My boy bunny Ling Jai died this past wednesday and the family has been very upset and only now have we been able to try and get on with other facets of our lifes. I have today been thinking if all my boys problems could've been dealt with better, but obviously theres nothing we can do to bring him back
It started a few years ago when Ling Jai came to live with me within a year or two his eyes, one in particular used to water, I took him in to be looked at a few times and they found nothing wrong with him of note, but not once did they even look inside his mouth, a few years later they eventually bothered to check his teeth and found pretty much all teeth on one side of his mouth were all missing, but the watery eyes issue could not be addressed, eventually it was decided a dental would be needed to trim down his teeth and it was performed pretty succesfully as Ling Jai came home ok and recovered well, I understand however once dental problems are experienced we are likely to come accross them time and time again.
The following year the teeth were again in need of having a dental procedure and we did the same thing, again this was at my local branch of the Vets, again a full recovery was made and a happy bunny was roaming our home, the year after the same thing was done and they also advised me they found a lump on his head which they took a sample of and found it to be benign and it would be best left untouched. This time he within a month or two he seemed to be salivating a lot, this time the local vet suggested I take him to their rabbit specialists branch.
I went to see the specialist for the first time around about this time last year and she advised me the best thing to do for the bunny was to clip the teeth while he was awake rather than putting him under and filing them down again which she did on 2 occasions the second time was last december, from that day on Ling Jai started dribbling profusely and he seemed to be more withdrawn than ever, is this practise of clipping teeth not considered more damaging to the bunnys tooth as it can end up shattering to the root and cause tooth root infections etc, I think it was mentioned on this article:
http://www.rabbit.org/journal/2-6/tusks.html
When I went back this specialist vets after xmas I was told she had since retired and left the country and I was directed to their hospital where they had another bunny experienced vet. He decided we should now do a dental similar to what we had originally done on 3 occasions at the local branch, so we proceeded and at the same time I asked the vet to take x rays of Ling Jai's back as he was not as mobile as he used to be.
The prcedure went ok and I was glad to have Ling Jai back on the mend, but the vet told me and wrote on his report that Ling Jai's jaw was swollen 'suggesting possible tooth root infections which may require long term treatment' yet he did not take x rays of Ling Jais jaw area while he was under, would this not be the correct route to take to pinpoint what might be going on under the jaw line and wouldn't the possible tooth root problems stem from the original clipping of the teeth in december which resulted in Ling Jai salivating excessively. What also upset me at the time was this vet had hacked away at Ling Jais head to remove the lump unnecessarily which the original vet had confirmed to be benign without even talking to me about it, but the main thing was Ling Jai was home and recovering.
Last week I took Ling Jai back in as he hadn't been eating, on the way there I realised his face was swollen and the vet confirmed it was an infection from the teeth/roots etc and he suggested leaving him over night and another vet he reccomended there would put him under and syringe and drain away the puss etc which is quite strong in bunnys he said and wouldn't just clear up with meds etc. I left him there and I wasn't going to see him alive again. The vet in charge of the procedure the next day told us Ling Jai stopped breathing while being operated on she suggested it could be due to a lot of blood loss. When I saw Ling Jai it was clear he had been cut right accross the bottom of his face under the jaw, nothing like what you would expect to syring away puss, on the paper work like previous procedures there was no mention of general anaesthetic and I fearful Ling Jai may well have suffered pain. I asked the vet would it not have been better all along to remove Ling Jai's teeth and she commented no rabbit could ever survive without their teeth and that was unheard of. Do these vets get taught/learn anything. This is the biggest chain of Vets I know of and they claim to offer the best service, I feel cheated and they were only ever good at billing me thousands without difficulty.
It started a few years ago when Ling Jai came to live with me within a year or two his eyes, one in particular used to water, I took him in to be looked at a few times and they found nothing wrong with him of note, but not once did they even look inside his mouth, a few years later they eventually bothered to check his teeth and found pretty much all teeth on one side of his mouth were all missing, but the watery eyes issue could not be addressed, eventually it was decided a dental would be needed to trim down his teeth and it was performed pretty succesfully as Ling Jai came home ok and recovered well, I understand however once dental problems are experienced we are likely to come accross them time and time again.
The following year the teeth were again in need of having a dental procedure and we did the same thing, again this was at my local branch of the Vets, again a full recovery was made and a happy bunny was roaming our home, the year after the same thing was done and they also advised me they found a lump on his head which they took a sample of and found it to be benign and it would be best left untouched. This time he within a month or two he seemed to be salivating a lot, this time the local vet suggested I take him to their rabbit specialists branch.
I went to see the specialist for the first time around about this time last year and she advised me the best thing to do for the bunny was to clip the teeth while he was awake rather than putting him under and filing them down again which she did on 2 occasions the second time was last december, from that day on Ling Jai started dribbling profusely and he seemed to be more withdrawn than ever, is this practise of clipping teeth not considered more damaging to the bunnys tooth as it can end up shattering to the root and cause tooth root infections etc, I think it was mentioned on this article:
http://www.rabbit.org/journal/2-6/tusks.html
When I went back this specialist vets after xmas I was told she had since retired and left the country and I was directed to their hospital where they had another bunny experienced vet. He decided we should now do a dental similar to what we had originally done on 3 occasions at the local branch, so we proceeded and at the same time I asked the vet to take x rays of Ling Jai's back as he was not as mobile as he used to be.
The prcedure went ok and I was glad to have Ling Jai back on the mend, but the vet told me and wrote on his report that Ling Jai's jaw was swollen 'suggesting possible tooth root infections which may require long term treatment' yet he did not take x rays of Ling Jais jaw area while he was under, would this not be the correct route to take to pinpoint what might be going on under the jaw line and wouldn't the possible tooth root problems stem from the original clipping of the teeth in december which resulted in Ling Jai salivating excessively. What also upset me at the time was this vet had hacked away at Ling Jais head to remove the lump unnecessarily which the original vet had confirmed to be benign without even talking to me about it, but the main thing was Ling Jai was home and recovering.
Last week I took Ling Jai back in as he hadn't been eating, on the way there I realised his face was swollen and the vet confirmed it was an infection from the teeth/roots etc and he suggested leaving him over night and another vet he reccomended there would put him under and syringe and drain away the puss etc which is quite strong in bunnys he said and wouldn't just clear up with meds etc. I left him there and I wasn't going to see him alive again. The vet in charge of the procedure the next day told us Ling Jai stopped breathing while being operated on she suggested it could be due to a lot of blood loss. When I saw Ling Jai it was clear he had been cut right accross the bottom of his face under the jaw, nothing like what you would expect to syring away puss, on the paper work like previous procedures there was no mention of general anaesthetic and I fearful Ling Jai may well have suffered pain. I asked the vet would it not have been better all along to remove Ling Jai's teeth and she commented no rabbit could ever survive without their teeth and that was unheard of. Do these vets get taught/learn anything. This is the biggest chain of Vets I know of and they claim to offer the best service, I feel cheated and they were only ever good at billing me thousands without difficulty.
