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broken lower jaw? experiences??

J

Jess2107

Warren Scout
Right. I my lovely binky got underneath my feet last night when I was sorting the hay balls out, as I went to sit back down he got underneath me and I just about sat on him!!! Not fully obviously but enough to feel him. He seemed ok just abit shocked but he was happily scrounging through fr herbs. This morning his hay ball was still full and he's struggling to eat pellets! I checked his mouth and upon inspection his lower teeth appear to be wobbly.. could I have broken his jaw? Iv found a pet dentistry website online and the same happened to another rabbit it was stepped on and it's left and right lower jaw was seperated.
Iv had to soak his nuggets and he's fine at eating them. I'm had to come to work but want to take him to the vets as soon as I finish.
Has anyone else experienced this? Can it be resolved? I am so upset I feel physically sick I can't eat or focus! He's less than a year old mini lop*:(
 
Poor boy

Could you get an hour off work to get him to a Vet this morning, even if it means having to drop him off and leave him there. It's just that he may be in a fair bit of pain and in urgent need of analgesia.

Jaw fractures can heal, but it really depends on the exact location of the fracture and what type of fracture. They certainly all require ongoing analgesic cover at the very least. I really do urge you to try to get him to a Vet this morning xx
 
Poor little lad. I have nothing to add to what Jane has already said, but just wanted to say I hope he will be OK. xx
 
A broken lower jaw was one of the possible consequences of surgery on my rabbit's peculiar jaw abscess. It was a risk but one that FHB was not too bothered about ie it could be dealt with if it happened and was not that big an issue. So I assume that it is potentially fixable and the rabbit manages to eat despite the damage.

I have had 2 rabbits with effectively no use on one side of their lower jaw due to tooth loss and abscesses. They managed fine with minimal alterations to their normal diet and appropriate drugs, etc.

I would definitely get it seen soon. A jaw that sets at a funny angle could cause future dental issues if the teeth are not aligned so that they wear down normally. You would also need pain relief at the very minimum.

Meanwhile, I would feed moistened pellets and anything else that they could manage so that they can keep eating.
 
My rabbit broke his jaw a few years ago. The vet admitted him straight away to be put on IV fluids, pain relief and x-rays. Because of the location of the break it was inoperable and he came home with daily pain meds given twice daily, and critical care to syringe feed, and it healed fully by itself.

If I remember rightly though, he was syringe fed only because if he kept moving his jaw to much it wouldn't have been able to heal properly in the correct position. I didn't have a particularly rabbit savvy vet at the time, and so only being able to eat via syringe may not have been correct, but to be fair to the vet, he looked after Benjamin really well and did everything he could for him, and even if it this information re the eating wasn't correct, it made sense to a new bunny owner at the time and Benjamin did make a full recovery, and it was re x-rayed to confirm that after a few weeks.
 
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Just on my way home from work now. Should I give him some more soaked pellets or wait till he's been to the vets? Don't want to make it worse
 
Bad news and bad news. It's clearly seperated the lower right and left jaw! The other bad news is my vets never seen a rabbit with a broken jaw before so we don't know how to fix it!!!!
She's going back to the surgery tonight to ask the other vets. He's had a metacam injection and iv to keep making him mushy wet food ��
 
Jess2107 said:
Bad news and bad news. It's clearly seperated the lower right and left jaw! The other bad news is my vets never seen a rabbit with a broken jaw before so we don't know how to fix it!!!!
She's going back to the surgery tonight to ask the other vets. He's had a metacam injection and iv to keep making him mushy wet food ��
Click to expand...

Can you request a referral to a Specialist ?
 
We have had several with broken jaws for different reasons. All were treated with good pain relief and liquid food for around ten days. Then moving on to finely grated and shredded veg.

Some recovered some didn't depending on the underlying cause. Those that did now have dental problems and require regular incisor burring as the teeth are out of line. They can't be removed as the risk of the jaw breaking again is too high.

Good luck with your bunny x
 
She said if she refers me to their referal unit I'm Gunna be looking at thousands and I don't have that. Rwaf have gave me some rabbit vets close to me. Going to ring great houghton
 
If your vet is a member of the rwaf they can send the xrays to Richard Saunders for advice free of charge. Our vet is in regular contact with him for our rabbits.
 
You can get a referral to a rabbit specialist for much less than you have been quoted. Your vet could also do a telephone referral and send the x-rays across. Treatment could be either at the specialist or at your vet, depending on what they say the options are. You do have some choices and you could ask your vet to phone someone like Francis Harcourt-Brown for advice - even if you can't get there for treatment. The referral fee was about £80 about a year ago. Treatment rates were similar to my regular vet.

You could also go directly to a rabbit specialist but you would probably have to pay for another set of x-rays, etc. People on here could point you in the direction of someone local.

I hope he gets better soon.
 
Our vets are referral vets and the cost is the same as if you were with them originally! Your vets are fibbing or simply do not understand the process.
 
Maybe the vet meant going to a specialist to operate on the jaw rather than just a referral? But even that is unlikely to be thousands
 
Dropped him off this morning. Update! Theyv spoken with a rabbit specialist and theyv recommended to use a resin glue first to see if that will hold it. My vets don't use it but they can use a certain resin from the diy shop. Providing that doesn't work they will try the wire and if it still doesn't join they will remove the teeth and use a bigger wire for the jaw itself.. ��
 
Update again!! He's had them glued with the resin! He's just coming round from the anaesthetic. The surgeon wants to keep him in for a few hours to make sure it sets ok and iv got an appointment at 20 past 6 with her so watch this space ��
 
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