Vet advised to have teeth sorted - worried

Took my little fella to the vet today for his six monthly booster - vet gave him a once over and said that in the new year, I need to book him in to have his teeth sorted out.
She said that they are not too bad but she would recommend doing them soon before they get worse.

Can someone reassure me that this is relatively normal and that he will be fine - I can't stop worrying about him. He's only had anaesthetic once before and was ok but
was quite poorly for a few days and wouldn't eat

Any advice or help please

Thanks so much

How confident are you in your vet's knowledge/experience as a rabbit vet?

I don't have huge experience with dental rabbits but the experience I have would be more that they suggest another check up in X weeks time rather than booking in for a dental. If it's dental spurs that the vet has seen I *think* it would be more usual to attend to them when they are a problem, unless of cause you have a regular dental bunny and you can predict a pattern better.

I have one experience just over a year ago of a local vet telling me that Rudy was likely to need a dental in about 6 weeks time - that was 6 weeks before Christmas :? I was a bit bemused as my rabbit savvy vets alway comment on how good his teeth are when he has routine checks. So, the week before Christmas I got a rabbit savvy vet to give him the once over and she said his teeth were fine, no sign of spurs whatsoever. One year on he still hasn't had any bother.

Unless you know your vet is very skilled at checking rabbit teeth I'd be inclined to take your rabbit for a check up rather than book a dental.

Edit to add: If he does need a dental it shouldn't be a big deal for most rabbits, it is fairly routine. I had a rabbit have a dental recently (not spurs) and you'd not know he'd had a GA a few hours earlier, he was more subsued whe he was neutered, so did a lot better with the second GA.

Is he showing any other symptoms? Refusal of some foods, drooling, drinking a lot of water? How is he with eating hay?

He's eating fine, but he's never been a big hay eater no matter what we do. The vet told me back in the summer that he would likely need them done. I'm just really worried, I do trust them but obviously there is always a risk with an operation.

Hi

I have just had my buns teeth done. The poor thing had spurs, splayed teeth and one cheek tooth was so bad it had caused an absess. I have only just rescued him and was wondering why he wouldnt eat hay. He came through the operation fine, has been eating and drinking ok and is great in himself. He must of been in so much pain.

My vet wouldnt let him come home until he had eaten and drank some water to make sure he was ok. I dont think you have anything to worry about, its quite a routine operation. But if you believe your vet to know what he is talking about, please, dont delay.

Now, getting him to eat hay that he is not used to eating will be the hard part :roll:

Quick question - how much dry food does he have per day? When I first started keeping rabbits they didn't eat enough hay as I was giving too many pellets. once I read that this could be the problem I reduced the pellets and the problem rapidly sorted itself.

My bun probably has too many pellets. I'll give him a couple of days to get better (he only had teeth done yesterday) and then I'll reduce his pellets, I might try cutting up his hay into smaller bits into his bowl.

Great stuff, thank you.