Wish has recently come up in convo here so I thought I would post an update on her. It's not one I wanted to post, and one of the reasons I have been AWOL.
Two and a half weeks ago Wish started to drool and went super skinny overnight. Her eye also started to run and she got dermatitis.
I knew full well what this meant for Wish, in more ways than I wish I had. 17 weeks and developing signs of multiple dental problems is not good. No.
When my vet looked at her mouth it became clear some of the extent of her problem.
Her teeth are all misaligned and moving out of place. They are, as a result, not wearing down properly. Her mouth is too small for the amount of teeth she has. In a person you would extract some and put a brace on, but as I'm sure the majority of you know, options for this in bunnies is very limited.
Add to that, the fact her eye was running and obviously tooth roots also come into play.
My vet was very clear with me about what his thoughts were. He feels that her mouth is such a mess that I have to 'seriously consider' if its fair to put her through dentals, etc, especially given she is so young.
I was equally clear with him that I would do whatever Wish wants and tells me to do. While she is happy and getting pleasure then we do whatever we have to, but if/when she has had enough, then we let her go. My vet was, thankfully, very amenable with this, and for now we just follow Wish's lead.
Wish had her first dental two weeks ago yesterday. She also had skull x-rays and a tear duct flush.
Her x-ray showed that whilst her teeth are not wonderful, there is nothing 'horrific' going on inside her skull. When her tear duct was flushed my vet was very pleased to find it was still patent and can still drain tears.
He found only one spur on her teeth and it was pointing in towards her tongue. He obviously burred this down. Her mouth, however, is a mess and he can't do much of anything to help that.
He was amazed (like genuinely amazed) with how well she coped with the GA because she bounced back so quick and just woke up and was normal picklish Wish. That makes things easier because if a GA is not stressful for her then we can do more if she needs it.
After her dental Wish stayed on Metacam for a couple more days and then we tried to withdraw it. Having added together a few things from previous weeks that with hindsight were signs of discomfort we started to see those straight away and Wish carried on drooling, so she will stay on the minimal dose of Metacam we can get her on, forever. Her eye has thankfully stopped running though.
She went back into a 'normal' diet but her weight just plummeted so she is now on unlimited junior excel pellets. Thanks to those pellets she has finally re-reached the elusive 1kg mark
Despite all that, my precious girl is so full of life. She binkies, she does bunny 500s, loves a fuss, will escape in whatever way is possible, and generally seems very ok with living.
However, we are two weeks down the line from her dental and life is getting an increasingly harder battle to keep her in good shape.
So, it looks like I can not make the world ok for my lovely girl. I can't fix her, and probably in the not too distant I will have to let her go, which upsets me more than I can explain (which is why I have sat on this info until now).
For those with Wish rellies, we (me and the vet) feel that this is not a problem she has genetically inherited, but more this is an issue created by her genetics. This is due to her small frame and very odd shaped head, so none of the others should have problems of this severe nature (and those that have been with me all went after having a full dental check and no problems were found) although the potential for spurs is there, the same as with any bunny.
Here are lovely pictures of the madam. I have more on facebook, as well as a video, so feel free to add me if you want to see them (if you PM me I'll give you the linky).
Two and a half weeks ago Wish started to drool and went super skinny overnight. Her eye also started to run and she got dermatitis.
I knew full well what this meant for Wish, in more ways than I wish I had. 17 weeks and developing signs of multiple dental problems is not good. No.
When my vet looked at her mouth it became clear some of the extent of her problem.
Her teeth are all misaligned and moving out of place. They are, as a result, not wearing down properly. Her mouth is too small for the amount of teeth she has. In a person you would extract some and put a brace on, but as I'm sure the majority of you know, options for this in bunnies is very limited.
Add to that, the fact her eye was running and obviously tooth roots also come into play.
My vet was very clear with me about what his thoughts were. He feels that her mouth is such a mess that I have to 'seriously consider' if its fair to put her through dentals, etc, especially given she is so young.
I was equally clear with him that I would do whatever Wish wants and tells me to do. While she is happy and getting pleasure then we do whatever we have to, but if/when she has had enough, then we let her go. My vet was, thankfully, very amenable with this, and for now we just follow Wish's lead.
Wish had her first dental two weeks ago yesterday. She also had skull x-rays and a tear duct flush.
Her x-ray showed that whilst her teeth are not wonderful, there is nothing 'horrific' going on inside her skull. When her tear duct was flushed my vet was very pleased to find it was still patent and can still drain tears.
He found only one spur on her teeth and it was pointing in towards her tongue. He obviously burred this down. Her mouth, however, is a mess and he can't do much of anything to help that.
He was amazed (like genuinely amazed) with how well she coped with the GA because she bounced back so quick and just woke up and was normal picklish Wish. That makes things easier because if a GA is not stressful for her then we can do more if she needs it.
After her dental Wish stayed on Metacam for a couple more days and then we tried to withdraw it. Having added together a few things from previous weeks that with hindsight were signs of discomfort we started to see those straight away and Wish carried on drooling, so she will stay on the minimal dose of Metacam we can get her on, forever. Her eye has thankfully stopped running though.
She went back into a 'normal' diet but her weight just plummeted so she is now on unlimited junior excel pellets. Thanks to those pellets she has finally re-reached the elusive 1kg mark
Despite all that, my precious girl is so full of life. She binkies, she does bunny 500s, loves a fuss, will escape in whatever way is possible, and generally seems very ok with living.
However, we are two weeks down the line from her dental and life is getting an increasingly harder battle to keep her in good shape.
So, it looks like I can not make the world ok for my lovely girl. I can't fix her, and probably in the not too distant I will have to let her go, which upsets me more than I can explain (which is why I have sat on this info until now).
For those with Wish rellies, we (me and the vet) feel that this is not a problem she has genetically inherited, but more this is an issue created by her genetics. This is due to her small frame and very odd shaped head, so none of the others should have problems of this severe nature (and those that have been with me all went after having a full dental check and no problems were found) although the potential for spurs is there, the same as with any bunny.
Here are lovely pictures of the madam. I have more on facebook, as well as a video, so feel free to add me if you want to see them (if you PM me I'll give you the linky).
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