Rabbit had stone removed from the bladder today

[Amy27]

Hello everyone. My rabbit had a very large stone removed from her bladder today. It almost took up her whole bladder. She had been acting fine, was at the vet a month ago and it was never noticed there wasa problem. A couple days ago she was acting wierd and not eating and I decided to take her the the ER vet. The vet said they put her in a cage and she was eating hay. I could go home and see my regular vet and they wouldn't charge me. I said no I want an x-ray and I am glad I did. That is how they found the stone.

Now that I brought her home I am a nervous wreck. She is standing on her hind legs and I am like no get down you are going to hurt yourself. Every 30-45 minutes I am trying to feed her since she won't go to the food herself. She wants to be with her bunny mate and can't. She is licking her stitches which she is not suppose to do. Can anyone tell me some things they did to help their rabbit recovery after surgery? Things you experienced and what you did? Am I trying to hard? Should I just leave her alone?

Any stories of your experience I think my help calm my fears of trying to do everything. Or any advice you can give me to make this easier on her are greatly appreciated.

Thanks Amy

 

[Maureen Las]

I wouldn't worry about the food as much as fluids..if you have pedialyte you can offer her some in a bowl or else syringe it . it often takes a few days for bun to get appetite back after surgery. You could also offer fresh wet veggies (if she has had them before) or another food that she favors. don't worry about force feeding the lst night .

I think I can find a thread showing a collar that you can make that is soft to place around her neck so she will be less likely to lick her stitches.
Did the vet give you pain meds.? if not it is important that she get them if she appears at all uncomfortable so worth it to give him a call.

There is another thread that is active tonight that has a lot of uselful hints re. post surgical care. it re. a spay rather than a bladder stone.
http://www.rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=40692&forum_id=16
did the vet give you specific instructions re. watching for her to void urine / noting any blood etc.

make sure her cage is next to her mate/s . yes, I think that you are probably freaking out but you love her and haven't been through this before so that's normal.

I had a guinea pig who had a large bladder stone removed years ago and she did really well.

you want to keep her warm and comfy and pain free. take time to read the at least the last page of the thread on Evie's surgery (spay)

there is also a pic and instruction on how to make a soft collar for her if necesary

http://www.rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=37816&forum_id=16&highlight=soft-e+collar
Amy
try to calm down'I'm sure that she'll be fine

 

[Amy27]

Thanks angieluv,

I read Evie's post and it was very helpful. A lot of people offered some good advice. Thanks for posting the link to the other one with the collars. I had not seen that one. I have been able to get my rabbit to eat pretty well I think considering she just had surgery but so far I have not been able to get her to drink anything. I will have to try the pedialyte. I have given her veggies that have been wet so I guess she is getting some fluids from them. I also did get pain meds from my vet that seem to work because she is up and moving around. I am watching for her to go to the bathroom. She has gotten in her litter box several times but has not gone to the bathroom yet.

Thanks again for all your great advice. I really appreciate it.

 

[Maureen Las]

If she is already eating wet veggies that's great..a big step ; she wouldn't eat at all if she was in pain.

My rabbit Beau recently had dental surgery and had problems drinking..he absolutely loves pedialyteand oncehe tasted it it isn't too hard to get them to drink it..even if it is out of a syringe.
if you can get fluids in her it will be easier for her to pass urine.
You could also flavor water with a little juice and try that.

Keep us up-dated

 

[JadeIcing]

Glad you posted here.

 

[ra7751]

Hi,

At this point, I wouldn't worry too much about food. She has just endured a major invasive surgery. We have had rabbits go for days without eating post-op especially in our early days when we knew little about analgesic use in rabbits. If she is healthy otherwise, it's not usually a problem. Attempting to force feed her just adds to her discomfort. My suggestion is to leave her alone. A heating pad on lowest setting might make her feel a lot better.

Offer her a buffet of her favorite foods but don't stress her by force feeding. Dandelions are a favorite around here after surgery. If she doesn't start eating and drinking with 48 hours, I might would watch her overall hydration closely and be prepared to administer supplemental fluids if necessary....preferably sub-q. I would really want her to be on fluidsconsidering the problem she had....get that renal system up and clean that blood up. I don't start getting concerned about food until at least 72 hours and that rarely happens here. A side note....we have had rabbits in stasis and not eating for nearly 2 weeks at a time.

I trust she has appropriate pain meds. In the case of this type of invasive surgery, narcotics are the only way to go. Buprenorphine or Tramadol are excellent drugs for moderate to severe pain. These drugs can also be used concurrent with NSAIDs such as Metacam (NSAIDs should generally not be used for more than three days or with an animal that is dehydrated).

We have found the collars are far too stressful to include in this already stressful event. The pain meds should help with her licking the incision. We do not allow external sutures for this type of surgery but we always use laser for major surgeries.

Keep calm as she can sense your panic. I'm sure with your good care things will work out well.

Randy

 

[Amy27]

Thank you everyone for your responses. They really mean a lot to me. Chase is eating even better now on his own. I still don't think he has urinated or drank any water.A vet tech called today to check up on him and I let her know and she is going to ask the vet what I should do. She is still getting in her liter box and acting like she is trying to go.

The pain meds must be working really well because Chase has had enough of being in an enclosed area away from his bunny friend. He started at 2 am to try and get out of the enclose and 15 hours later is still trying. I am afraid he is going to hurt herself trying. She is trying to eat the metal bars go under or is standing up and trying to look over. I would let her out but she won't lay down. I tried puting blankets over her enclosure so she can't see anything and that has helped her trying to get out but she is still mad. I hate that she has to stay away from her regular home for 5 days. Do you think she could really be feeling this good or it is the pain meds? It is going to be a long 5 days. It just breaks my heart.

ra7751 she is on Metacam and an antibotic. She is suppose to be on the Metacam for 5 days every 12 hours. I agree with you that fluidsright now should be really important to get her body running normal. I don't even know how much she urinated before this. Shemight not have been drinking thenor really going. She was housed with another rabbit and I know there was always urine in their litter box and water gone out oftheir dish but now I question if any of it was from Chase.She does have metal external stitches.

The vet just called and said not to worry about her drinking they gave her fluids yesterday during surgery so she should still be hydrated and if she isn't going by tomorrow they may want to see her.

Again thanks to everyone who has responded.

 

[Maureen Las]

I hope that she pees tonight..I'm sure that you'll find it

I was just at the shelter.2 rabbits just came back there after a neuter this AM.

I couldn't tell if one of them had peed so I just stuck my hand in the clean litterbox and yes I found the wet spot..
so gross... but anything for our rabbits.

 

[Amy27]

You are right it is gross but i actually did the same thing last night. I didn't want to miss it if she did go and she sat there so long I thought she had to have gone. But all was dry. The things we do for our bunny's lol.