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Dental question

Tinsel

Tinsel

Wise Old Thumper
Brock is now nearly five, and recently I've noticed that he seems reluctant to eat hay or grass. I wasn't worried that he'd lost his appetite because he's always very eager for pellets and carrots but today I looked in his mouth and saw that his front teeth seem slightly longer than the other rabbits' and his lower front teeth seem uneven, one straight and the other having a diagonal line/slope shape rather than being even/horizontal.

Obviously I will be taking him to my most bunny-savvy vet at the first opportunity, but does anyone have any thoughts meanwhile as to what's going on? Is it worth chopping his hay up and trying that? I don't know whether he's not eating hay so he's not wearing his teeth down properly or whether he's not wearing his teeth down because he's not eating hay. Any advice would be welcome. I don't want to give him metacam without seeing the vet. He's extremely lively and happy in himself so it's not worth going to the emergency vet - they are not bunny savvy and there's no point.
 
I would go to a bunny savvy vet as soon as you can. As long as he's still eating something, its not an emergency, but best to go within the next few days.
 
Oh dear, sounds just like what happened with mischief. Sounds like your bun has a misaligned jaw meaning his teeth won't be meeting up like they should in certain places. Brock will probably need his front teeth burring down, not cutting, burring. :) Mischief had to have it done every month but it got quite stressful for him and us that we decided he's be better off without his front teeth and he had them removed. :)

Eating hay can help the growing of the teeth to slow down but if your bun has an unaligned jaw they will still not meet up and will unfortunately need to be burred down every so often. :( So Brock is probably eating hay but it's not stopping his teeth growing. It might not be this but it well could be.

When you go to the vet, make sure they check Brock's back molars because often if there's a problem with the incisors, they could be with the back teeth and there might be a spur. Mischief has to have a spur on his molars removed every 6 - 12 months so not too bad. Hope your bunny is ok. :)
 
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Thank you. :wave:

There's a specific vet I want him to see, hence there's no point in rInging them today, but will ring to make an appointment first thing tomorrow. He's extremely bright and nomming pellets/veg very enthusiastically so it isn't an emergency, but he does need to be seen asap.

How old is Mischief? Will certainly get Brock's back teeth checked as well, but would have thought a non-aligned jaw would have shown up before now, or is it something that can develop over time?
 
It's possible he may have caught the tooth and caused it to misalign, or it has been growing 'awry' for a while and just getting worse and worse. Bad front teeth means you can often expect bad back teeth though.

Once they are burred, if you can provide woods and stuff for him to chew (apple tre, pear tree, etc) he might be able to manage them himself if they are not too bad.
 
Sky-O said:
It's possible he may have caught the tooth and caused it to misalign, or it has been growing 'awry' for a while and just getting worse and worse. Bad front teeth means you can often expect bad back teeth though.

Once they are burred, if you can provide woods and stuff for him to chew (apple tre, pear tree, etc) he might be able to manage them himself if they are not too bad.
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Thank you. :wave: He gets lots of access to bark/wood already but presumably won't be able to take advantage of it until his teeth are fixed. Can they be burred without GA? He's not particularly stressy, but I don't know much about the procedure... Five isn't a great age for regular GAs, poor boy... :?
 
Tinsel said:
Thank you. :wave:

There's a specific vet I want him to see, hence there's no point in rInging them today, but will ring to make an appointment first thing tomorrow. He's extremely bright and nomming pellets/veg very enthusiastically so it isn't an emergency, but he does need to be seen asap.

How old is Mischief? Will certainly get Brock's back teeth checked as well, but would have thought a non-aligned jaw would have shown up before now, or is it something that can develop over time?
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He's two. :) His teeth were fine until he was a year and a half. Sorry, i'm not sure if unaligned jaws are always there but like Sky-O said, they probably get worse over time so you don't know about it until it's quite bad. :(
 
Tinsel said:
Thank you. :wave: He gets lots of access to bark/wood already but presumably won't be able to take advantage of it until his teeth are fixed. Can they be burred without GA? He's not particularly stressy, but I don't know much about the procedure... Five isn't a great age for regular GAs, poor boy... :?
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Front teeth are burred without GA unless you have a very stressed bun. Back teeth will need a GA though. It cost me £10.50 each time mischief had to have his front teeth burred. It was £125 for them out but we would have eventually spent that much by burring every month so not too bad a price. :)

It costs me about £66 for a molar spur removal (GA) but that's quite cheap, I assume most vets will charge about £80. :( That's only every 6-12 months for michief but it varies with each bun on how often spurs need develop. Unfortunately back teeth cannot be removed so burring down back teeth during a GA op is all you can do. :(
 
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Mischief and Tinker's Mum said:
Front teeth are burred without GA unless you have a very stressed bun. Back teeth will need a GA though. It cost me £10.50 each time mischief to have his front teeth burred. It was £125 for them out but we would have eventually spent that much by burring every months so not too bad a price. :)

It costs me about £66 for a molar spur removal (GA) but that's quite cheap, I assume most vets will charge about £80. :( That's only every 6-12 months for michief but it varies with each bun on how often spurs need develop. Unfortunately back teeth cannot be removed so burring down back teeth during a GA op is all you can do. :(
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Thank you that's very helpful. I hope he doesn't need them removed but if he did could he still eat hay or is that a silly question?
 
Tinsel said:
Thank you that's very helpful. I hope he doesn't need them removed but if he did could he still eat hay or is that a silly question?
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Not a silly question at all, i wondered the same before i knew. :) Yes they can eat hay fine. :) If you'r wondering, pellets, veg and everything else your bun has can still be eaten too. :) Veg needs to be cut up into smaller pieces though so that they can pick it up and chew it easier with their back teeth. Also, if Brock has grass, you'd need to pick it for him because he wouldn't be able to pull it up. Obviously if you noticed your bunny struggling with eating hay, you'd need to cut it up, but i don't know of a rabbit that needs it cutting up. :) I've found that Mischief eats much better without them! Having them out was like a life saver for us as i felt awful for my poor bun when his teeth got so long and it was another vet visit for him. :(

Brock's teeth may be fine though, I hope they are! Good luck at the vets. :)
 
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Mischief and Tinker's Mum said:
Not a silly question at all, i wondered the same before i knew. :) Yes they can eat hay fine. :) If you'r wondering, pellets, veg can still be eaten too. :) I've found that Mischief eats much better without them! Having them out was like a life saver for us as i felt awful for my poor bun when his teeth got so long and it was another vet visit for him. :( Veg needs to be cut up in to small pieces though so they can eat it and they can't pull up grass so if your bun has grass, you'd have to pick it for him. Hay and pellets are not a problem. :) Obviously if you noticed your bun was struggling with it, you'd have to cut it into smaller pieces though.

Brock's teeth may be fine though, I hope they are! Good luck at the vets. :)
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Thank you; that's really helpful. I'm hoping it will be a one-off but realise that with dental stuff that's not very likely :? But he's very sprightly with an excellent appetite so that's good :wave:
 
Tinsel said:
Thank you; that's really helpful. I'm hoping it will be a one-off but realise that with dental stuff that's not very likely :? But he's very sprightly with an excellent appetite so that's good :wave:
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You're welcome :) I hope it's a one off too but at least you have an idea as to what it could be now. Keep us all updated, fingers crossed for you. :)
 
:wave: Louise and Gus has Gus's front teeth burred occasionally - her vet is very bunny savvy and I think does it without GA - it's certainly done during a normal appointment. His preference is not to remove incisors unless absolutely necessary as it is a major operation and it also makes it far more difficult to get to the molars if you need to, because the instrument that holds the mouth open hooks over the incisors (there was a photo of this somewhere on here just the other day).

Having said that, the front teeth can sometimes misalign because of a problem with the molars. If there's a spur or spurs on the molars which have grown up so that the jaw doesn't close properly, then the front teeth aren't going to align properly either and will grow out of shape. So the front teeth could be a symptom of a molar problem rather than a cause of their own. I'd definitely get this checked out as a first port of call because you don't want to go taking out perfectly good incisors if it turns out that they're only that way because of a spur at the back.

Several years ago, one of Santa's incisors twisted - one of her bottom ones was virtually at 90 degrees to what it should be, and I was convinced it was going to be an ongoing problem, but actually after having the molars taken right back down to just above the gum, the front teeth resolved themselves and were never a problem again.

Good luck xxx
 
Santa said:
:wave: Louise and Gus has Gus's front teeth burred occasionally - her vet is very bunny savvy and I think does it without GA - it's certainly done during a normal appointment. His preference is not to remove incisors unless absolutely necessary as it is a major operation and it also makes it far more difficult to get to the molars if you need to, because the instrument that holds the mouth open hooks over the incisors (there was a photo of this somewhere on here just the other day).

Having said that, the front teeth can sometimes misalign because of a problem with the molars. If there's a spur or spurs on the molars which have grown up so that the jaw doesn't close properly, then the front teeth aren't going to align properly either and will grow out of shape. So the front teeth could be a symptom of a molar problem rather than a cause of their own. I'd definitely get this checked out as a first port of call because you don't want to go taking out perfectly good incisors if it turns out that they're only that way because of a spur at the back.

Several years ago, one of Santa's incisors twisted - one of her bottom ones was virtually at 90 degrees to what it should be, and I was convinced it was going to be an ongoing problem, but actually after having the molars taken right back down to just above the gum, the front teeth resolved themselves and were never a problem again.

Good luck xxx
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Thank you - will definitely get the vet to have a very careful look at molars before we make any decisions. To me they don't look too bad - not at the wrong angle, or don't seem to be - perhaps he's just chipped one hence the irregular shape. Would also explain why they seem to be non-functioning (re hay) rather than painful (hence he's using the for pellets and veg) - but hopefully the vet can explain all and we'll have a situation like Santa's xx :wave:
 
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