UPDATE: Dental time! Eating everything but nuggets?

Hi everyone

As some of you know we have been going through the mill with Sparky. However this post relates to Cleo.

She lives outdoors and is Dutch rabbit, she has been spayed and is about 4 and half years old. Unfortunately she isn't bonded as she can be quite aggressive and when she was younger we had to separate her from her sister because of her behaviour.

Anyway she hasn't wanted her nuggets for the last day or so, however, she has been eating hay like there is no tomorrow along with veggies. There has been no weight loss noticed and as soon as we brought her inside she started doing binkies and flicking her head. She is pooping and weeing fine and all seems to be normal, plus her chewing motion when eating hay is fine. Also I would have thought if it was a dental issue she would go off the hay rather than the nuggets?

She weighs about 2-3kg and gets 40g of nuggets per day, which I know some people may think is a bit too much but it is what she has always had and we go by 25g of nuggets per kilo of rabbit. The bag of nuggets was only opened 2 or 3 weeks ago.

I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to do / causing it.

As we have gut motility meds and metacam in the house we have given her a small dose just in case she is in some kind of discomfort but she seems fine within herself and behaving normally, just not interested in nuggets.

Obviously if we are still concerned we will take her to the vet but I was juts looking for some thoughts / advice?

Hi, this sounds very similar to my little bun recently, but of course each bunny is different so once again if it was me I would maybe book an appointment with the vet just to check.

Is she moulting at the moment? And could she maybe have eaten something that could have given her a little gas? Only because with Bailey, he had recently been eating grass and we found this was causing him to have some gas and a little bloat. He also went off his pellets completely but would happily eat hay fine. So like you kind of dismissed his teeth and after a number of tests his teeth are okay, but does she have a wet chin at all? As this is also a sign of dental?

Just going back to the gas, can you see her tummy pressing at all or even looking like she can't get comfortable?

Edited to say - is she also weeing and pooing okay? As baileys poos went quite small and hard which again is a sign of a slow gut.

One of my rabbits goes off her pellets when she needs a dental, yet will be eating hay as usual, if not more. Perhaps a vet check is needed if the pellets are still in date and not soft or anything?

Thanks for the replies.

She has been having a little more kale than usual as we have been using this with Sparky and have massive amount of it which could have caused some gas. We have given her a little dose of metacam and gut stimulants just to cover it. (We have pretty much everything in the house and our vet is happy for us to administer it instead of taking them to the out of hours vets who aren't very rabbit savvy.)

No moulting, no wet chin, no tummy pressing or looking uncomfortable. Wees and poos are all fine and normal. I just gave her a bowl of 10g of nuggets and she did dive in and chewed for a couple of minutes and then hopped away quite happily.

Last year when she had her vaccine the vet did say that she had a small spur on one of her teeth so it may be this causing issues. I think its just when other bunnies have needed dentals they have stopped eating hay and continued with nuggets rather than the other way round and her chewing motion is nice and fast.

We will probably book her in for a check up just to be safe, OH isn't so keen as we have practically been living at the vets with everything that has happened with Sparky!!!

Took Cleo to the vet yesterday as although she has been eating some nuggets and lots of hay and lots of veggies, she still wasn't eating her normal amount of nuggets.

Vet had a look in her mouth and there are spurs on both sides of her lower teeth at the back. She is now on metacam and has been booked in for a dental tomorrow (Monday).

She's had a GA before when she was spayed, but this is her first dental and she is nearly 5 years old. Lots of vibes please!!!!

Sending lots of vibes for Cleo's dental xx