It's Not Wabbit Wednesday But Lets Talk About Dental Disease in Rabbits :-)

[iggyperdyandme]

I don't know I you would call Betty a dental bunny but she has elongated tooth roots. We are managing the symptons rather than the cause due to her tiny flat faced head!

Betty has drops for her eye infections (par for the cause) but we have been very lucky so far. Betty had hardly any pellets and treats now and we feed her so much hay which is helping. We tried so many drops and flushing for the eye infections before finding maxi troll. But this isn't a long term option because of the steroids. She is about 2-3 and developed symptons at 1 year (just a few months after she came to us) so is prob genetic.

Having Walter to help with cleaning her eyes is amazing. At present she gets fur clouds from moulting and blocked tear ducts so we are grooming her so much and helping out with cloud removal with boiled water and a cotton bud to the corner of her eye. The clouds must annoy her though because she tolerates their removal!

There are loads of baby lops advertised locally at the moment and I always think they should come with a little 'May get bad teeth and cost you an arm and a leg'. If there was anything we could do I would pay anything I could to help her though.

I would be really interested in knowing how other people manage though and what to expect for the future for Betty? :wave:

 

[iggyperdyandme]

That was the longest post! Really great idea for a thread though!!

 

[Barn Yard Bunnies]

After having rabbits for nearly 14 years and no dental problems I now have two dental bunnies. Mr Bennett who some people maybe aware is a frequent dental bunny and Cutie-pie who has had 3 over the last 3 years. I have lost count with Mr Bennett but it must be in double figures now.

Both present themselves with exactly the same symptoms, they stop eating. They are still bright and alert within themselves, interested in food but won't eat. Over time I can tell when Mr Bennett is leading up to a dental. He starts to chew furniture, door frames and his carpet. He slowly goes off his food. I usually get him to the vets before he stops eating now. Its very stressful with Mr Bennett because he seems to get a combination of problems with his dentals such as mites and mucky bottoms, as he gets run down and he can take a week to recover.

Cutie-pie has her dental and is back to normal within hours and doesn't have any other problems, although occasionally gets wet under the eyes. Its been nearly 18 months since her last dental and she had her teeth checked last week and no sign of spurs. My vet is brave and pops her little finger in there to have a feel, (they won't bite), neither of them have spurs at the moment but it was only 5 weeks since Mr Bennett's dental and the check up, 6 weeks is the shortest between dentals, 5 months is the longest. Tried everything and now I pay £70 for a bale of ORCHARD HAY, which has a high silica content which is meant to help grind down teeth.

 

[Jack's-Jane]

Molar spur that has lacerated the tongue



Spurs on both upper and lower molars on the Rabbit's left side

 

[Hesperus]

My experience is very limited, but all I can say is that Harry's first symtpom of dental problems was when he dribbled on my jeans.

 

[katie88]

Great thread ideas!

Marbles I believe is in the early stages of being a dental bunny. She had her first dental last october aged 2 and another one in march this year. The first sign if that she goes off her hay slightly. The change is so subtle and the first time I questioned whether to even get her checked. The second time unfortunately she was poorly with other stuff so it was harder to establish the cause but I just 'sensed' that it was her teeth, and it was.

She has always been an excellent hay eater but the vet says she has uneven teeth She will probably always be a dental bunny so I just encourage her to eat as much hay as poss. I've also recently switched to oxboy orchard grass as I read that's good for dental buns. We'll see if it makes a difference.

 

[mini lop1]

other hidden illness could also contribute to it sometimes, as with my sox, he kept having GI statis episodes, and needing dentals a lot, then when we found out he had kidney disease, ever since he has been on meds (touch wood) he has not needed a dental since :thumb:

 

[Janey]

My bridge bun Poppy was a dental bun.

First presented at about 2 years old, took my awful vets about a week to figure it was her teeth as they said they couldn't see anything (whilst she was awake) :roll:, a week later my poor little emaciated bunny (she was actually emaciated the vet said) had a huge spur filed.

She would stop eating which is how I could tell, she had elongated tooth roots and blocked tear ducts as a result, RU saved her life when somebody suggested she could have depocillin, think I'm going to go back and see who that was. I suggested it to the 'specialist exotic vet' but they wouldn't administer, again RU came to the rescue and suggested my rabbit savvy vet who kept Poppy alive for many years.

In later life she developed awful incisors too which we had to manage, I was convinced and paranoid she would get an abcess but in the end she died rather suddenly, I think due to her heart.

She would never eat hay, she would rather starve and I regularly spent days on end trying to make her eat, she had an awful diet as a result. I do wonder how much pain she was in as she didn't groom a lot either. She had a lot of love though. I'm pretty sure it was caused due to awful breeding, typical pet shop bun with a smooshy face, she was a mini-lop.

I loved that bunny so much, still miss her everyday, she was such a little fighter.

 

[amaeving]

Germ is a dental bunny, she first developed an abscess around 4 years ago and since then has had a couple of episodes. She is an angel for her depo inj and lives on metacam and ranitidine. She has now only has one remaining molar on the left and 2 on the right (removed over multiple dentals) but is very very happy living on a readigrass and a equine hay supplement, along with greens. She eats slower than her pal however maintains her weight well and is definitely worth all the GA's, dentals, x-rays and CT she has recieved over the previous years.

Just goes to show you there is a definitie genetic component (she is a small headed mini lop) and has always been on timothy hay/grass since she was 12 weeks of age.

A gratuitous picture of a very cross Germ post abscess surgery:

 

[Janey]

Germ is a dental bunny, she first developed an abscess around 4 years ago and since then has had a couple of episodes. She is an angel for her depo inj and lives on metacam and ranitidine. She has now only has one remaining molar on the left and 2 on the right (removed over multiple dentals) but is very very happy living on a readigrass and a equine hay supplement, along with greens. She eats slower than her pal however maintains her weight well and is definitely worth all the GA's, dentals, x-rays and CT she has recieved over the previous years.

Just goes to show you there is a definitie genetic component (she is a small headed mini lop) and has always been on timothy hay/grass since she was 12 weeks of age.

A gratuitous picture of a very cross Germ post abscess surgery:

Gorgeous bun.

Mini-lops are my absolute favourite, however I could never have one again due to the risk of dental issues, it causes so much stress.

 

[Jack's-Jane]

With regards to Dental treatment, do you feel confident that your Vet has sufficient knowledge/experience ? Or do you sometimes feel that they are somewhat limited in their 'Rabbit specific' knowledge ? Do you feel that they explain things to you enough or do they just say 'your Rabbit needs a Dental'.

What good advice has your Vet given about the best diet for your Rabbit and for the monitoring of chronic Dental problems ?

 

[JemimaH]

With regards to Dental treatment, do you feel confident that your Vet has sufficient knowledge/experience ? Or do you sometimes feel that they are somewhat limited in their 'Rabbit specific' knowledge ? Do you feel that they explain things to you enough or do they just say 'your Rabbit needs a Dental'.

What good advice has your Vet given about the best diet for your Rabbit and for the monitoring of chronic Dental problems ?

I'm lucky because my vet is an exotic specialist who is very bunny-savvy. She always explains everything really well and has shown me the x rays on numerous occasions, as well as having shown me Dee's teeth through the 'scope before

 

[Jack's-Jane]

I'm lucky because my vet is an exotic specialist who is very bunny-savvy. She always explains everything really well and has shown me the x rays on numerous occasions, as well as having shown me Dee's teeth through the 'scope before

I think its so helpful when a Vet actually takes time to explain what any treatment involves. It is good to feel able to ask questions.

 

[JemimaH]

I think its so helpful when a Vet actually takes time to explain what any treatment involves. It is good to feel able to ask questions.

Oh, definitely. It's also helpful when, despite them being chockablock with appointments/surgery like my vet normally is, they don't rush you in your own appointment and are totally focused on you!

 

[iggyperdyandme]

With regards to Dental treatment, do you feel confident that your Vet has sufficient knowledge/experience ? Or do you sometimes feel that they are somewhat limited in their 'Rabbit specific' knowledge ? Do you feel that they explain things to you enough or do they just say 'your Rabbit needs a Dental'.

What good advice has your Vet given about the best diet for your Rabbit and for the monitoring of chronic Dental problems ?

One local vet is quite good at explaining and advice giving but other vets at the same practice said they had about 2 weeks of training in bunny care or don't know much about small animals so we are very careful to only see the one lady.

We had the same problem when we lived in Leicester though. Our vet was great, the locums that started covering 2 days a week weren't so great.

With regard to diet, we were just told more hay and less pellets and greens. I would be really interested to know about advice given to others though?
I know medical advice is rabbit specific but it's helpful to know what other options to ask about?

 

[Aly&Poppy<3]

5 out of 6 of my rabbits need dentals now

Poppy (7) is a mixture of my ignorance towards rabbit care and awful breeding. She hasn't had to have a dental for over a year now though, but she doesn't have that many teeth left.. Her left eye is weepy again so she is going for a check up, might be her teeth, might need her tear ducts flushing again.

Leo (8 ) is probably because he only had soiled on hay to eat for 5 years, his dentals aren't very frequent though. He's got a soggy nose at the moment so he's going back for a dental check and course of baytril.

Kerbie (7) had his first dental (with us anyway) a few weeks ago, the indication was that his poos were starting to go wet.

Donny (3). Maybe it's a lop thing, he's a hay monster but had some spurs that needed doing.

Lola (3), she is having her second dental in 9 days, maybe for the same reason as Donny. She is also a hay monster but since taking her to the vets for their last check up she has slowed down a bit. Grass, veg, forage, she'll eat it no problem but hay intake isn't as good as usual so that's what made me wonder if it was her teeth again. So soon too

Charley (2) .. Praying she is fine. She eats hay and everything fine, but has never been a huge hay eater, every vet check has been okay though so maybe she's just a slow eater..!

The vet we see is excellent with rabbits/their issues etc but we need to check to see who is doing the surgeries as Kerbie was done by the co owner and main numpty who seems to know jack **** about small animals despite specialising in them. He was willing to send us home with no metacam and the metacam he gave us was the cat one and a low, pointless dosage.
We avoid him completely after the mess ups he's made with the rabbits and my poor hamster April..

(Hauling 3 rabbits to the vets next week will be fun..!)

 

[Bunny Buddy]

With regards to Dental treatment, do you feel confident that your Vet has sufficient knowledge/experience ? Or do you sometimes feel that they are somewhat limited in their 'Rabbit specific' knowledge ? Do you feel that they explain things to you enough or do they just say 'your Rabbit needs a Dental'.

What good advice has your Vet given about the best diet for your Rabbit and for the monitoring of chronic Dental problems ?

Yeah, she gets by

It was interesting to hear FHB telling me in the last couple of weeks that she's seeing a lot less rabbits with non-complex dental problems now ie dental spur type problems compared to about a decade ago and she attributes this to people understanding diet better and feeding lots of fresh good quality hay and not a huge bowl of muesli as would have been the case in the past.

Strangely, with most of my rabbits being lops, I haven't really encountered a huge amount of dental problems with them. From 18 rabbits (15 lops) over 10 years:
Bungee had malocclusion so had regular dentals.
Rudy had one dental 6 weeks after adoption, age 1 now age 7 and no problems since.
Shadow had dental problems but given his liver problems it was down to poor absorbtion of nutrition, I believe.
Erin had a dental abscess but it was most likely down to getting something stuck between her teeth - she has really good teeth otherwise.

So, only really Bungee truly a "dental rabbit".