Teeth!

This is my first visit and post to this site, I have just discovered today that my mini lop Flapjacks has a massive overgrown tooth, I feel awful as we dont know how long it has been like this, he has not lost his appetite and is eating normally, the only thing that may have been a clue is that he does not groom him self and often has a dirty bottom, this is why i discovered it as he has had a bath today!

What is likely to happen with him, and how much is it going to cost, we love him to bits and would hate him to be in pain

Sue

A vet can burr or file the teeth down. Make sure they don't clip them. It's a bit of an old way of doing it to clip them and can cause loads more problems such as the teeth shattering in the jaw etc. Pretty scary. But they can file them down to a normal level which is what they will probably do first. This generally doesn't cost too much. Not too much more than a normal vet consultation. Then I would suggest looking at diet to make sure they stay short.

The vet might also want to look at the back teeth to make sure they're normal too. If the back ones need filing down they usually do it under general anesthetic. This usually costs me about £80 at my vets.

The other thing I thought I'd mention is if his teeth are too badly overgrown or continue to grow wonky an option is to have the front teeth removed completely. I've had this done with a couple of rabbits and they cope really well. So I would actually recommend this if his teeth can't be sorted by filing.

Looking at diet:
Most people aren't clued up on rabbits' diet so if you know all this then I apologise. A rabbit's diet should be 80% hay 10% food (pellets are usually better than muesli as they prevent selective feeding) and 10% veg. Eating hay helps keeps both the front and back teeth short and keeps the gut working properly. So it should help his mucky bum on two accounts. If he doesn't eat much hay you can slowly reduce the amount of food he gets encourage him to eat more hay. If he has trouble with hay it could be an indication that his back teeth need checking.

Wishing you and Flapjack lots of luck. Well done for noticing his teeth and let us know how you get on at the vets. :wave:

thankyou so much for your quick reply, i feel soooo guilty, he doesn't eat hay at all and only eats his fave bits from his food so will try something different and reduce it to try and make him eat more hay.

thanks again

sue

Does he ever get runny eyes?
My rabbit Grimlock doesn't eat hay but he has long tooth roots so it's actually painful for him. The only way you can tell this without an x ray is sometimes their eyes water.

I would speak to your vet as well but my advice would be after his teeth are sorted and once he's recovered from an anesthetic if he has one, reduce his food slowly over a few weeks so he's just on about a handful or an egg cup full. He should eat more hay and that should help his teeth. You could also slowly swap him over to pellets rather than muesli, it doesn't look as nice but if he's only eating his favourite bits this will make sure he's getting all the nutrients he needs. But the most important thing is hay.

I don't think it will be as easy as I've made it out to get him to eat more. Hopefully it's just a case that he's like a child and he'd rather eat his sweets than his dinner.