No Cones/Collars

Bunnies do NOT need collars or cones after spay/neuter surgery.

Most animals do, but rabbits do not. It restricts their access to cecotropes, can stress them to the point of stasis, and causes more harm than good.

We’ve been seeing a lot of people purchase Elizabethan collars or cones off of Amazon and Temu for their rabbits to wear post sterilization.

People don’t realize that exotic vets typically use glue or dissolvable stitches under the skin, so they’re not accessible for rabbits to tear out.

If your vet uses staples or external sutures that need to be removed at a later date, we would recommend looking into another vet. And if they don’t give you a cone or collar afterwards, don’t go buy your own. It’s risky and unnecessary.

Out of over 900 rabbits, we’ve not had a single issue with a bunny chewing open their own incision.

If you have bunnies repeatedly opening their sutures post-op, it’s likely they weren’t given an appropriate amount of pain meds, so that must be addressed immediately and some vets will advise a medical best. We don’t even see this happen .001% of the time though, so it’s very uncommon.

With the amount of store bought collars and cones we’re seeing, we figured it was time to make a little PSA on it. They’re not necessary. They’re more harm than good. They’re not something a reputable exotic veterinarian would advise.

We encourage you to share this with your local rabbit groups and rabbit friends! This is very important and something we need your help reminding people about.

(This is not an opinion, this message is fact checked and vet approved)