Fifibutton
Wise Old Thumper
Mona my nearly 10 year old rabbit (10 on 3rd April) is displaying a range of symptoms that are puzzling. Over the last two days she has shunned hard food such as pellets and thick stalks of hay and grass and only eats rocket, parsley and thin strands of hay. She will not touch mushy pellets or porridge. I have had to syringe feed some critical care. As expected her weight has gone down a little.
She is grinding her teeth on a off but the sound is not a deep solid sound like when Bonnie my other dental bun grinds. The sound is almost higher pitched, almost as though rubber is being ground between her teeth :?
I examined Mona thoroughly today, she has not watery eyes, no bumps or lumps around the jaws and cheeks, no wet fur. Her fur us clean and glossy, she is doing softer poos and is not playing as much. She seems to want to lie down and cuddle up with her mate more than play these days. I know her age could be a factor in this case. However due to the grinding and lack of eating of course I suspected dental problems.
So I checked her mouth with the otoscope; My findings are thus: She has two small deposits of soggy parsley stored in the right cheek. As far as I know rabbits don't store food. Her mouth was incredibly moist, looking through the otoscope was almost like looking at an underwater scene. Her gums are a healthy pink, there is no inflammation or swelling that I can see to indicate an abscess. There were some rabbit hairs in her mouth presumable ingested during grooming. Her lower molar teeth had some brownish flecks of discolouration (disease or age?) Finally the upper molars looked squint and uneven. The diagram below should show you what I saw. As you can see her upper molars are uneven and squint.
Does this mean she is developing molar spurs and a misaligned jaw?
Also if it is dental what are the chances of her surviving an op and the vet doing it in the first place. I would presume her age and weight would make her high risk.
She is booked in to the vet for Tuesday and has metacam to keep her going.
She is grinding her teeth on a off but the sound is not a deep solid sound like when Bonnie my other dental bun grinds. The sound is almost higher pitched, almost as though rubber is being ground between her teeth :?
I examined Mona thoroughly today, she has not watery eyes, no bumps or lumps around the jaws and cheeks, no wet fur. Her fur us clean and glossy, she is doing softer poos and is not playing as much. She seems to want to lie down and cuddle up with her mate more than play these days. I know her age could be a factor in this case. However due to the grinding and lack of eating of course I suspected dental problems.
So I checked her mouth with the otoscope; My findings are thus: She has two small deposits of soggy parsley stored in the right cheek. As far as I know rabbits don't store food. Her mouth was incredibly moist, looking through the otoscope was almost like looking at an underwater scene. Her gums are a healthy pink, there is no inflammation or swelling that I can see to indicate an abscess. There were some rabbit hairs in her mouth presumable ingested during grooming. Her lower molar teeth had some brownish flecks of discolouration (disease or age?) Finally the upper molars looked squint and uneven. The diagram below should show you what I saw. As you can see her upper molars are uneven and squint.
Does this mean she is developing molar spurs and a misaligned jaw?
Also if it is dental what are the chances of her surviving an op and the vet doing it in the first place. I would presume her age and weight would make her high risk.
She is booked in to the vet for Tuesday and has metacam to keep her going.