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Teeth Extraction

Witchy

Warren Scout
Little Opal has had her two front teeth removed, top and bottom and came home last night to recover.

The vets have given us a bottle of pain killer liquid which we have to give 1mm twice a day - any suggestions as to the best way of doing this? I'd rather give it to her on a bit of food, rather than pick her up and put the syringe in her mouth but as she is with here sister Gem, Gem is more likely to take the treated food.

Opal isn't showing much interest in food at the moment but I will persist in trying her with different foods; thus far I've tried wet elite pellets and dandylion leaves. There is a bit of hay mixed in the litter tray and this has been ignored too.

She is a lot more alert that she was when she came home last night - she was just tired last night after a long day being on guard.

Any experiences/advice gratefully received. :wave:
 
I would suggest that you cut up the dandelion leaves, feed freshly pulled grass. offer grated carrot, apple, finely cut greens, hay will need to be cut into small 2" pieces until the mouth is less sore.

What dry food are you feeding? I would offer both wet and dry pellets. Some rabbits prefer dry pellets instead of wet, it depends on how sore the mouth is and whether they find picking bits up easily.

What are elite pellets like? Are they small or fairly large?
 
With the Elite pellets, there is a bowl of normal dry in there and then a small bowl with enough to cover the bottom and then watered so they are wet.

The pellets are probably the size of the end of a standard pencil....if not a little smaller actually
 
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I've found the best thing to get a incisorless bunny eating is pellets mushed with warm water and apple & blackcurrant babyfood.

I would give the Metacam directly into the mouth.....its a very unpleasent procedure Opal has had done so you need to ensure she has sufficient pain relief.

Have you been cutting the hay up for her?

Has she been given antibiotics as well?
 
Can I ask, how long has Opal had tooth problems for?

Rabbits who end up having their front teeth removed usually cope very well, for them having had repeated burring of their front teeth over a period of time results in them being able to adapt fairly well once these are removed.
 
I've not had her long and wasn't aware of a tooth problem to be honest - I then notice her eating hay strangely and drinking from the water bottle from the side of her mouth.

I took her to the vet and he suggested straight away that they be removed. He offered cutting and burring them but said I was likely just to have to keep coming back.

I'll cut up some food today (going home in 45mins HURRAH) and see how she goes.

I'm going to attempt to pick her up and get hubby to syringe the painkiller into her mouth directly - I'm just affraid of hurting her poor gums, its stressing me out so it must be her :(
 
It's really bizarre as Opal is one of my rescues and my vet always checks teeth under the GA whilst being neutered and she found everything to be ok otherwise she would have done what was necessary whilst she was under. It was October last year when she was neutered so whether something as happened since, I am at a loss.
Give her a big snuggle from me:D
 
the pain killer is usually metacam, which should be ONCE a day. I never heard of metacam given twice daily. If metacam is overdose, it can cause serious damage on the liver and kidney. I would check to see if it is really twice a day

The amt. of dosage on metacam, assuming you're using 1.5 mg (dog dosage), then the formula for the amt. per day is:

dosage=wt. in Kg x 0.1 / 1.5

It must be given by syringe, as it is important for the bun to swallow the entire amt. If the painkiller is not enough, your bun will stop eating. Noone gives metacam as liquid on the bunny's food. AS you have no way of knowing that:

i) your bun will eat that entire portion of the food
ii) that your bun didn't dropl away some food on the floor
 
It's really bizarre as Opal is one of my rescues and my vet always checks teeth under the GA whilst being neutered and she found everything to be ok otherwise she would have done what was necessary whilst she was under. It was October last year when she was neutered so whether something as happened since, I am at a loss.
Give her a big snuggle from me:D


Aww don't worry Kay i'm sure Witchy knows it's not your fault
Teeth probs can develop at any time and quite suddenly.

Witchy did you see how bad her teeth looked as usually a vet will try burring first to see if they right themselves..removal is normally done when the teeth are obviously growing at strange angles:?
 
Just had the 6 front teeth removed last week from a 4 month old male whose mandibular incisors on the jaw were infront of the maxillary incisors(also neutered at the same time).

He was eating almost straight away and in the last week has put on weight!

One thing though... we found he had trouble drinking from a bottle so had to provide a dish. Other than that he now eats as quick as his mate.
 
removal is normally done when the teeth are obviously growing at strange angles:?

Christabel normally will burr first and then see if they will grow back at the correct angle, it seems pretty drastic to remove them without burring first. I could understand removal if measure had been tried to see if this would settle first.

If you syringe from the side of her mouth, you will miss the area where she is sore.
 
I wouldm 2nd fruit baby food mixed wiht mushed pellets to get her to eat.

Also to be cheeky..which vets do you use? and would you recommend them?
Several people over your way ask about vets:D
 
the pain killer is usually metacam, which should be ONCE a day. I never heard of metacam given twice daily. If metacam is overdose, it can cause serious damage on the liver and kidney. I would check to see if it is really twice a day

I've given Metacam twice daily on several occasions. Its quite possible for the maximum dose to be divided into two smaller sittings and to be given at intervals or as needed.

Different rabbits respond to pain in different ways, with some being much more tolerant than others.

The doseage of Metacam is also not a 'one size fits all'.....different procedures warrant differing levels of painrelief. Tooth removal is a major procedure and very painful. A broken limb on the other hand requires just the edge taking off the pain else the rabbit will attempt to overuse the limb.
 
I noticed her teeth only because she was trying to drink. The bottle is on the front of the run so she was directly in front of me. The lower pair of teeth seemed to be growing leftward if you understand. There is definately no way they were level with the top pair.

Warning: I'm going to get a really gross pic and put it on here of the teeth.......:shock:

She has a bowl of water in there too, as well as some grated carrot now - which Gem is trying to tip all over the floor!! She's a little ****** that one!!
 
The stuff I've got to give her is baytril - anybody know what that is. Sorry, sound really i'l-informed but hubby picked her up last night and none of the info went in that the vet said other than to keep her indoors and warm for a few days and give her this baytril.....

Will have to wait for gory pic, having trouble with bluetoothing to my lappy!

Gettin' a bit stressed about this to be honest, she's a petrified little bun and I really don't want to upset her any more than she is :cry:
 
Does she only have the baytril then? thats an antibiotic,did they give you any metacam to give her? if not that explains why she isnt eating
When Alfie had his front teeth removed he was eating that evening that he came home after syringe feeding him some baby food
 
She's not interested in food at all - just managed to syringe some into the side of her mouth so that's the first lot she's had.....
 
it takes a couple of days before they start to eat proberly. have had 2 that had their front teeth out. but as soon as they get use to eating small portions they will be fine. place a bowl of water in the hutch, mine loved it as was soothing on their mouths. they had baytril too.
 
Hi Witchy:
Can I check that you have been given some painkiller as well as the Baytril?

She will definitely need painkiller after that op as the gums will be very sore.

Eating: once she has started to show an interest again (ie once she is no longer in pain, and you have syringed enough water/mush food into her to get her feeling ok) then try grating things at first, and soaking any pellets.

I am a bit concerned that the teeth were taken out without trying burring. It seems rather drastic unless they were very bad (I have had a rabbit who had had this done by a vet locally whilst she was waiting to be homed before I had her - NOT my vet) and I was suspicious as to whether it had been totally necessary.

If you do have any doubts about the vets I can give you the name of a fantastic vet in Cambridge
 
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