teeth

Hi all

We have arranged to take on a rabbit from a lady i know to try and bond with our rabbit and this has been planned for a while and we are set up and waiting for them to bring the rabbit. They phoned tonight and can bring him tomorrow but we have just found out his teeth grow at an abnormal rate and we are worried about cost implications so i hoped to get some advise here. They say they have it done at both the local pet shop and the vets and it only costs £3 but has to be done every 3 weeks. £3 is OK but i can't see how a vet would only charge £3 as you would need a consultation so maybe they are very lucky - or is this the usual price? Our own rabbit has some spikes shaved off her teeth when she was spayed and it cost and extra 20 pounds. I can't afford to pay that sort of money out every 3 weeks. It would be good to know other peoples experiences or where they have their teeth clipped and how much it costs.

The other thing is that it is going to be inconvenient to take the rabbit to the vets as every 3 weeks as I don't drive and it would cost me £15+ in taxi fares which i can't do, so my husband will have to organise it around work. He does relief shift work though, so doesn't know his shifts much in advance. Also he is is about to start a Uni work placment so will be working 7 days a week most weeks now and as accomodating as he has been since us getting rabbits, i feel so bad putting this on him the day before we are taking the rabbit.

I was thinking that if it is OK to have a pet shop do the teeth as they suggested (?) and they don't need an appointment in advance, that would be much better for us. I wouldn't trust a local pet shop, but i wondered about pets at home. We go there every couple of weeks so we could take her there whilst shopping which would make life so much easier than having to try and organise vet appointments so regularly. Does anyone know if this is something they offer or how it works? We want to try and find a way to make this work. I hope i don't sound like I care more about the cost and inconvenience that the rabbit, i am just trying to be honest about concerns as we were not expecting extra care needs and i am a busy mum and money is tight.

I had a quick look at past posts here and i could see that some people don't agree with clipping and suggest something else with a drill??? Again, we can't afford anything that is going to cost much more so we unfortunately couldn't keep the bun if this is the case which would be pretty devastating and we also couldn't afford to have the rabbits teeth removed if this was suggested instead and i am guessing it will be harder for this rabbit to find a new home if we don't keep him and if the orginal owners can't take him back (they had said they would as we discussed this previously in case the 2 rabbits didn't bond well).

Also, we are not in a position to look for a 'bun savvy vet' as people here suggest. We have found a vet who is OK (and there are only 2 we know about in the city anyway) but probably not as great as some of the rabbit savvy vets you hear about here and i can't travel many miles to find another one and i have not even had any luck finding a recommended one anyway although i did try. Obviously i don't know what our own vet will suggest anyway as i am only going on what this families vet advise them.

Ok, hope to get some advise
Lynsey

Sorry to hear your bunny has dental problems - mine too! :wave:

I would advise burring by a vet rather than clipping as this can cause the tooth to shatter which can cause abcesses which will cost far more than teeth burring!

This cost me £8.75 every 3 months.

Eventually they were causing him so much pain (had led to molar problems) that the vet recommended having his incisors removed which cost around £200.

I do hope you can find a way where you can kep your bunny and get him properly treated.

Thanks

I have just looked at our vets website and it says they wont clip teeth and they use dental burrs and it explains why clipping isn't OK. So it looks like whatever the owners normally do with their rabbit, our vets will do it differently and it cant be done at a pet shop either. Might be better in some ways but maybe the rabbit wont tolerate it another way and will be more stressed on top of moving home.

sigh. Just a bit unexpected and I feel a bit caught off guard as the rabbit is coming tomorrow and we didn't know about this until now. Will have to chat to hubby when he gets home because he is worried about the extra costs and managing the appointments too. One of the pair we adopted a few months ago died a few weeks back and i don't want to put our family through more stress and heartache plus we are still recovering financially!

I wonder if this rabbit will only need to be seen every 3 months for burring instead of clipping then? That would be more manageable. If they are causing problems, i wonder if the vet will suggest taking them out like your bunny. We simply can't afford that though and would feel so guilty. Will also feel guilty if we don't take the rabbit now.:?

also, how would this teeth problem affect insurance. Obviously they aren't going to pay for teeth problems when we insure him, but will it bump up the monthly cost of insurance because he has problems?

thanks
Lynsey

I'm not sure about that - I don't think they will cover teeth but they shouldn;t charge more monthly and if they do it shouldn't be much!

I had a bun whoes teeth got wonkey due to him escaping through the cat flap and fighting and the vet showed me how to cut his teeth with dog nail clippers,which i was very worried about but after a while it became second nature and his teeth didnt splinter when I trimmed them and It was easy to do

Thanks

I guess we will have to take the bunnie tomorrow and get him to the vets for an assessment next week and then decide what to do before we get too attached. If it is more than we feel can take on right now, we will see what the previous owners want to do and if they can still take him back and care for him.

If they can't, will all rabbit rescue places take on and care for rabbits with dental problems? Our most local rescue place is RSPCA. But you hear rummors or RSPCA putting animals down if they are not healthy. Might this happen? Or there is the rescue place where we got our original 2 from, but then one of them had undiagnosed dental problems and developed GI statis (and died after his dental operation).

Sigh
Lynsey

Where do you live?

Derby.

Rabbit may be fine for us too keep, but just want to be prepared after hearing he has problems and not knowing the full story yet.

Lynsey

Lynseypvic said:

Derby.

Rabbit may be fine for us too keep, but just want to be prepared after hearing he has problems and not knowing the full story yet.

Lynsey

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I hope hes Ok and wishing you luck

Is it the incisors or his molars?
Squidgy has had his incisors removed and is absolutely fine.
If it's molars, it could just be that his diet isn't great and he needs to eat more hay. We ahve two bunnies with potential molar problems, but they eat bucketloads of hay and haven't needed their teeth doing for at least 2 years.

I don't know but will ask them everything they know tomorrow. Hope its not potentially a big problem. It sounds more than just a diet thing though if they get his teeth clipped every 3 weeks.
Lynsey

I doubt it will be resolved by an improved diet...sounds more like malocclusion due to bad breeding, poor nutrition in early life, or possibly an old injury

Clipping may be possible if the quality of the teeth is okay, but often dental bunnies have weak teeth and poor quality tooth enamel, so the teeth may be prone to shattering.

I have quite a few dental buns, and they time period between dental varies tremendously...anything from 2 weeks to 6 months.

Perhaps give it a go and see how you cope?

Thanks

We will definitely have him for a couple of days and get a vet check and see what the situation is and what the vet suggests about treatment and if there are any other problems. I know that when this lady rescued him, he had been neglected but my friend said she had nursed him back to health months ago.

If it was the rabbit we already have, we would pay out anything we could even if getting in debt! But it would be wrong to knowingly go into that situation although we have already got involved now. But we definitely want to make sure the rabbit is cared for either way.

Poor rabbits. I guess a lot of these problems could be wiped out if it wasn't for anyone breeding any rabbit.
best wishes
Lynsey

Hi

The little boy came today and the rabbits seem to have instantly bonded. Our Lavender is extremely happy and can't stop grooming him! He was playful and affectionate with us when he arrived (he is lovely) and even kept running in the house to find the children. Soon, we were able to put both rabbits on the patio which is Lavenders main territory. She chased him a bit, he let her, she relaxed and that was it. The next thing they are both in the run attached to her hutch!

The only thing is that he did seem a bit worn out after she chased him for a couple of minutes. We know he has dental problems and i don't know how much this is affecting his health. I am fairly sure he hasn't touched any food since he got here and he has flinched when we tried to offer him some food. i wonder if he is in discomfort. They said his tooth fell out a week or so again when they last had his tooth clipped.

He is not underweight but eats lots of treats, so i am worried he will not eat enough this evening and overnight. They say he east loads, but he has not touched any hay or greens. They were surprised at Lavenders normal amount of poo in her litter and said he never does that much poo. So i want to get him eating lots of hay for his gut and teeth.

He is used to getting a huge amount of pellets in a bowl in the evening which last him until the next day, but we can't put a bowl of pellets in with him now as Lavender would eat it all and she only gets an egg cup full a day. So i think we will bring him out on his own in a while and try and get him eating as i am worried he wont and i don't know if he has pooed since coming here. Our rabbit who died did not eat hay and died after he stopped eating and pooing suddenly and we found out he had undiagnosed dental problems. So we are cautious.

Anyway, we want to get our vet to check his teeth out and i am nervous about the costs. As i said before, we did not know he had dental problems and we don't have any cash put aside to deal with an expensive operation if he needs one and it sounds like he needs an alternative to clipping asap. Hopefully the vet can do something without a GA for the time being. he is used to co-operating with tooth clippings apparently.

If we can't get him eating hay, can anyone suggest what would be best to get him grazing in the evenings - obviously we don't want to let him loose on the lawn area when dark. Should we give him extra veg and pellets and seperate him for a short while at food time? so our girl doesn't eat it all as we have got her on a good hay diet now.

My husband is going to drive over to his work as he says there is an apple tree there and get some branches to see if that will get both rabbits gnawing wood! Our lavender has spikes on her teeth recently too but we hav not got her to gnaw wood or toys yet but i hear apple tree branches are inticing!
many thanks for listening
Lynsey

Good news about them bonding so easily, I bet you're chuffed

Lynseypvic said:

They said his tooth fell out a week or so again when they last had his tooth clipped.

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The teeth sometimes fall out or break off at gum level because of infection in the root causes the teeth to become weak. A vet check is definitely needed, so any problems can be sorted before drastic action is needed.

Hi my baby bunny has problems with her teeth. I take her to the vets every 6 weeks to have her teeth burred. I would not have her teeth clipped as this can damage the enamel on the teeth and they can crack. My vet charges 11.26 but if you have pet insurance and it's a cover for life then you may be able after paying the first few times ( excess) not have to pay.

marvy said:

Hi my baby bunny has problems with her teeth. I take her to the vets every 6 weeks to have her teeth burred. I would not have her teeth clipped as this can damage the enamel on the teeth and they can crack. My vet charges 11.26 but if you have pet insurance and it's a cover for life then you may be able after paying the first few times ( excess) not have to pay.

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If it's a known problem when you take out the insurance they won't provide cover for any dental treatment sadly.

Hi all

He went to the vet first thing with the rabbit we have taken in and she said his teeth are in a bad way. The back teeth are all overgrown and crossed over and the front teeth have been clipped much too short. She said this is definitely why he was not eating on his own and he must have not been eating for some time. The teeth are digging in and she said they would be digging in his tongue when he tries to chew. They can't book him in before wednesday, so she said to continue making him take wet pellets.

The will do a more thorough check when he is under GA wednesday, but they have given us a quote of about £60. Luckily we can manage this but i hope that will be it for a couple of weeks at least. Then it will be a case of seeing how they grow back and how often he needs further treatment and if he can have a normal life eating food.

We have had to really push the food on him but he has really perked up the last couple of hours. He is acting normally now and running and jumping and playing with our rabbit and he has learnt to get up and down the ramp and is now exploring the hutch and run properly and sitting in the litter trays. He has been grazing a bit at the grass. the possibility is that he isn't actually managing any though as when we have tried to feed grass, it ends up falling back out. He has even been moving hay about in the hutch and trays. So it looks like if we can get his teeth sorted, he will want to eat by himself again.

The only thing is he has been sniffing around our girl rabbit (both are neutered) and she did get a bit fed up and they had a little 20 second tiff. This happened just after he had been in the hutch/run by himself and been in the litter trays for the first time which he ignored yesterday. They were fine again after. They bonded instantly yesterday but i hope his increase in wellbeing wont affect his temperament and mean he will try and dominate her more. She has been the dominate one so far but in a very gentle way. They are all loved up again now so i think they will be fine even if they have to tussle it out if he pesters her.

I really hope he will be OK. He seems like arabbit who will perk up again after a problem, so hopefully he will be OK living with these dental problems and i hope the expense wont be too much.
bws
Lynsey

I really hope that his teeth can be sorted out.Your really lovely taking him on.Please let us know how he gets on Wednesday