Dental help please.

Mona my nearly 10 year old rabbit (10 on 3rd April) is displaying a range of symptoms that are puzzling. Over the last two days she has shunned hard food such as pellets and thick stalks of hay and grass and only eats rocket, parsley and thin strands of hay. She will not touch mushy pellets or porridge. I have had to syringe feed some critical care. As expected her weight has gone down a little.

She is grinding her teeth on a off but the sound is not a deep solid sound like when Bonnie my other dental bun grinds. The sound is almost higher pitched, almost as though rubber is being ground between her teeth :?

I examined Mona thoroughly today, she has not watery eyes, no bumps or lumps around the jaws and cheeks, no wet fur. Her fur us clean and glossy, she is doing softer poos and is not playing as much. She seems to want to lie down and cuddle up with her mate more than play these days. I know her age could be a factor in this case. However due to the grinding and lack of eating of course I suspected dental problems.

So I checked her mouth with the otoscope; My findings are thus: She has two small deposits of soggy parsley stored in the right cheek. As far as I know rabbits don't store food. Her mouth was incredibly moist, looking through the otoscope was almost like looking at an underwater scene. Her gums are a healthy pink, there is no inflammation or swelling that I can see to indicate an abscess. There were some rabbit hairs in her mouth presumable ingested during grooming. Her lower molar teeth had some brownish flecks of discolouration (disease or age?) Finally the upper molars looked squint and uneven. The diagram below should show you what I saw. As you can see her upper molars are uneven and squint.


Does this mean she is developing molar spurs and a misaligned jaw?

Also if it is dental what are the chances of her surviving an op and the vet doing it in the first place. I would presume her age and weight would make her high risk.

She is booked in to the vet for Tuesday and has metacam to keep her going.

As a bunny gets older their chances of having dental issues increases, so yes, it's very likely.

I haven't heard of it in bunnies, but in other animals I have heard of them storing food in their cheeks to prevent their teeth rubbing and hurting their cheek. Could this be what she is doing?

I don't see why a vet wouldn't operate, to be honest. The only time it might be appropriate to not do it might be with advanced dental disease. The other options are PTS instantly, or leave her to suffer (which I know you wouldn't allow). A vet would lose nothing by trying. There is every possibility that she might survive it, but obviously, as she is a bit older, the risks might be greater.

It might be spurs further back than you can see with the otoscope. It all points to dental problems to me.
The metacam is a good idea to keep her going.
I'm not sure about doing the operation considering her age, I'm sure your vet will have a better idea but I think it would be important to keep her weight up in case she does need an operation.

Have you tried pellets soaked in water but not mushed so they keep the same shape? It could be that she's learned what hurts her mouth so won't eat pellets even if they are soft because she doesn't realise the soft ones won't hurt.

Have you tried making up porridge with water, apple and banana? I do this and also puree it so it can be syringe fed. No substitute for critical care but all my buns (and chins) have loved it and it's given them their appetite back after operations etc.

Thanks ladies for your lengthy replies

Sky, my dad suggested that too, as though she is making a wad of wet food to pack around the painful areas. If the vet is willing to operate I will opt for that I think because I need to give her the chance in case it isn't chronic.

Jenova, thanks for the recipe tips. I mashed her pellets to a fine mush but will try the soaked pellet approach. The porridge I gave her was just basic oats and water but I will also try adding banana or apple. She takes critical care willing enough via syringe but left to her own devices she won't eat hardly anything.

Thanks again ladies.

I meant to update this last week but forgot

Mona is all better. Her teeth were not the problem after all, they were deemed to be very healthy though a little crooked and we will need to watch for them getting any worse. Her heart and tummy were checked and the vet concluded the problem was likely to be bowel related as there were no blockages in her gut. So she got some metaclop and avipro plus and after two days of that she seems to be right as rain like a bouncy 2 year old. She is eating normal food again and bouncing all over the garden So as long as nothing else goes wrong she will be celebrating her tenth birthday on Tuesday

Great news!