Nutrition after Spay

[Kleb06]

Hi. Just wondering if someone can offer an advice.
my Netherland dwarf was just spayed on Tuesday at 6 months (I thoughtshe was a male up until a week ago). Anyways she has taken the pain meds in a syringe no problem and will eat her pellets, oats and lettuce now on her own but she absolutely refuses to eat any hay and I’ve tried giving her critical care in several different sizes of syringes, wrapped like a burrito and then free on a chair, mixed with pineapple juice, mixed on a plate. I just can’t seem to get her to eat. I’m being patient and persistent but she won’t take it. Shedid eat a few pieces of the flower from the hay if I hand feed her. I’ve also woken up every 3 hours the past 2 nights to give her a few oats, pellets and a small piece of lettuce. I bought alphala hay hoping she would eat that but nope.
she is pooping just less and it does look normal and she is drinking some and peeing.
she is also moving around good, and is chewing her toys.
should I just keep making sure she has something in her stomach and wait a bit longer to see if she-starts eating her hay?
She is also very mad I’m keeping her in a pen as she is normally free range.

 

[Watermelons]

Was she eating the same haybefore the spay?
Why are you giving her oats?
Did the vet check her teeth as part of her pre-surgical exam?
Did they use a breathing tube for surgery?

 

[Kleb06]

Was she eating the same haybefore the spay?
Why are you giving her oats?
Did the vet check her teeth as part of her pre-surgical exam?
Did they use a breathing tube for surgery?

Yes the hay was the same.
I give them organic thick cut oats as treats. Like 4 or 5 pieces 1-2x a day. More as a training tool.
the vet did an exam and said she looked good.
im not 100% positive if there was a breathing tube but I’m thinking not. I’ll try and upload the recipe that shows the medical

 

[Kleb06]

 

[JBun]

Instead of trying to force feed critical care, if she is eating her pellets well, I would just increase the pellet portion some and her veggies to help make up for the lack of hay eating at this point. I had one rabbit that would only eat leafy greens for the first 48 hours, so I just kept feeding him leafy lettuces, cilantro, and parsley until he started eating his other food normally.

As Watermelons mention of the breathing tube, if your rabbit was intubated and her throat is sore, that may be why she doesn't want to eat hay. You could try plain timothy or orchard grass hay pellets, or try finding a softer cut of grass hay to see if she'll be more inclined to eat these, until she starts eating her normal hay again.

If she's not eating any of her food very well, including pellets and the veggies, you need to get her fed with syringe feeding to keep her GI tract moving or you risk stasis setting in. If you aren't able to manage the syringe feeding, you'll need to contact your vet tomorrow(hopefully they're open) for help getting this sorted.

https://wabbitwiki.com/wiki/Medicating_your_rabbit
http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/opcare.html

 

[Kleb06]

Instead of trying to force feed critical care, if she is eating her pellets well, I would just increase the pellet portion some and her veggies to help make up for the lack of hay eating at this point. I had one rabbit that would only eat leafy greens for the first 48 hours, so I just kept feeding him leafy lettuces, cilantro, and parsley until he started eating his other food normally.

As Watermelons mention of the breathing tube, if your rabbit was intubated and her throat is sore, that may be why she doesn't want to eat hay. You could try plain timothy or orchard grass hay pellets, or try finding a softer cut of grass hay to see if she'll be more inclined to eat these, until she starts eating her normal hay again.

If she's not eating any of her food very well, including pellets and the veggies, you need to get her fed with syringe feeding to keep her GI tract moving or you risk stasis setting in. If you aren't able to manage the syringe feeding, you'll need to contact your vet tomorrow(hopefully they're open) for help getting this sorted.

https://wabbitwiki.com/wiki/Medicating_your_rabbit
http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/opcare.html

Thank you so much for all this info! I tried critical car one more time and she tried attacking me and was biting everything she could. I just put her on the floor. I let her check out her normal space and her bf. ( I put a divider in a big x pen so they were together but desperate). They immediately started grooming each other. She then kept coming over to me and giving my happy nudges and kisses and even repeatedly flopped beside me. I put them both back in the pen after 30 minutes and he was eating so she started eating hay! I did this one more time in the evening and she just was so happy to be out she hopped back in her pen and ate on her own. I’m wondering if she was so mad she was confined in there for 48 hours had anything to do with not choosing to eat. The vet said to confine her movement for 4 days (they did laser after). I hope her incision will be ok. I had my eye on her the whole time to make sure she wasn’t jumping on anything.

 

[JBun]

Making sure she's not jumping up on anything or zipping around for the next 7-10 days is mostly what is recommended post spay. So that's what you want to be careful of. And that doesn't include separating them from a bonded bunny companion, unless the other rabbit is continually pestering them. Otherwise, bonded rabbits should always be kept together, even go to the vets together, or it can risk the bond being broken Was it the vet office that recommended separating them? Are they back together now?

I'm glad she's doing better.

 

[Kleb06]

Me too. I’m only letting her out of the pen for 20 min maybe 2-3 times a day otherwise she will be in there for a few more days. They both are only in there during the night as I have a cat and don’t feel comfortable when I cannot supervise them. For right now she is in the same pen with a divider but her hormones started a few weeks before the spay and my male was trying to hump her. So i let them together several times for 5-10 minutes while I was watching and if he seemed like he was trying any funny business I separated them. (He was already neutered before I ever let them together) They can still see and feel each other.

 

[Kleb06]

This is a better pic of their setup. They are together until he tries any funny business. I close the gate in between at night and can open his side(left) so he can free roam during the day