Doe just got spayed & neutered male was aggressive now she is scared of him

[samara0709]

Hi everyone,
I hope someone can help me! I’m unable to find much online about this.
we got my little girl Frankie spayed on Wednesday and the vet told us to keep her apart from our male rabbit Theodore for at least 5 days for her to heal even though Theo was neutered in January. They have been bonded to each other since she was 5 weeks and he was 11 weeks and had not issues when he was neutered in Jan. So I’ve separated them only by a dog play pen and it was all fine but the 2nd day theo started to get a bit aggressive through the playpen and scratch/nip at her through the cage. We let them both out a few times to see how he went and he got a bit aggressive I think to show dominance or because he could smell the hormones leaving after surgery but now he has mellowed out and is completely fine when we let them out together. They eat together and share their food but if she gets too close to him she then freaks out and runs away which causes him to run after her. He hasn’t done anything since the 2nd day now but she is scared of him and will then go hide away. Any tips on what I can do get them rebonded while she is still healing? Or any thoughts?
thank you!

 

[ArtistChibi]

If I recall, rebonding is going to take time because of hormones. Which is why I'm avoiding bonding Xiao Wu and Tu Shen until Shen is fixed. He's probably acting aggressive because she doesn't smell the same to him anymore and he's protecting his territory. It would be wise to avoid rush bonding them. Because it could turn ugly, which is not favorable.

 

[JBun]

The vet gave you bad advice in my opinion. A bonded pair should never be separated. it would have been better to have kept them together immediately after surgery. Then as long as he wasn't pestering her, kept them together in a smaller recovery pen as she healed, so that she wouldn't overexert herself and would have time for the incisions to heal, and he would have had time to gradually get used to her smelling differently.

You will probably need to just stick with supervised dates for now, until she has had at least 10 days to heal up, then go through bonding them again. Last thing you want is to have him continuing to chase and stress her, increasing her fear response to him.

 

[samara0709]

Thanks for your replies! I appreciate it. Yeah I’m so annoyed that I listened to the vet and kept them apart. I didn’t realise it would cause this as when he was neutered it was so different. I will wait a while and try rebond them when she is more healed. Thanks for the advice. I really appreciate it x