Pet Information > ASK Experts > Exotic Pets > Rabbits > Spay/Neuter

Spay/Neuter

22 11:09:08

Question
Mr. Meyer,
Hi!  I have made an appointment for a little over a week from now to get
my two 5 month old Holland Lops (one buck and one doe) spayed and
neutered.  These are my first rabbits, so I have a few questions about the
surgery...
Is there any preparations I need to make before they go in?  According to
one website I saw, the vet should give them some sort of medicine as a
surgery prep, but they just set the appointment and gave me a drop off
time.
Should I send in food and hay so they can eat their normal food when
they get out of surgery?
Do they need to be separated afterwards so they dont bite each other's
stitches?
The vet I'm going to is entirely for small animals and certified by the
House Rabbit Society, so they're a good rabbit vet, right?  But another
vet nearby that I talked to wasnt certified by the House Rabbit Society (of
course she is a certified vet) but charged twice the amount... what does
that mean for me and my bunnies?
My rabbits are the same age (of course thats according to the pet shop
who sold me two does and gave me a buck), but my buck has doubled in
size and my doe hasnt grown at all.  I've also seen her sneesing a lot,
but all the websites I've seen say its not a problem unless gunk comes
out, which it doesnt... Is surgery safe for her?  I could just get my buck
neutered and leave her be until shes older, right?
Thank you very much and sorry for all the questions!
Kaela

Answer
Hi Kaela,

just to clear one thing up, the House Rabbit Society doesn't 'certify' a vet, they just recommend a vet that in their opinion, has a high success rate with rabbits and agrees with the HRS on rabbit care and overall philosophy.

As the vet you are going to is recommended by HRS, I am assuming that they will give your rabbits a pre-op sedative first, before going under isofluorine gas.  You should make sure you ask them any questions you have beforehand so that you understand what will and will not be going on.

Also, the vet should have done a pre-op exam on your rabbits beforehand (a wellness exam) before surgery.  Generally they like to do this with any animal because if they are sick or on antibiotics they will generally wait to operate until they are fully healthy.  My HRS-recommended vet wouldn't operate until they saw my rabbit beforehand in a separate pre-op/wellness visit.  You may want to make sure the vet sees your girl because of the sneezing.  You should ask as you are the one ultimately responsible for your rabbits' health (not the doctor).

The vet should prescribe pain meds for both that you can give them over the next few days tehy are recovering - metacam, probably.  Also they may prescribe antibiotics (baytril, probably) to try to prevent infection.  If they don't/haven't mentioned this to you, ask them about this.  As an HRS-recommended vet, their philosophy should be to give pain meds because they should be aware that rabbits in pain don't eat, and that in order to make sure they keep eating, rabbits' pain needs to be managed.

You don't have to fast them before surgery as they can't vomit.  You can drop off their normal food (and a few treats) that they can give them in recovery.  Pellets and hay cubes and such may be good candidates.  You want to get them eating as soon as possible and their normal items will help them do so.

They should be separated while they recover.  They won't go after each others' stitches.  But they should have limited movement for a week (no full-out running, no jumping) to allow things to heal well.  Separating them will help them not chase each other and run faster, etc, etc.

As far as the price differences between the vets, I have no idea why.  Vets set their own prices, and in different areas of the country they are different, they are all different.  Generally a neuter is about $140, a spay about $180.  If your vet is way under this you can always ask why their amount seems so low to you compared to other vets.  You may run the risk of being charged more!

If your doe hasn't been checked out by the vet in a pre-op exam, you should consider doing this because she may have an infection and the vet may decide not to operate - a respiratory problem could screw up how they handle the gas and could lead to bunny maybe not waking up after it's all over.  I'd probably push to get her seen by the vet.  If you're still unsure, I'd wait and let her get treated for whatever she has, and then when she's good, go in for the spay.

Another good rule of thumb is if the vet doesn't give you appropriate answers to your questions, perhaps that may not be the vet to take your rabbits to.

Write back anytime.  Lee

PS - I would never take a pet store employees' word as to what sex a rabbit is.  They sell them so young, it is very easy for a non-rabbit-savvy employee to get it wrong.