# Sophie was spayed and is pulling her stitches out



## NZminilops (Jul 22, 2008)

Sophie was spayed on Monday, and when she came home, she yanked all of the stiches out. She has a layer of stitches holding the incision in her stomach, and another holding the incision in her skin.

Anyway she yanked all the skin layer out and started to try and knaw on her stomach muscles, it was a revolting mess . I took her back and they cleaned her up and restitched her, using more stitches and a smaller thread.

This morning (two days later) she is again yanking at her stitches and pulling them out. I've got a plastic thing to stick over her head to stop her doing this, but she's so small and it's so big, she cant sit down or eat or drink with it on and gets depressed.

The vet gave me this bitter paste to put on the area to prevent her wanting to touch it with her mouth, but instead it's made it worse and she's now licking it off so furiously that the entire area around the wound is getting red and looks like a rash is forming.

Any ideas? Help! Do I just leave the plastic lampshade thingy on (I forget what it's called) and hope that she doesn't quit wanting to eat and drink? :?


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## Haley (Jul 22, 2008)

Do you have anything that would fashion as a Tshirt? Like a pet shirt or something off a stuffed animal? Or is she small enough that you could cut a sleeve off one of your shirts and put it around her midsection?

Something soft andform fitting(but of course not too tight) over her midsection would be better than the e-collar Im sure.


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## ra7751 (Jul 22, 2008)

Hi,

I think the "lampshade thingy" (I like the term) you are referring to is an Elizabethan Collar....an "e-collar". Most rabbits find them very uncomfortable. It usually leads to a very stressed out rabbit. Ask your vet if he/she is familiar with tissue glue. We have only had one rabbit have external sutures and it was for a minor surgical (skin issue) procedure and only required a single suture. All of our spays use internal self dissolving sutures and a final close with surgical glue. Is your rabbit on any pain meds? I would suggest it. And since she seems to be very stressed if she is doing all that chewing....something must be very uncomfortable. We have never had that with any of our spays. Something else to consider.....lightly sedate her with valium (under a skilled vet's advice) to take the edge off. If I were in your position, I would be having a very pointed conversation with my vet regardingsome investigation into why we are having these concerns.

This thread allows me to expand on the surgical protocols used in various surgeries....in this case, a spay. There is much debate in the veterinary community about the benefit to cost ratio of using laser surgeries. We have probably been thru as many, if not more, spays than most anyone. In my non-professional opinion.....laser is by far the best way to go. The recovery time is much quicker. The incision is much more precise and the laser controls the bleeding. All of our spays are laser since we fully believe the added cost is well worth the benefits provided. Most of our spays are eating within hours after recovery and we have to restrict their movement for a few days. We have never had any problems with the laser surgery and have had no post-op issues with any spay incisions.

Randy


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## Maureen Las (Jul 22, 2008)

Hi 

How is she doing?

Actually I was suprised to read this post. We have vets at the clinic that do spay /neuters and the oldest vet still uses stitches instead of glue. 
All the times I have been warned that the rabbit may chew the stitches they never do.

I agree with Randy that she may be very uncomforable. Did she get pain meds ? If you have not yet been able to talk to your vet or return there I agree with Haley 's suggestion to wrap her in something that would make it difficult for her to get to the stitches. it sounds like the e-collar is too big for her anyway.

Please let us know how she's doing because there is no doubt this is stressful for both of you. Hopefully your vet will be able to give you something to calm her down a little and also reduce the discomfort.


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## Djakarta (Jul 22, 2008)

I fostered abunny who had swelling after his neutering. The vet was worried that he would chew at the swollen areas and fitted him with a collar.

The collar was basically a tube of cotton wrapped in vet wrap and secured at the ends with surgical tape. The collar allowed him to eat and drink, but he couldn't tuck his chin down to chew at himself. The tube was just slightly over an inch in diameter.







Could you make something like this instead of the E collar?


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## Maureen Las (Jul 23, 2008)

Wow!

Thanks for sending that pic.

great thinking to make a custom fit collar. 

Morepeople need to think in specifics like that rather than handing out e-collars

I'm going to tuck that idea away for myself for the future..hopefully NZminilops can do something similar 
and that bun is cute in it :hearts


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## NZminilops (Jul 23, 2008)

I only have a few minutes so firstly, thanks for all the replies.

All of my male rabbits have always had issues with chewing their stitches, but this is the first female bun I've had with a big issue. My cat, when she was spayed, also yanked her stitches out.

Sophie is doing alright, a friend told me to try a sock around her middle (she is very a very small rabbit) and I washed one several times over in plain hot water and dried it, so it didn't have any irritation washing powder smells on it. Where her insicion is, it some gauze so the sock doesn't touch it. It's stopping her from biting at herself.

Yep she had pain relief, a long term injection and I am sorry but I do not recall the name. She also has some paste that he took from a large tube and put into a smaller one for me, it's a non steroidal anti-inflamtory, but that's not to be used longterm due to side effects. Whatever she was given for pain the day of the operation was some sort of slow release narcotic.

She seems happy and active right now, and is eating and toileting.


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## 12354somebunny (Jul 23, 2008)

Hi NZminilops! Glad to hear Sophie's better already! Buttons' tummy was wrapped with a layer of surgical bandage after her spay to prevent her from chewing her stitches... sounds like what you're doing with the sock  it worked for me (or rather, it worked for Buttons!)

Djakarta, that's a great idea, thanks for sharing! Will keep that in mind when I send Hans for his neuter in the future!


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## Bunnicula (Jul 23, 2008)

E-collars definitely don't work with bunnies. At least it didn't with Emmaline. She is very crafty and had hers off in no time (but the vet at the emerg center had insisted she wear it).

Our vet has been known to use "wire" sutures. Since Emmaline is such a fuss-bucket and will chew at anything. It sounded barbaric to me at first, but whatever they were made of, she was not able to mess with them and there was absolutely no irritation from them.


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## purplepeacock (Jul 23, 2008)

wow i didn't even think about rabbits chewing their stitches. i've been calling bunny vets for the past couple of weeks to get info on spaying although liffy can't get spayed until october but i wanted to get all the info now. that's something i'll have to ask if they use glue or stitches. when worked in the wound care center we used a glue called derma-bond for all our apligrafts.....i'll have to see if any of the vets use something similiar.

thanks for the great post......i definately need to check this out with my vet before putting liffy under the knife.


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## MissBinky (Jul 23, 2008)

Like Michelle is doing, a sock is a good solution. It keeps them from getting to the stitches (just check that she doesn't eat the sock) and also allows them to groom themselves and eat their cecals. I've used it on rabbits and my cat with success and I find it much less irritating for them.


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## Luvmyzoocrew (Jul 23, 2008)

glad to hear that she is doing well now, when i had Belle spayed she did the samething the day after i p icked her up, she was such a booger. So when i took her back and they restitched her they gave me a cone, which on a dutch who is small this thi ng was too big, but they didnt have lizard size cones so i modified it by cutting it so that she could get to her bowls and eat. This was of course after trying her with a newborn onsie on her, boy did she hate me,lol!!!!!!!!!! But with baby clothes and the cone she was able to heal,lol


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## Maureen Las (Jul 23, 2008)

like Randy said laser surgery is way less invasive and the rabbit heals much faster...also internal dissolving stitches and glue works a lot better than stitches 

if they do it here they must do it everywhere because this isn't the 'cutting edge' center for vet care for rabbits LOL

Always good to ask questions

Maureen


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## AngelnSnuffy (Jul 24, 2008)

How is Sophie doing? Did you try the sock? Did that help? Keep us posted.


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