Hello, sorry to appear out of the woodwork just to ask a health question...
Martial is 6 1/2 years old. Last week I noticed a lump on his lower jaw, and on Friday we saw a new vet* with a reasonable amount of rabbit experience who confirmed it was a tooth root abscess. The vet started him on sulfatrim, which caused him to stop eating so he's no longer taking it, and he's booked in for surgery on Friday**. It's a small abscess that is (or at least was; difficult to tell when he's stopped eating for other reasons) asymptomatic so far, and I think the antibiotics did shrink it a bit before he stopped taking them.
My question is basically whether surgery is going to be worth it. I've seen from previous posts/other research that abscesses that don't have dental involvement can be held at bay by initial surgery and long-term antibiotic use for a good length of time, but I've not been able to find anything about those with dental involvement. He's had several dentals due to molar spurs previously (they're maloccluded; he eats a marvellous amount of hay when he's not ill). The previous vet he's seen have never mentioned that the roots look bad on X-rays (but they've also been terrible at communication).
He's not a brave rabbit. He refused to bond with another bunny (I think due to his pretty dire early life experiences) so he hasn't got any emotional support from other buns when he's travelling or at the vets. He finds vet visits incredibly stressful, and while I've got the hang of helping him recover from dentals, I don't think he'd choose to have surgery if it was only going to buy him a few extra weeks. Given that abscess wounds are usually left open, I also worry about whether I'd be able to drain and flush an open wound without causing him excessive stress.
I'm hopefully going to speak to the vet on the phone today to ask this question (and also whether he should have surgery while he's still unwell from the antibiotics), but I'd also appreciate hearing about any experience anyone here has had. I love this little creature more than words can say and dread losing him but I need to make the right decisions for him. If it's time to move to palliative care then I want to do that for him as best I can.
Thank you.
* His previous vets, despite supposedly being exotics specialists, have developed terrible communication skills, been prescribing low medication doses, and ignored my letter of complaint so I've ditched them. It's a shame because they used to be really good with buns. Now the nearest vet with an interest in rabbits is a good half hour motorway drive away, and Martial doesn't travel well at all. I've had three rabbit savvy vets disappear now.
** He's also on meloxicam and metaclopramide and being syringe fed; I asked a [different] vet who I spoke to on the phone for some ranitidine but she didn't think it was worth prescribing, hopefully I'm speaking to the original vet today and can get some.
Martial is 6 1/2 years old. Last week I noticed a lump on his lower jaw, and on Friday we saw a new vet* with a reasonable amount of rabbit experience who confirmed it was a tooth root abscess. The vet started him on sulfatrim, which caused him to stop eating so he's no longer taking it, and he's booked in for surgery on Friday**. It's a small abscess that is (or at least was; difficult to tell when he's stopped eating for other reasons) asymptomatic so far, and I think the antibiotics did shrink it a bit before he stopped taking them.
My question is basically whether surgery is going to be worth it. I've seen from previous posts/other research that abscesses that don't have dental involvement can be held at bay by initial surgery and long-term antibiotic use for a good length of time, but I've not been able to find anything about those with dental involvement. He's had several dentals due to molar spurs previously (they're maloccluded; he eats a marvellous amount of hay when he's not ill). The previous vet he's seen have never mentioned that the roots look bad on X-rays (but they've also been terrible at communication).
He's not a brave rabbit. He refused to bond with another bunny (I think due to his pretty dire early life experiences) so he hasn't got any emotional support from other buns when he's travelling or at the vets. He finds vet visits incredibly stressful, and while I've got the hang of helping him recover from dentals, I don't think he'd choose to have surgery if it was only going to buy him a few extra weeks. Given that abscess wounds are usually left open, I also worry about whether I'd be able to drain and flush an open wound without causing him excessive stress.
I'm hopefully going to speak to the vet on the phone today to ask this question (and also whether he should have surgery while he's still unwell from the antibiotics), but I'd also appreciate hearing about any experience anyone here has had. I love this little creature more than words can say and dread losing him but I need to make the right decisions for him. If it's time to move to palliative care then I want to do that for him as best I can.
Thank you.
* His previous vets, despite supposedly being exotics specialists, have developed terrible communication skills, been prescribing low medication doses, and ignored my letter of complaint so I've ditched them. It's a shame because they used to be really good with buns. Now the nearest vet with an interest in rabbits is a good half hour motorway drive away, and Martial doesn't travel well at all. I've had three rabbit savvy vets disappear now.
** He's also on meloxicam and metaclopramide and being syringe fed; I asked a [different] vet who I spoke to on the phone for some ranitidine but she didn't think it was worth prescribing, hopefully I'm speaking to the original vet today and can get some.