How do you know when a dental is imminent?

Basically in April I took Hettie to the vet to have her jabs done, and whilst there got the vet to look at Sweep's teeth. Sweep put up a huge fight even when towel wrapped but he managed to see inside a bit, and said that he could see very small spurs there. The vet said to come back and he will re-check July/August time to see if he needs a dental. Now, beforehand when he's been to the old vets they never checked his teeth (and I wasn't clued up enough to know that they are supposed to check with an otoscope before) so this will have been the first time they were properly checked.

He is a fantastic hay eater, and will much all day long. He has soft hay and stalky hay and enjoys both. I'm wondering (as he is a mini lop cross), whether these spurs could have been there for a while, and of course we didn't know about them. Either way, now I know about them, I keep stressing about them.

How will I know when he needs a dental doing? Obviously I don't want to leave it to the stage where he would stop eating, but I also don't want to put him through an un-necessary GA when it's not needed. The vet said to me he could do a dental back in April, but it might be that he can maintain small spurs without needing a dental by eating lots of hay (which he does) and so I decided to see if that will work. I've never had experience of a dental bun before, so really the only symptom I know is watery eyes, which I will be looking out for.

I know I'm just stressing out because they're there, which is kind of silly :roll: but I would hate for them to be bothering him.....

Firstly, don't panic.

the majorty of bunnies have spurs of varying degrees and yes, it is totally possible he has always had them like this and that's no problem for him, however it is important that you are vigilanrt- which you are being.

I know mine need a dental when they change their behaviour or physique. for Star, that is hanging around in a different place for food, for some it is not coming for food, for Butterfly he just gets thin hips, for Sky he stops drinking a much, for Wish she wants to eat and drops food.

As long as you know your bunnies, then all you need to do is follow your gut instinct. If you feel something is slightly 'off' then that's the time to get him booked in for a teeth check ASAP and then likely dental.

I'd agree with Sky-O - the best thing you can do is know your bunnies and that way it's a little easier to spot when they're acting out of character.

The kind of symptoms you would be looking for though (apart from them just generally not seeming 'right) would be a reluctance to eat certain foods, eating slower or dropping foods out of the mouth, dribbling, a complete refusal to eat anything. (Bubbles usually displays just the last symptom. ) There is a little more detail here on some of the symptoms and how they're relevant. http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=472&S=5

I agree with everything Sky-O and Karen said, but I'll add my own experience...

Timmy has had 3 dentals now, he seems to need them every 3 months and like Sweep he is a fantastic hay eater and went for his first 2.5 years without any teeth issues. I think it is either genetic/the way they are growing. Timmy however shows no symptoms at all, he just stops eating and it happens so quickly. His last dental was two weeks ago, I knew it was around the time he would be due, but he was still fine, eating like a trooper as usual. I got home and he was sitting in his hay basket munching, then 2 hours later he was hunched up in his den and I just knew he wasn't well. I gave him some pain meds and about an hour later he started to eat again, but when we tried him with some hard pellets he took ages to chew it and seemed to be trying to chew with just one side of his mouth. I booked him in for an appointment the next morning and they did his dental and he's been fine since. It was nearly 3 months to the day since his last, so in 3 months time I will take him to the vets for his teeth to be checked as I really don't want to wait until he stops eating.

Each time the vets have said his spurs aren't too bad and there is no sign of them rubbing his tongue or causing any sores, but the dental always solves the problem, so maybe he's a bit sensitive to teeth changes (can understand that!).

I hope Sweep gives you a bit more of a "heads-up" than Timmy, literally the only thing I can go on with him now is timescale as shows absolutely no changes at all in the run up to him refusing to eat, bless him!

Bubbles has been very much like Timmy - absolutely no other signs and she's usually fine right up to the point she stops eating altogether. The dental usually sorts the problem, even though the spurs have often been very tiny.

Bubbles has overgrown tooth roots now too, so symptoms are slightly different and so I need to start picking up on different signs!

Thank-you everyone for your replies.

I kind of hope that he has always had small spurs, as then it shows he can manage them by being an avid hay eater and he won't have to go through numerous GA's. I'll just carry on as normal for now and hope for the best :thumb:

Is there anything else I could be doing to reduce his chances of needing a dental? He gets fresh meadow hay twice a day, and couple of handfuls of stalky every couple of days. He gets the occasional apple/willow stick. Would it help if he were to have apple/willow/hawthorn sticks on a more regular basis?

I think once the teeth start to need dentals, then there isn't any way to stop the spurs growing back completely. As long as you continue to offer your rabbit hay ( doesn't mean they will eat it :lol: and can be a slow process of finding the "right" hay for some buns ) then it should help to slow down the re-growth. I tried cutting back on pellets slowly to increase hay consumption but it didn't work (disastrous in fact as it caused stasis) but I measure how much pellets mine have each day...and regularly weigh Pebbles ( once every two weeks unless he shows signs like loss of appetite or dribbly mouth) then I'll weigh him every day if I need to. I usually over-react when I see a wet mouth....but sometimes he is just a sloppy drinker!

I don't think that's necessarily the case (although it often is). Heather had one dental back in about 2005/6 and has never needed one since.

I used to be able to tell with Santa because she used to chew differently. When her teeth were getting long She used to chew with a very mouth open up-down movement instead of a more circular side-to-side movement. Also, if eating grass,she would bite onto the grass and pull her head back to yank it out of the ground intend of snipping it off like normal. I think it's very much a case of observing what is normal for your own buns (I am certain you do this anyway) so that you are aware of anything which strikes you as a little odd,like a change in normal chewing motion for instance.

Good luck x

fruitandnutcake said:

I think once the teeth start to need dentals, then there isn't any way to stop the spurs growing back completely. As long as you continue to offer your rabbit hay ( doesn't mean they will eat it :lol: and can be a slow process of finding the "right" hay for some buns ) then it should help to slow down the re-growth. I tried cutting back on pellets slowly to increase hay consumption but it didn't work (disastrous in fact as it caused stasis) but I measure how much pellets mine have each day...and regularly weigh Pebbles ( once every two weeks unless he shows signs like loss of appetite or dribbly mouth) then I'll weigh him every day if I need to. I usually over-react when I see a wet mouth....but sometimes he is just a sloppy drinker!

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You see i'm lucky - Sweep isn't at all fussy with hay, and has happily gobbled up every hay I've ever offered him (though I myself am fussy with hay so would never give him anything bad quality anyway). He gets about 10 SS pellets a day (I would take these out completely but he has always been slightly underweight and he needs them for weight maintenance) and some dried herbs/bramble leaves but apart from that he fills himself up on hay :thumb:

Santa said:

I don't think that's necessarily the case (although it often is). Heather had one dental back in about 2005/6 and has never needed one since.

I used to be able to tell with Santa because she used to chew differently. When her teeth were getting long She used to chew with a very mouth open up-down movement instead of a more circular side-to-side movement. Also, if eating grass,she would bite onto the grass and pull her head back to yank it out of the ground intend of snipping it off like normal. I think it's very much a case of observing what is normal for your own buns (I am certain you do this anyway) so that you are aware of anything which strikes you as a little odd,like a change in normal chewing motion for instance.

Good luck x

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I do love sitting and watching the buns so am well used to watching how he eats and moves around. Might get some more hawthorn/apple/willow sticks to get him chewing some more :thumb: