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Can rabbits cope with very few/no teeth?

H

Herbert'sMum

Warren Scout
My old bun is having to have a dental now every 2-3 months and each time has to have 1-2 teeth removed because they are wobbly. Fingers crossed, he bounces back every time and is a healthy weight, however, it's eventually going to get to the stage where he has very few teeth left.

I was just wondering whether any of you have bunnies with very few/no teeth at all. Can they cope OK, is their quality of life good and do you have any tips for coping with this situation?

He is such a happy/healthy bunny in all other respects.

Thanks in advance.
 
I read about those cases before. For buns w/ few teeth, you need to syringe feed them daily w/ a mixture of fiber and food. You need to cut hay stem in 1 mm length and make sure those fiber get inside her body.
 
my bridge bunny mop managed with only one back tooth. i never had to syringe feed him or soak his pellets. he couldn't eat hay though and he had to have regular dentals as the remaining tooth had nothing to wear itself down on. he lived to be 8 and a half :)
 
Happy Hopping said:
But what does he eat and how?
Click to expand...

He has had about ten teeth out in total and up until yesterday (when he had to have another two removed and a stitch), he was eating anything put in front of him. Understandably, he is sore at the moment and whilst he is trying to eat on his own can't really manage it, so I'm syringe feeding recovery solution and organic vegetable baby food to keep his weight up. He's managing the odd piece of pear,banana,grape.

This will be an ongoing scenario now. I have had him for 7 years but he is a rescue rabbit and the vet thinks you could probably add another 1-2 years on top of that. I was just concerned about his quality of life with few/no teeth and having to have regular dentals. Yesterdays was pretty tricky and he was under for one and a half hours, so no wonder he is still out of sorts.

In between dentals he is fine. As said, eating, bonking! and wanting lots of attention.
 
We had a dutch rabbit with few teeth, and we had to soak his normal food for him. We had to give him baby food after his operation too, to make sure he was eating.

He had his front teeth removed and it was funny watching him "suck" his food up.

:)
 
Sazzii said:
We had a dutch rabbit with few teeth, and we had to soak his normal food for him. We had to give him baby food after his operation too, to make sure he was eating.

He had his front teeth removed and it was funny watching him "suck" his food up.

:)
Click to expand...

Thanks all. It's good to hear that some rabbits do manage to cope with very few teeth. I hope Herbert is one of them.
 
Herbert'sMum said:
Yesterdays was pretty tricky and he was under for one and a half hours, so no wonder he is still out of sorts.

In between dentals he is fine. As said, eating, bonking! and wanting lots of attention.
Click to expand...

You can reduce the time for a bun under GA if it's just simply teeth sanding/trimming down, something simple. My bun Bernie has to have dental every 10 mth. or so. So my vet put Bernie under a deep sedation, complete some part of the sanding. Then for the remaining of the operation, we put him under an "Ultra Short" GA, and finish off the rest.
 
Happy Hopping said:
You can reduce the time for a bun under GA if it's just simply teeth sanding/trimming down, something simple. My bun Bernie has to have dental every 10 mth. or so. So my vet put Bernie under a deep sedation, complete some part of the sanding. Then for the remaining of the operation, we put him under an "Ultra Short" GA, and finish off the rest.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. I don't think they have him under that long normally (either it's just sanding or the teeth come out quite easily). This time was just a bit more tricky for the vet and she didn't want to damage his jaw.

I can't complain really. I swapped vets about 18 months ago because I lost confidence in my previous one. My new vet is absolutely fantastic and very knowledgeable about rabbits. More importantly Herbie appears to like/trust her and doesn't play up. I honestly think he wouldn't be here now if it wasn't for her.

Anyway, he has his appetite back now and has started to eat on his own (though still can't manage dandelions to his disgust). Hopefully this means he is back on track.
 
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