No Food or Water After Midnight

[EdieRabbit]

I just checked my messages and the vet's office called me today. Tomorrow, Edie is going to be spayed and they told me not to give her any food or water after midnight. I didn't think you were supposed to withhold food and water from bunnies before surgery.

Let me know what to do. I'm sooooo nervous about taking her. She is a healthy, happy bun right now and I'm scared something bad might happen b/c I don't know what I'm doing...sure, I grew up on a farm with horses, dogs, cats and a few other critters, but bunnies seem so much more sensitive than theyare.:nerves1 I probably won't sleep at all tonight......

 

[AngelnSnuffy]

No,you're correct. You don't withhold food or water from buns prior to surgery as they cannot vomit, which is essentially the reason other animals/humans are fasted.

Buns also cannot toleratea loss of food, causes GI slow down, and not good either.

Is this a rabbit savvy vet? Please be sure she gets painmeds immediately after surgery, before she wakes up. And make sure some are sent home with you as well.

Ask what will be given as a pain med and what anesthic they will be using also.

Let us know if you have any more questions.:hug:

 

[osprey]

I am very surprised that a vets office would recommend ever withholding food from a bunny. Please do not withold food and water! Your bunny needs to keep her GI tract going, because she will likely not eat for the first day after the surgery. The no food thing is for dogs and cats, who can vomit and aspirate it. Rabbits have no muscles to push food back up from the stomach, so they cannot vomit. I have done pre spay/neuter care for dozens of bunnies, and the only thing I always do is skip giving greens the morning of the surgery. I do this because I am worried that they will get poopy butt from the stress of going to the vet hospital. I don't know if this is the right thing or not, but it has worked OK so far.

Good luck with your girl's surgery, and get ready to try to tempt her to eat ASAP after she comes home!

 

[EdieRabbit]

The vet said that she would be sending me home with pain meds and that she would have them before she wakes up. She also said to bring some hay (or a treat)with her as they like to make sure that the buns are eating before they send them home after surgery.

This whole ordeal is making me rethink letting this vet operate on her. Sure, it could just be the receptionist not knowing what she is talking about, but what if this vet isn't as bun savvy as I thought. She says she does a few spay/neuters on buns a month and that she has only had one complication. She seemed pretty knowledgable. I don't know what to do now!

 

[AngelnSnuffy]

EdieRabbit wrote:

This whole ordeal is making me rethink letting this vet operate on her. Sure, it could just be the receptionist not knowing what she is talking about, but what if this vet isn't as bun savvy as I thought. She says she does a few spay/neuters on buns a month and that she has only had one complication. She seemed pretty knowledgable. I don't know what to do now!

Have you used this vet before for any rabbits? You ask how many spays he/she performs in a month's time, and are they all successful, is that a few every month?I don't know if I'd do it.

Can you have a tech call you back? That's what I would do, I would not just talk to the receptionist. It's not a check up, it's a spay, which can cause complications, you want reasurance.

Maybe line up some tricky questions to ask the vet tech to ask the vet, prior to going and see if they get those questions right. If you feel comfortable with them.


You bug them if need be for anything. Don't feel that you shouldn't.:hug:

 

[Pipp]

Honestly? I'd cancel or at least delay it. I haven't checked your old posts, not sure what the story is.

But you want to be sure. I'd check and see where the 'no food/water' info came from, and what other options you have for more experienced vets.

I picked the vet that did 'gazillions' of bunny spays (according to the receptionist), and had only lost three old, sick bunnies out of an estimated thousand or more. Even one 'complication' when they've only performed a fewsurgeriesa month is something for closer scrutiny.

I'd check with rabbit rescues, etc, and see who does their spays/neuters. They're likely to be more experienced (although it may just be the price is right), and personally I'd rathersupport a vet who supports a rescue.



sas :?

 

[EdieRabbit]

Yes, she performs a few a month...so I'm guessing 3-4. Only one complication on a very small bun, but the bun survived. I can't call the vet tech beforeI take her in b/c she has to be at the office tomorrow at 8am. My husband is quite sick with the flu and I'm thinking of using him as an excuse to cancel the surgery.

There is a vet near here that advertises that he works on buns (and other small exotics) on his website, but he is about an hour away. I'm thinking thedrive might be worth it. I haveonly used this vet for a check up appointment. I'm a new bunnymom,and I've only had Edie a little over 4 months, so I'm still learning. I love my littlebun so much and don't wantanything to happen to her.

Thanks for your help! It is greatly appreciated.

 

[AngelnSnuffy]

Cancel it then. Do. Especially if your husband is sick, this is like an omen. Don't go there:?. Check with the other place your speaking of that deals with exotics. I like that idea better.

 

[EdieRabbit]

Okay, you convinced me. I'm cancelling first thing tomorrow morning. I'm also going to check with our local rescue to see who they use. I didn't think about that and it seems like a great idea.

 

[AngelnSnuffy]

:hug: Better safe than sorry, IMO. Good thinking and thanks for posting to ask. It was your gut feeling. That's good.

Let us know if you need any help locating a rescue or anything.

Edited to add:

Doing this for you members and others, helping like this, is helping to heal my heart. I'm doing this for Bundo, Angel and buns everywhere.

 

[EdieRabbit]

I think that I can find it through petfinder. I'll let you know if I need help, though. Thanks for all of your help! Yes, I just have a bad feeling about......something....can't explain why. Edie has been giving the "I'm beyond disgusted with you" look today, like she knows something is up. ssd:She has NEVER acted like that before. VERY strange.

 

[AngelnSnuffy]

EdieRabbit wrote:

Edie has been giving the "I'm beyond disgusted with you" look today, like she knows something is up. ssd:She has NEVER acted like that before. VERY strange.

Haha, they can tell if you're stressed. Try not to. Practice that starting now, because if you ever get in a real emergency, you'll have some muscle. It's so hard.

 

[EdieRabbit]

Hmmmmm...come to think of it, I have probably been paying her TOO much attention today, probably to compensate for what I was planning on doing to her tomorrow morning. She really seemed miffed with me, like she wasy thinking, "leave me alone, %&#$@!" Poor Edie.....I made her cuss! :shock:

 

[AngelnSnuffy]

Haha,..:shock:. Shame on you Edie.

 

[Darfi]

Now see, I was going to get both my rabbits 'fixed' last summer (I was gonna breed them one time but thankfully I found this site and they convinced me not to do it) and I did get my boy Prince done. They castrated him. He did so well! I was so proud of his ability to ignore the wound and just get on with life!

Anyhoo, I had concerns about cervical and uterine cancer for Isis and that was the bigger reason I was going to get her spayed but the vet I spoke to on the phone (in great length cuz I wanna be SURE about it) said she was extremely hesitant to do it. She hadn't done a female rabbit spay ever and she read up the anatomy of a female rabbit. She told me they have 2 cervixes, not just one and that rabbits are very unstable under anesthesia. She also read me a list of rabbits who statistically get reproductive cancers and luckily Holland Lops weren't on the list. So I decided against it until it appears that she has that condition.

Here's a question though come to think of it. Does spaying a female change their disposition? Prince didn't change much after his surgery except that he no longer mates with all dwarf sized objects in the house!

 

[okiron]

Lumi didn't change at all after her spay. If at most made her more trusting towards me. But who knows if that was caused/helped by the spay or just us spending more time with each other.

 

[Haley]

I just wanted to mention something- a lot of times vets can be really great with bunnies but you'll still get the "withold food" thing from the receptionist the day before. Sometimes its not that the vet doesnt know this, its that the people at the front desk dont.

So before you write them off as awful and inexperienced with bunnies I would find out where the order came from. If it was from the vet, find a new one.

Just my opinion

 

[EdieRabbit]

I actually really liked the vet. She was very nice and seemed to love buns. It is just that the other vet has a reputation for being really experienced with buns, so that makes me feel a little better.This other vet is just farther away (almost an hour away) or else I would have taken her to him to get her check up a few weeks ago.

 

[maherwoman]

Here's a thread with lots of helpful information for you to know...

http://www.rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=29788&forum_id=1

:biggrin2:

 

[EdieRabbit]

maherwoman wrote:

Here's a thread with lots of helpful information for you to know...

http://www.rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=29788&forum_id=1

:biggrin2:

Thanks...I'll print it out and take it with me when I visit the other vet. I'll probably go over and check them out before I schedule and appointment with them to get Edie spayed...just to be sure.