# Castration, collar wearing - nightmare! Alternatives?



## velveteen (Jul 17, 2011)

Hi all.

So it seems Winston, our problem child (8 month old neth. dwarf cross) is once again causing us emotional and financial anguish!

He has in the past had a problem with mushy cecotropes... anyhow, after flagyl, seemed to clear him up so booked him in for castration as we have been putting this off to get other problem sorted.

He had the op, no problems there. Sent home with pain relief, tramadol and also anti inflamm metacam to reduce swelling as he is a mature male.
Note, the vet specialises in rabbits.

So... that evening, he started licking at the wound. So much so, he would just NOT stop. We noticed it was oozing blood. So, we took him to an emergency vet. Our rabbit vet was not open. They said to simply watch him and stop him from licking until next morning to take to the rabbit savvy vet as the bleeding was not too heavy and they did not want to interfere.

So, we sat up all night, taking sleep shift and prevented him from licking until vet saw him today. They glued him back up, and gave us more tramadol and anti inflamms - told us to increase frequency of anti inflamms, to reduce swelling as he was very swollen. One was much larger than the other and the vet assumes that was the one he was licking the most.

They have put on a collar as he is just obsessed with going down to clean. Only option to allow us to get some sleep.

Problem is - his cecotropes have gone back mushy, i would say stress related. With collar this means a total mess. It is ALL over him. We give him a butt bath and then he just does another, and it is all over again. Trying to focus on keeping the wound clean. They did give us antiobiotics also.. to prevent it getting infected.

So, we have to administer anti inflamms every 4 hours until swelling goes down (meaning getting up in the night), pain relief every 6 hours and anti biotics twice a day! Not to mention his poopy butt.

We both have work tomorrow, and can't afford anymore money to put him in care. I am worried! He does not drink from a bottle, never has. He cant get to a crock with this cone, so I have been syringing water into his mouth. 

Has anyone had a similar experience, or know what we can use instead of the collar while we are at work so he can drink?
Someone mentioned a sock, or two around his neck to prevent him getting to the wound but still allowing him to eat and drink?

We are both emtionally and financially wrecked. Not to mention very tired! It is only day 2 and hoping this fixes itself ASAP!


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## massie777 (Jul 17, 2011)

I wouldn't do a sock because he might just chew at it or get it stuck in his mouth I think the e-collar is all you can do. They do make inflatable e-collars at the pet store but I am not sure how small they are. Also you can try getting a smaller crock for his water. so he can fit the e-collar over the bowl and then drink.

Also for the swelling you can do a cold compress which should reduce the swelling a lot. Hopefully it wont be too long maybe a week or 5 days before it is healing enough that he wont want to lick at it.


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## massie777 (Jul 17, 2011)

I wouldn't do a sock because he might just chew at it or get it stuck in his mouth I think the e-collar is all you can do. They do make inflatable e-collars at the pet store but I am not sure how small they are. Also you can try getting a smaller crock for his water. so he can fit the e-collar over the bowl and then drink.

Also for the swelling you can do a cold compress which should reduce the swelling a lot. Hopefully it wont be too long maybe a week or 5 days before it is healing enough that he wont want to lick at it.


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## Kipcha (Jul 17, 2011)

I feel your pain, I really do. When Peace was recovering from his abcess he was constantly attempting to tear his stitches out to get at the antibiotic beads that were inside. We spent over a month with my Mom and I on 24 hour watch and we had a ton of sleepless nights. To be honest, we could afford the treatment at all either (My dad is a substitute teacher and my Mom drives school bus so summer monthes are murder with us) but in the end, we ended shelling out $700 in vet bills, so I really understand.

Sadly, I know of nothing to really help with your problem (And we tried everything!) other then watching him if he's not able to eat. Hopefully your situation improves.


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## pla725 (Jul 17, 2011)

They do make soft collars.


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## velveteen (Jul 17, 2011)

Well, my sock collar has worked. He wore it all last night and managed not to get it off. He can eat and drink with it on, but cannot get down to the wound.

Problem I have now is just his cecotropes. As he cannot ingest them, and they are mushy, they are all over him. About to give him a butt bath now.. just difficult with the wound there.

My vet has told me I need to start feeding the cecotropes to him. Mixing them with warm water and using a syringe to feed them to him. I am not sure how much nutrients are in them though if they are the consistency that they are?


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## massie777 (Jul 21, 2011)

Those poops also might be more just because of the stress. I have one bunny that when he gets stressed out will have them all over his cage until his stress is over. So I am not sure if they are truly his cecotropes. usually rabbits even if they can't eat them right from the butt will eat them off the cage floor so he knows which ones are his cecotropes and which ones are not. 

I would just leave him be because syringe feeding them might make him more stressed out and more loss stool.


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## velveteen (Jul 21, 2011)

They are cecotropes. He cannot eat them off the cage floor as the collar prevents him from doing this.

He is doing much better, the cone should be able to come off in a few days. He is eating plenty of hay and when I take off his cone at night when I can supervise him, he eats plenty of fresh veg.

His cecotropes are now back to normal, I can see remnants of the grape like appearance although they just end up flat on the floor after he stomps on them!
At least now they are better consistency they are not sticking to his butt and ending up all over him like they were before - which like you say, would have been probably caused by a combination of stress and medications.


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## ellee4213 (Aug 30, 2013)

Hi, I'm having a similar experience with Ashen and he keeps ripping apart his e collars. What did you end up doing? It's been a week-long nightmare! Please help!! Thanks, Ellee and Ashey


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## RabbitGirl101 (Aug 30, 2013)

I know with our rabbits when they are stressed they produce more cecotropes than normal, usually you can just pick them off the fur, giving a butt bath is a lot of stress added to the situation, try clipping some of the fur especially around the evacuation spot. That should help a lot. I'm glad he is starting to improve again!


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## JBun (Aug 30, 2013)

ellee4213 said:


> Hi, I'm having a similar experience with Ashen and he keeps ripping apart his e collars. What did you end up doing? It's been a week-long nightmare! Please help!! Thanks, Ellee and Ashey


 
There are a few other alternatives to the stiff e collars. There are soft ones, donut shaped collars, and wrapping vet wrap around the incision site. All of these options also still allow the rabbit to get to its cecotropes to eat them.

http://www.rabbitsonline.net/f27/sophie-spayed-pulling-her-stitches-out-32808/
http://www.rabbitsonline.net/f18/arizona-lion-giants-blog-72663/index2.html
http://www.rabbitsonline.net/f18/monty-my-big-baby-bunny-2012-a-68956/index25.html


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