Dental Buns & Repeat Anaesthesia- Health Effects?

Im sure I read somewhere that repeat anaesthtics have a bad effect on a rabbits health, especially to the renal system. Is this true? Are there any other bad effects and does it lower their expected life span?

I hadn't heard that before but I must admit I am worried about the GA on rabbits regularly. I'll be watching this thread to find out!

I dont know for certain (not a vet or anything) but I would guess it would be the case because its the same for all animals - the more GA they have the more they are at risk of health problems or worse.

I read somewhere that yes - reapeat GA WAS bad, but I also read somewhere that some vets can do a dental without GA? They use sommat else??

Sorry, not had any experience at this, so only skim read other threads

I just wondered if there came a time where another dental would place to much stress on the system and it was time to call it a day? Fiver is my first dental bun and luckily he has only had one so far but it was estimated he would be an every three months bun.

If the back teeth are really bad I do know some people have had them removed and the bun has gone on to have healthy happy life. You just have to cut up his food and hay etc into smaller portions.

Yes I have heard this too.

However...a GA does not need to be used every time- I had a dental bun who had probs with her molars AND incisors and she would be given a whiff of gas whilst they were burred down...its also very cheap compared to a GA- it would cost me about £8 a time....talk to your vet or shop around to find one who can and will do this in your area.

Every 3 months is really not that often and I think I would always want to persevere with it...if they end up dying under a GA at least you have given them the chance rather than taking that decision to PTS.

Oh yes Fiver is only young and because his is diet related we can actually extend it past three months if we can find a hay he likes. TBH if his health did suffer and he went while having a dental it would be no different to PTS so I would continue to take him for the rest of his natural life...I guess I was just curious for those bunnies that need 3 week or so dentals.

My Zippy has servere dental dease and as a result as a GA every two months, I did consider gas but the amount of work she has done I'm happy for her to have the GA and I do know that I could one day lose her. She's had seven GA's since the beginning of last year and I would rather risk teh GA then have her pts.

The question is a difficult one. My bunnies all need dentals every 4 weeks. It is a distressing situation especially since they all the need the dental at different times if you know what I mean.

My bunny Nell is taking longer and longer to bounce back from the GA, in terms of how quickly she recovers in the vets and how quickly she returns to eating once she is out. She was floppy for a good 10 hours coming round from the GA. She had her teeth burred on Monday and as of today (Thursday) she is still not interested in food. The vet has tried 'playing' with the GA pre-med, which had good effects in my bunny Sumi but no effects in Nell.

I have no-one close by who will do my bunnys' dentals under gas only. I also have extremely nervy bunnies who it is felt would possibly find that procedure way too stressful.


My vet has talked about renal complications after repeat GA, caused I think by the fact that blood pressure drops during administration of GA which can lead to damage to vital organs (espec kidneys) and then as they come round from the GA, the blood pressure 'rush' to these organs can be damaging too

Just to say, it might be thought cruel to put an animal to sleep who 'only' needs a GA every 4 weeks, but when the first two weeks are spent constantly nursing them back to eating, only for their teeth to hurt and need 'done' again in 2 weeks (or less), then I suppose I have my own opinion on that and am living that decision in reality at the moment

Fiona x

Aww Fiona I didnt realise it had gotten so bad with your buns at the moment.

We are very lucky as Fivers is mild and diet related but I know there are some buns with a terrible problem.

Is it also true that burring can cause the roots to work loose and the teeth to eventually fall out?

Sooz22 said:

Aww Fiona I didnt realise it had gotten so bad with your buns at the moment.

We are very lucky as Fivers is mild and diet related but I know there are some buns with a terrible problem.

Is it also true that burring can cause the roots to work loose and the teeth to eventually fall out?

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Hi there, Not sure about the root question I have to say.

Just out of interest, how do you know it is diet related and not genetic? Granted my bunnies have never been amazing hay eaters but they are all related and I kept help but think that is to blame.

Just wondered also, in relation to a post above, can bunnies have ALL of their molars removed? How/what would they eat?

Fiona x

He didnt develope problems until the age of 18 months...if it was genetic its likely it would have started earlier.

I saw a bun on RIN who had her bottom molars out but not her top meaning she needed more dentals to keep them down as they had nothing to wear against...and I wondered why they didnt take the whole lot out :?

Sooz22 said:

He didnt develope problems until the age of 18 months...if it was genetic its likely it would have started earlier.

I saw a bun on RIN who had her bottom molars out but not her top meaning she needed more dentals to keep them down as they had nothing to wear against...and I wondered why they didnt take the whole lot out :?

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That's interesting about the age thing. My bunnies didn't start getting dental problems until they were 3 and a half though! :shock: Possibly because I now force hay eating by hardly giving any pellets (I phased this in last summer) and now molar problems have emerged. :? Gives fuel to my suspicion that I should go back to feeding my dental bunnies more pellets and risk the weight/dirty bot scenario.

Does anyone have buns with no molars at all? Sorry to hijack the thread but its all sort of related.

Fiona x

Apparently teeth wear down better on hay & veg because pellets dont promote a natural grinding action. If I can get Fiver on hay him and Scout will no longer get pellets, she needs to lose weight but I cant deny him pellets til he gets back to his correct weight

Zippy has the problem above, it's a big job taking out molars, her other ones had fallen out. This is why she has to have the other ones ground down.

Forgot to say Zippy was 3/4 when I had her and I've had her over two years, she didn't have problems untill the beginning of last year.

Maybe its a combination of diet and genetics... he is prone to them but its controllable with diet. His teeth must be odd to grow molar spurs but if he hasnt had them up til now something must have changed wth his diet/eating habits.

Fiona hun that sounds just like my old doe..and i took it to be enough was enough but i always wondered if theyd taken her olars ut would she be ok..they said they didnt do that..
bifs had 4 dentals since last september..last one was almost under a month apart but the other vets co cked it up!
dont think our vets does the gas thingy either..must ask. but bif needed ga as she was having xrays etc at same time.

I have heard of a couple of vets who will do burring with NO anaesthetic at all....the device rotates at an alarming amount of revolutions a minute though, not sure i woul like the risk to delicate mouths.