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A few questions about teeth...

oscarbunny

Warren Veteran
I am just curious really about bunny teeth and how they are treated if there are problems. Hoping someone can answer my questions. Theres nothing wrong with any of my buns teeth (fingers crossed), its just sometimes i read stuff and dont understand. :lol: Here goes:

1) What are molar spurs?
2) What is teeth clipping?
3) What is burring, and how is it done without GA... without the bun becoming distressed, and which part of the mouth can it be done on?
4) How risky is a GA for a bun with teeth problems and is treatment without GA sometimes not an option?

Thanks!
 
Oooh I'd love to know the answers to some of those questions aswell.

I do know burring is like filing the spurs down and I think the spurs are spikes that grow out of the teeth? Ozzy has dental problems but I've never fully understood :oops:
 
Molar spurs are when sharp spikes develop on the teeth from uneven wear - usually in breeds with the squished up lop face as the jaw is affected by the new facial structure, though injuries can also cause the jaw to misalign and cause longterm problems. A change in diet can help by encouraging extra wear with the bun eating more hay/grass/the right kind of veg.
Teeth clipping is much like nail clipping - infact they often use nail clippers :shock: It's not really suitable as it puts a lot of pressure on the teeth which can cause them to crack, and if the crack goes down to the roots it allows infections to set in which causes more problems for the bun. Also clipping doesn't result in a very straight cut usually.
Burring is done with a dremmel like tool - basically cuts the rabbits teeth like you'd cut through a sheet of MDF or something! Sounds barbaric but it can be done with gentle pressure which is much easier on the teeth. It's done on the incisors and can be done without GA by wrapping the bun up and holding it still. Some buns do get very stressed by it though and if it needs to be done quite frequently it's recommended to have the incisors removed totally.
Molar spurs can be filed down without GA but some vets don't like to do it as obviously a bun's mouth can only open so far and a mistake could end up in a nasty injury inside the mouth. Also it's more difficult on rabbits that've had their incisors removed as the 'clamp' tool which holds the mouth open uses the incisors.
GAs for small animals are much safer these days and if the right anaesthetic is used then it's no riskier than with cats and dogs. Obviously some factors can affect it like respiratory problems or kidney/liver damage (interestingly phenols from woodshavings/softwoods are meant to affect how well the body deals with anaesthetic which is why I stopped using them, having several dental buns). Also overweight buns are more at risk as fat absorbs the anaesthetic so it takes longer to flush out of their system afterwards
 
I had to learn it all quite quickly when my first bun turned out to have severely mallocluded incisors then nasty molars which got lots of spurs. Then went on to take on a bun with even worse incisors, his molars were a bit longer than they should be but hadn't developed spurs so he never had a dental (though may have needed one when he got older). Took on a 'normal' bun who turned out to have some small spurs later on, despite me having learnt all about highfibre diets by then and putting them into practise with him since a baby! And also took on a bun with misaligned incisors due to snapping an incisor and the trauma to the teeth had knocked it out of place - as it grew back it grew wonky and pushed the other incisor out of place, which meant the two sets didn't meet right so didn't wear down properly.
All the buns with the incisor problems had them removed and the teeth problems were managed mostly with diet - Mary had several dentals but the time between each was getting longer
'twas a bit hard on the bank balance, but they were all worth it :)
 
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