[ledzepgirl16]

Hey everyone. Matoska's spay went perfectly, and I learned some neat info from my vet like:

~within about 60 seconds of having their anaestesia mask removed, they open their eyes and roll over
~within about 3 minutes, they are able to walk around

I was amazed! Like I said in my earlier post, I've never had a rat spayed, so I was totally unaware of what to expect. My vet was right, they really are amazing little animals.

When I went to pick her up, about an hour after her op., I was stunned to see her walking around nonchalantly in her cage. She was a little wobbly from her pain meds, but otherwise fine. She even stood up and showed off her tummy, which had a pink mark from the incision. It really just looked like a scratch, not nearly as bad as I thought it would.

The vet used dissolvable sutures internally and tissue glue for the outside incision, which she said would slough off on its own within 5-7 days.

So my question is, how long after the surgery can she be introduced to males? Obviously I'm waiting until she's healed (which should only take about a week -again, amazed! :wink: -), but is it "safe" then? I know you are supposed to wait about a month after surgery to intro a neutered male to a female, but I can't seem to find anything about spayed females with males...

Anybody know about this one?

Thanks!

 

[CaptainFlow]

Her babymaker is gone, so as far as I know, she's "safe" as soon as she is all healed up! With the boys you have to wait because they can store up their portion for about three weeks after the surgery.

 

[amybunny]

CaptainFlow is correct. Give her incision time to heal and close up, so it doesn't get ripped open again if there is a big fight with intro's.

I am glad her spay went well! It is odd seeing our babies walk funny after a speuter. I had my two boys neutered. I now have two more boys to neutered in another 2 months.

 

[lilspaz68]

She has no more uterus so she is very safe to intro to males. Just watch the incision, it should be less than a week if your vet did as nice a job as it sounds like

With the anesthesia, they have to keep them on the mask because it keeps them lightly under. As soon as they stop our rats start to wake up. Ohhh here's another neat little learning thing. A lot of rats will go under with their eyes open...its disconcerting...hehe.

 

[amybunny]

A lot of rats will go under with their eyes open...its disconcerting...hehe.

Same with bunnies, so they have to put this "goopy stuff" on their eyes to keep them from drying out .

 

[ledzepgirl16]

Thanks for the advice, everyone. Just couldn't seem to find any info about this, so I was glad you could help me out.

Spaz, that would be eerie to perform surgery on a rat with its eyes open! :wink: LoL, you learn something new every day...

Yes, I think she will heal nicely, she is already back with her female cage mate today, and is healing so fast I'm totally amazed. She's totally back to her old self.

So I guess if all goes well, she'll get to meet my boys on Friday.