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Dentals

whitehood

whitehood

Warren Veteran
How do you feel about:

A rabbit having a dental whilst it's tranced on its back(concious) until comfortable.
Then having its mouth gagged open by a brace.
Then having it's teeth burred with clippers and other instruments.

If the dental's done only once in ages.

How would you feel about this ?
 
I personally would not like to put a rabbit through this. A rabbit which is tranced is actually petrified and only behaves like this as defence tactic. As with any animal unpredictable behaviour is a factor and the rabbit could suddenly wriggle and kick thus injuring itself. Noises and smells will be associated with burring and this will probably only heighten a rabbit's fears. We humans would not like it either and I think most humans detest visiting their dentists for similar reasons. Given that the rabbit is a prey animal and naturally more scared and prone to stressing I would think it is kinder to give the rabbit a GA before putting it through such an ordeal. Apart from anything else a rabbit's heart rate could increase and lead to a heart attack or the rabbit can go into shock and die soon afterwards. Its just not worth the risk imo.
 
The only time I'd consider a concious dental is if the rabbit was VERY relaxed and needed them so often that GA was high risk (even then I'd have to have a good long think about it and do a lot of research)... The rest of the time I would want them under the GA, it's not worth the stress if its avoidable.
 
I would never trance a rabbit. It's a fear response so you are scaring the rabbit into playing dead. How do you know the rabbit can't feel what's happening? It could also untrance at any time and severely injure itself.

Conscious dentals are another matter entirely. If the rabbit was calm and didn't 'mind' then yes I think it's much better than having a GA. But a GA is better than a trance.
 
If a vet tried to do that to any of my rabbits, the rabbit would immediately be removed from the surgery, the vet complained to, and a complaint written directly to their head of practice.

To trance a rabbit is to induce a massive flood of chemicals to the rabbits blood stream caused by stress response. It's god awful and anyone who says otherwise is wrong, quite simply.

Any vet who does this is NOT rabbit savvy, does not understand how rabbits behave and should not be treating them.

It wouldn't matter about the time frame - it's wrong, quite simply.

What if the rabbit managed to wriggle during the trance response, causing it re-awaken so to speak, while it has a brace locking its jaw in place, and a burring tool in its mouth? It doesn't bare thinking about and the idea is making me feel sick and greatly concerned :cry:

ETA: i'm sorry about the tone of my post, i have a poorly bunny and the thought of her going through that really upset me :( These are my opinions, thats all.
 
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I personally wouldn't trance a rabbit to do anything and absolutely not a dental. If GA isn't an option I'd maybe consider sedation and local anaesthaesia which is what they do with people as an alternative to GA and is quite common for wisdom tooth extractions now. Our rabbit's frequent dentals are a worry (3 monthly) and our vet isn't comfortable repeatedly giving her a GA but that isn't an alternative I would consider.
 
My vet does conscious rabbit dentals. I'm not sure how he does it but I'm assuming he must trance them.

He is a very rabbit savvy vet (I believe used by several others on here). For Poppy it is a much better option that GA. She is a calm rabbit anyway, it means whenever I pop in he can check her teeth if needs-be so they don't get to the stage of stopping her eating. She also doesn't have the risk of a GA, doesnt have meds after and it all takes 5 mins max, she's back with me and you wouldn't know she's had a dental.

And an extra bonus for me, it costs consultation plus about £10 rather than well over £100.

I am always so grateful that my vet does them conscious, I believe it causes Poppy (and me), a lot less stress but obviously it's not for everyone (or bun).

Oh....and Poppy is very easy to restrain, if it was Peter I wouldn't neccessarily be saying no but would be asking a lot more questions.
 
I am against conscious Dentals

Reasons:

Impossible to get a complete view of all of the teeth

Just 'rasping off spurs' is not usually sufficient for longterm management. The crowns often need to be shortened and reshaped.

The Rabbit's blood cortisol level will be significantly elevated due to stress. This can put as much strain on major organ function as a GA, if not more.

There is a risk of accidental injury should a conscious Rabbit make a sudden unexpected movement. Arresting a venous bleed in the mouth of a conscious Rabbit is near on impossible.

A conscious Dental may be cheaper, but in the longterm may exacerbate Dental Disease due to the fact that it can never be a thorough procedure

Finally, none of my Vets consider conscious Dentals to be 'ethical' and I respect the opinion of my Vets
 
Jack's-Jane said:
I am against conscious Dentals

Reasons:

Impossible to get a complete view of all of the teeth

Just 'rasping off spurs' is not usually sufficient for longterm management. The crowns often need to be shortened and reshaped.

The Rabbit's blood cortisol level will be significantly elevated due to stress. This can put as much strain on major organ function as a GA, if not more.

There is a risk of accidental injury should a conscious Rabbit make a sudden unexpected movement. Arresting a venous bleed in the mouth of a conscious Rabbit is near on impossible.

A conscious Dental may be cheaper, but in the longterm may exacerbate Dental Disease due to the fact that it can never be a thorough procedure

Finally, none of my Vets consider conscious Dentals to be 'ethical' and I respect the opinion of my Vets
Click to expand...

Jane said what i think, but with the technical reasons in there to boot, thanks Jane! :love:
 
I would not allow the vet to do it to my rabbit and I would seek a new vet practice.
 
To add, I wont be posting again on here as this topic always polarises opinions and often becomes very heated. I have said what I think and I am comfortable with that for the Rabbits in my care :)
 
We used to clip our own bun's teeth a good few years back as her jaw was so badly maligned she needed her incisors done on a fortnightly basis.

Knowing what I know now from being on this site, I would not have any future buns put through that. When the bun is concious, it's terribly hard to get to anything other than the incisors, even the most chilled of my buns would struggle when in a tight burrito, being held by both me and a vet nurse. Unless there was a sound reason for the bun not to go under GA, I would insist on it. Schumi was never the healthiest of buns, but had GA dentals up until he was about 9, when he had his molars removed. I would want at least good local anaesthetic and pain relief administered for a concious dental.

And if anyone tried to trance my bun, I'd be out of there like a shot!! Four paws firmly on the table please!

:wave:
 
My vet is against conscious dentals and I agree with him on it. :) the list of what is involved sounds horrific. :cry:
 
Completely and utterly against. Never.

ETA:

My Lola had dentals every 3 weeks at one point. We still did GA.
 
We have never had a conscious dental done and my vets don;t offer that service. the only time I would consider them personally is when a rabbit is at serious risk with a GA and it is a last resort. Even then I would only consider it as we have had so many elderly and sick bunnies have repeated dentals under GA and have never lost a single one :D
 
I would never put a rabbit through that unless it was absolutely necessary. I hate going to the dentist myself, and I'm a fairly laid back creature :)lol:), but it must be so much worse for a rabbit who doesn't even know what's going on, feels frightened and trapped and can't run away when all of its senses and instincts are telling it to. I don't think either of mine could cope with that stress to be honest :( It would be too much for them.
 
Oompa-Loompa said:
I would never put a rabbit through that unless it was absolutely necessary. I hate going to the dentist myself, and I'm a fairly laid back creature :)lol:), but it must be so much worse for a rabbit who doesn't even know what's going on, feels frightened and trapped and can't run away when all of its senses and instincts are telling it to. I don't think either of mine could cope with that stress to be honest :( It would be too much for them.
Click to expand...

Great way of looking at it!

Like I said Whitehood, wouldn't do it again!! xx
 
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