or basket.

Your priority is to get her drinking and eating, they should make sure she's had pain relief, and fluids really if she is going under GA. She will need a nice cosy comfy area to recover with all she needs and very gentle handling for a while - it's a major operation and you must be careful with the way you inspect the wound, ideally get on the floor and try to look under your rabbit rather than tipping her backwards for the first couple of days, actually using your hand gently to just hold it on the wound you can guage the temperature and if it's dry etc

Best of luck, it's pretty straightforward routine here for our vets, hope you can find a good one over there.:wave:

I'm really just saying the same thing but ask around as many vets as you can to see who has spayed female rabbits before and how experienced they are. And make sure she's sent home with pain killers.

Most vets do internal stitches and then glue the wound which reduces the likelihood of them pulling out the stitches. Ask lots of questions of the vet ie. Do they provide pain relief for once they come home? Do they spay many rabbits? How many have they lost and why? Do rabbits need to be starved before? To the last one it is vital they say no. Rabbits don't vomit so don't needed to be starved and they need to be eating often to keep their digestive system going.

The only thing I have to add to the above good advice is that they should not have an Elizabethan collar (the ones they give to dogs etc to stop them biting wounds) as rabbits need to eat their caecals (special poos) straight from their bottom, and one of those collars would not enable them to do that. So it is reccommended not to have them, and if a vet says they should (unless there is a specific reason) I would not use them.

Also well done for getting her spayed, as it stops them getting uterine cancer in later life. You may also find it easier to litter train her a few months after the operation when the hormones die down.

edited to add: thought these links would be helpful:
http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?t=51537
http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?t=84269

Thank u all very much for the advice!:wave:
The problem is that where I live, there's only one good vet clinic, the others are too random and I wouldn't take her there under any circumstances...I'm worried that I don't have from where to choose. Taking her to another city is almost, if not impossible...
Good point about the collar, nessar, I didn't think about it, thanks.
Here's a photo with her place (it's an old photo, from August last year), but anyway, the point is that she has that towel, the place especially for hay and the litter. Would it be good like this? http://i53.tinypic.com/106wt2f.jpg

I think that looks good as a place for her to recover. I think for the litter tray I would just put down some newspaper so there is no chance of anything getting into the wound.

It's very hard when you haven't got much choice about vets.