Dental op aftercare

Alfred was found to have a jaw abcess, so he's had an incisor tooth removed, and has a hole under his jaw for me to squirt abx cream.

He had his op on Monday.

He's eating lots of veg, and soaked pellets, I've seen him have the odd mouthful of hay, and he will now eat dry pellets too.

He was always a really big hay eater, but I'm wondering now if he's too stuffed full of pellets and veg to eat his hay - he did go into stasis on Tuesday night, but he's eating ok now, but i'm reluctant to cut his veg back in case he does go into stasis again.

He is still on oral abx, pain relief and metaclopromide.

I'm i expecting too much from him too soon?

Personally, I think your bunny is doing amazingly! I would be patient and keep going how you are for the immediate future at the very least.

Have you ever had a dental abscess yourself? (genuine question)

I agree, give him a couple of weeks before reducing pellets as it may be too painful for him to eat a lot of hay right now. It's taken Smoo two weeks after her operation to even touch hay. He does sound like he's doing really well though.

Thanks both of you, I've never had to deal with this before, and just want him to be well again, I'm so paranoid about doing the right thing.

Also, been doing 4 hourly feeds since monday, so prob a bit tired and emotional too xx

PS - no I've never had an abscess..

I recently had an abscess myself. It was simply horrendous. Now, I have a high pain threshold, but I couldn't bear to bite together, or move my head to fast, the pain was unbearable and all over the left hand side of my head and down into my neck, and the glands on the left side of my head were swollen. When the tooth was taken out, I could feel it being removed because it was so infected. The gum around the tooth was so bruised and painful for a good two weeks, at least. The hole also got stuff stuck in it, and the teeth next to it were super sensitive too. I was lucky, the lump I had in my jaw went down within 48 hours of the tooth being removed so to have an open wound and it draining must be exceptionally, exceptionally painful too. For about the first three days after too, I was mostly found with an Icepod held to my face because it numbed it. You can never know the absolute horror unless you have had one, so I'm glad you haven't but hopefully my pain might be able to help bunnies from suffering if I can advocate for them.

So, I guess what I'm saying is that with that absolute pain and discomfort, Alfred is doing brilliantly and hopefully over the next two weeks will start to eat more hay. It's a testament to your good care how well he has done

A useful trick to get them to eat extra fiber (to help to keep their tummy moving), while their jaw is so sore is to offer brittle dried shrub/tree leaves.
It's like us eating prawn crackers - breaks up in the mouth rather than needing chewing like hay.

You can buy a mix of blackberry, raspberry & strawberry leaves which are good.
Blackberry are still fresh outside but you'll need to dry them indoors (about 4 days). they come free if you forage.
There are apple leaves, pear leaves, but they've nearly all fallen now & a tad tough.
Similarly hawthorn leaves have almost all fallen.

I agree comletely with Sky-O about the pain factor. Bunny tooth root abcess is even more painful than ours, because unlike us, it often involves the bone, & the pus is so thick it doesn't flow out easily.

Is he taking metacam? If so, it only lasts about 8hours in bunnies. It can be given 12 hourly depending on the dose & worth asking your vet.

Thanks both of you, the vet had said I could double his pain killers from .3ml, which I did for 48 hours, I've dropped it slowly back to .4ml which he seems ok with. He is getting this 12 hourly.

I've picked small leaves(the best I can from the apple tree in my garden - which he has eaten) although dandelion is still his favorite..

I've also been offering him dried herbs from the herbal garden mix which he adores - so I'll carry on with those too.

This has just been so out of the blue, he was eating pellets and veg, but not hay, which was unusual for Alfred, so thought Id get him checked out by the vet, which was when they found it, I'm hoping as it was caught early he has a better chance.

he is a house rabbit too, and I work from home, so I can luckily monitor him.

Apache said:

Thanks both of you, the vet had said I could double his pain killers from .3ml, which I did for 48 hours, I've dropped it slowly back to .4ml which he seems ok with. He is getting this 12 hourly.

I've picked small leaves(the best I can from the apple tree in my garden - which he has eaten) although dandelion is still his favorite..

I've also been offering him dried herbs from the herbal garden mix which he adores - so I'll carry on with those too.

This has just been so out of the blue, he was eating pellets and veg, but not hay, which was unusual for Alfred, so thought Id get him checked out by the vet, which was when they found it, I'm hoping as it was caught early he has a better chance.

he is a house rabbit too, and I work from home, so I can luckily monitor him.

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Looks like you caught it really early which is probably why he's doing so well, just means you are a great owner. Sounds like everything you are doing so far is great. A lot of leaves also have fibre in which is great if he's not eating a lot of hay right now. Plaintain, bramble and hawthorn are some of them. But you can never go wrong with herbs. :wave:

Thanks Jenova,he's just come to lie on his usual place on the rug by the fire, so I'm taking that is a good sign he's feeling a bit better