rabbit dental

My rabbit was miserable and off his rabbit food, but still eating hay and veg. Took him to the vets last week who couldn’t find anything wrong with him till she checked his teeth – his front were fine, however on of the back was a bit longer and she described as a ‘spur’. She said it hadn’t ulcerated/ cut into him but didn’t want to put him under an aesthetic as he may not recover if he wasn’t eating properly. She gave him a painkiller and advised to syringe feed him liquid feed and give him pineapple juice as an appetite stimulant. She never actually said to book him in for a dental but wanted me to bring him in the next morning if he went down hill or stopped eating.

He picked up after that and I got him eating back to normal by feeding him loads of veg, hay and herbs etc. Tried with the syringe feeding and did not get on very well – he kept flinching. I’d managed to get him eating regularly though so wasn’t too concerned. He now seems pretty much back to normal, still not eating as much rabbit food – which is probably a good thing (more veg/hay etc), but more than he was when he was miserable, however I have a feeling he has gone off his usual brand of Science Selective, as I gave him a bit of another he had left over and he ate that. He seems a lot brighter now. I phoned the vets late last week and asked the receptionist if he need to have this tooth burred and she said yes. He is booked in for Friday but now I am wondering if he will definitely need to have it done:
a) he wasn’t the best after his neuter op and it was a nightmare trying to get him to eat.
b) its gonna cost around £100 – while I’m happy to pay if strictly necessary, can anyone one advise if kept on a good diet that tooth would grind down?

I’ve phoned the vets and asked if they can check his tooth to see if it is necessary before they put him under. They said yes but then said I have to book a vets appointment that morning – I’m not sure if they are trying to make more money out of it. Surely the vet would doing the dental – I can’t understand why they couldn’t just check then.

Please don’t get me wrong about the money – if it needs doing I’m happy to pay, I just don’t wait to put him (and me) through the stress and waste cash if its not necessary – it was only the receptionist / nurse that said when I phone the vets to book him in. And now he seems bright and back to normal.

I would definately get him booked in for a dental. The tooth wont grind down naturally from his diet You'll probably find the tooth is causing him to not eat his pellets, the pellets are hard so he will be finding it difficult to eat them

If he doesnt have the dental eventually the tooth will cause ulceration and he will be extremely poorly Also the operation would probably end up being more expensive if you leave it longer as they'll have more work to do unfortunately dentals are quite pricey

How old is he? What breed is he? xXx

Leesa, my vet does conscious dentals and is in Childer thornton. PM me if you want his details.

Hi Leesa,

I have actually heard of the occasional 'spur' being broken off by rabbits themselves and I used to try and encourage this when I went through dentals and the 'dreaded' spurs with my own bunnies. There was supposedly a brand of mix ( a kaytee one, I think) that helped with this. Sadly, never worked with my two dental bunnies, but I have heard others say different.

If it was only one small spur or slightly overgrown tooth that was seen and you now think your bunny is eating more or less back to normal, if it was me, I would wait a bit longer (but watch his eating habits closely) before putting him through a dental, especially if this was a first time. I used to take my two molar spur bunnies for dentals when it became obvious they were getting pickier with food, but could tell that spurs were bothering them more from the way they were chewing.

Also, know that 'burring' does come with risks, my own rabbits suffered damage to the gums, cheeks and tongue that sadly resulted from the burring itself. If this were my bunny who did have a single molar spur, I would get it clipped off if it was causing a problem, if it was simply a slightly elongated crown, I would have thought this might have a chance to correct itself through diet.

Only you can know your bunnys eating habits and know from observation how well he is eating, so, from my experience with dental bunnies, I would not put them through a dental unless I was sure they had a problem. Even, when they stopped eating completely from molar spurs (and had eaten normally up till day before becoming apparent) they never actually suffered from any laceration from spurs themselves, so, I would have thought from what you've said, you could afford to watch and wait a bit longer, you do usually get some signs indicating they are forming.

If dental is needed however and you can get a conscious dental, sounds like that may be better option for you, but I do sometimes think it depends on the bunny too and what they can cope with, some vets will give a musle relaxant too I think instead of a GA, but again, for me, if just dealing with one spur, I would have it clipped off rather than burring.

Hope that helps in some way and hope your bun continues to eat well and maybe won't need the dental after all.

Sue

Unfortunately I didn't get to read your replies til now. The vet this morning said if it wasn't done now it would need doing in the future, so I figured that since it will be quicker and he is healthly at the moment so he has a better chance to recover. He is in for his dental at the moment, I have to phone at 2pm so my fingers are crossed. I don't think he would be able to have a consicous dental - he flinches too much and trying to chew the light when they look at his teeth. I'm a bit worried about the burring now - but too late anyway. Hopefully things will go ok.

I think you've done the right thing, especially as he had a problem being off his food recently which I'd say is almost undoubtedly related. My preference is burring over clipping - yes there are risks but they are small, and I think clipping is more dangerous - it can shatter the tooth down through the root and cause a lot of ongoing pain and problems. If one has got to the stage where it isn't going to wear down on its own and has possibly caused an eating problem like yours has, I also think you're better off doing it sooner rather than waiting.

For one thing, the smoother the teeth, the more chance of them all staying that way as the bun will be able to chew with the correct action and keep them all nicely ground down to the right level, which he can't when he has a spur (and hence more chance of other spurs developing!), and also overgrown teeth can result in pressure being put up or downwards into the jaw and contributing to the develoment of overgrown tooth roots, which causes far worse problems in the long term than a molar spur.

Fingers crossed the op has gone well and your little one recovers well - if he is usually outdoors he will need to be inside for at least tonight, try and tempt him with some tasty foods and give him a bowl instead as well as a bottle for water. Good luck

He's an indoor bun anyway- so thats not a problem. I was supposed to phone at 2pm, unfortunetly he is still sleeply so now they have told me to phone at 5pm to see if he will have to stay overnight. It was difficult getting him to eat after his neuter so I took his favourite foods to the vets but from the sound of it he wasn't up to eating yet.

Ah, hope all went well and he is OK. Hopefully he won't need it done again too soon. I just go to the supermarket and buy all herbs I can, kale, spring green, carrot tops. I also grate the carrot in attempts to tempt them.

Hope he can come home tonight.

AlisonA said:

My preference is burring over clipping - yes there are risks but they are small, and I think clipping is more dangerous - it can shatter the tooth down through the root and cause a lot of ongoing pain and problems.

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Hi,

I used to think burring was preferrable over clipping too, but watched my rabbits come out from their burrings in far worse state than before they went in. They were totally miserable at times and one vet even put a 2 cm bruise in the cheek in one of girls causing me to syringe feed her totally for about 4 - 6 weeks before it finally went down not to mention all the pain meds. I watched my two bunnies suffer once too often and I will never put any of my buns through molar burrings ever again, unless I have absolutely no choice.

I was concerned that clipping might damage and shatter the tooth root too, but I would only worry about that risk with the incisors. I think with the right experienced vet, a gentle clipping and filing of the back teeth is actually far more preferable to putting a rabbit under a complete GA and risking damage from a molar burr, but this is going on my experience of putting 2 bunnies in for burrings for 3 years and the one I put through clipping for 2 years and watching their recoveries and how long they went inbetween dentals for.

Also, depends on how often dentals are needed and what the cause of the dental problems are, but seems a lot to knock out a bunny completely for maybe just one or even two spurs. The vet I found who used to do conscious dentals used to put the bun on his lap, put a mouth gag on to hold bunnies mouth open and we used to watch him clip and file. It was over in about 5 mins at most, the rabbit never flinched, she never got any injuries and never got any problems with the roots or abscesses. It also cost about £20 compared with £80 upwards for the complete GA dental.

Leesa, hope your bun comes through ok, I always made sure my two buns got adequate pain relief after their molar burrings too.

All the best

Sue

Brambles used to have his teeth burred every month due to not eating hay, he hated hay(strange bun) and the vet did do it without putting him out which was really successful, but then all his teeth fell out :shock: but he was a happy bun eating soaked pellets and his fav banana if your bun is a lop then unfortunatly they have more teeth problems due to their breeding - apparently :roll: although ive had 4 more lops since Brambles Hope your little one is ok and im sure all will be well xx