Dragging leg after spay

Question
Animal Control in a nearby town found a female bunny, probably about a year old, that someone had abandoned outside. They listed her online for adoption, and a local animal hospital was housing her. I adopted her, and Animal Control offered to pay for the spay at the hospital she was housed at. The hospital staff assured me their vet is experienced with rabbit spays, so I unfortunately didn't take her to my regular rabbit vet. Well, when she came home last night, she was much more lethargic than any bun I've ever had spayed. She finally nibbled at bits of apple and carrot this afternoon, and drank when I held the bottle up to her. About an hour ago she started moving around her cage a little, and I was horrified to see she is dragging her hind leg. I just read a previous post in which you stated that some less experienced vets may administer a pre-anesthetic injection which can cause damage to the sciatic nerve. I'm really worried now, and wonder if there is anything that can be done to prevent the damage from becoming permanent. It's Saturday now, and the animal hospital that spayed her is closed for the weekend, so I can't find out until Monday if there definitely was an injection given.If I take her to the Emergency Clinic, can they give her steroids or anything that might help?

Answer
Dear Betsy,

ARGH.  Yes, this sounds like the typical, "Oh, yeah, our vet has spayed plenty of rabbits..." disaster.  I would not be at all suprised to learn that she had gotten an injection in the thigh (NOT a good place for rabbit injections, as you already know) and suffered some damage to a nerve.  The good news is that this is *not* necessarily permanent.  The bad news is that the only treatments are things like massage, physical therapy, and possibly acupuncture, if it doesn't get better on its own.

I would certainly get her to your regular rabbit vet as soon as possible to see if the vet can suggest any additional treatments.  But in my experience, time and gentle physical therapy are the only things you can do.  Corticosteroids won't help, because the problem is usually not inflammation, but direct insult or damage to the nerve.

See if she has feeling in her toes by gently massaging them and seeing if she splays her toes or gives any other indication of feeling in them.  If so, that's a good sign.  The damage may not be severe.  But it still may take some time before she's back to her normal self again.

I'm so sorry.  :(

Hope this helps.

Dana