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Incisor removal - I'm a bit upset right now

susiemae

Mama Doe
Hi. I had to take Domino to the vet this morning as I noticed yesterday his front teeth were quite badly overgrown and although he was still eating, he was having trouble picking up his food. I was expecting for his teeth to be burred. The vet said to me I had two options, which was to have the teeth repeatedly burred (she said probably every 3 to 4 weeks) or have the teeth removed. My initial reaction to removal was shock because I didn't think it would be something that would have been suggested at that point, i.e this is the first time he has ever had problems with his teeth (he's 5). Domino is a very nervous rabbit and hates being handled and gets extremely stressed just going in his carrier, let alone actually seeing the vet. I said I was concerned about his stress levels as they would burr without general anaesthetic She said if I were to ask what she would do if it was her rabbit in that situation, she said she would opt to have the teeth removed because he gets so stressed. Now based on that advice, I went ahead and agreed to have his incisors removed. He did stop breathing at one point under the anaesthetic but they managed to bring him round and he's ok and they've kept him in overnight for pain relief.

What I'm upset about is that now I've actually had a bit of time to research the condition and rabbits without incisors, I'm concerned to see that my vet never advised me that the teeth could have been burred to see whether they realigned themselves initially or at least to see how long they took to grow back. After finding out this bit of information, I'm actually very upset that I was advised to have the teeth removed when perhaps less invasive measures could have been looked into first. Obviously I'm aware of how painful this operation will have been for Domino and I've been left feeling that I made totally the wrong decision for him.

Any opinions/comments?
 
there are a few members on here that have had their rabbits incisor teeth removed im sure they can offer any advice tips on caring for your bunny from now on, on diet wise etc

i once felt the same with my first mini lop when the vet back then said removing all his molars i was like :shock: and i refused, now they seem to have moved on alot and now a rabbit savvy vets, when mabel was having dental issues last year (touch wood) seem fine now ie, her molars they where going to do x-rays if they ddn;t improve
 
I'm sure he will be fine so try not to worry. Others on here have had their buns incisors removed and they cope well.
I don't know if your vet did the right thing or not, but if not, it just stresses again that not all vets are as knowledgeable as we'd like them to be. It's awful when you're put in a position where you have to rush a decision and don't have the opportunity to research it for yourself, you have to do what you think is right at the time. Don't beat yourself up over it.

EDIT: We had Scarlet's molar burred 4 times before we gave up and had several extracted. We would have saved her several GAs if we'd removed sooner. You can just never tell.
 
A few years ago I had a bun who had her front teeth removed. She was about 3ish not 5 but it barely slowed her down, just make sure that everything you feed can fit into his little mouth and back to his molars. In fact Jem and her husbun made a bril wallpaper shredding duo, Jem would lick the wallpaper til it came loose and Nibbles would grab the loose bit and pull up stripping it all the way up :evil::lol:

The first few days will be hard, I recommend that you get some puréed fruit baby food, there is one called Ella something or other which is a fave with my two! Or soak his food into a mush, anything to keep him eating when he feels dopey and his little mouf hurts

It does seem that your vet rushed you into the decision, which seems a little odd. Also Jem had hers done because the roots had overgrown into her jaw blocking her tear ducts not because of burrs which are not as hard to treat without the invsive surgery. BUT it's done now, maybe mention how you feel to her, do you trust her? Perhaps you might feel more comfortable moving to a different vet, but keep Domino eating and you'll be amazed how quickly he seems to get over it.
 
A few years ago I had a bun who had her front teeth removed. She was about 3ish not 5 but it barely slowed her down, just make sure that everything you feed can fit into his little mouth and back to his molars. In fact Jem and her husbun made a bril wallpaper shredding duo, Jem would lick the wallpaper til it came loose and Nibbles would grab the loose bit and pull up stripping it all the way up :evil::lol:

The first few days will be hard, I recommend that you get some puréed fruit baby food, there is one called Ella something or other which is a fave with my two! Or soak his food into a mush, anything to keep him eating when he feels dopey and his little mouf hurts

It does seem that your vet rushed you into the decision, which seems a little odd. Also Jem had hers done because the roots had overgrown into her jaw blocking her tear ducts not because of burrs which are not as hard to treat without the invsive surgery. BUT it's done now, maybe mention how you feel to her, do you trust her? Perhaps you might feel more comfortable moving to a different vet, but keep Domino eating and you'll be amazed how quickly he seems to get over it.


Thanks for the replies everyone.

Hele - I have been using this vet practice since Ive had rabbits, so for nearly 7 years. I did go to another vets practice for short period because their vaccinations were cheaper but stopped using them because I felt I had been given poor advice on a tooth abscess one of my other rabbits had. So went back to use this original vets practice. They have a brilliant rabbit vet but she is over in another branch now quite far away and its not always possible for me to travel over there. The vet I saw today, I have not seen before. I just wish I had trusted my gut feeling that I felt removal was a little too drastic. I've not had reason to question their advice before but as I say, Ive not seen this specific vet before until today.

I suppose theres nothing I can do about my decision now other than to chalk it up to experience and do lots of research to make sure I can keep Domino as happy and comfortable as possible when he comes home tomorrow.
 
Scarlet has been fine after extractions. We usually give her metacam for 3 days but she's never seemed to be in alot of pain so hopefully he'll be ok.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone.

Hele - I have been using this vet practice since Ive had rabbits, so for nearly 7 years. I did go to another vets practice for short period because their vaccinations were cheaper but stopped using them because I felt I had been given poor advice on a tooth abscess one of my other rabbits had. So went back to use this original vets practice. They have a brilliant rabbit vet but she is over in another branch now quite far away and its not always possible for me to travel over there. The vet I saw today, I have not seen before. I just wish I had trusted my gut feeling that I felt removal was a little too drastic. I've not had reason to question their advice before but as I say, Ive not seen this specific vet before until today.

I suppose theres nothing I can do about my decision now other than to chalk it up to experience and do lots of research to make sure I can keep Domino as happy and comfortable as possible when he comes home tomorrow.


You clearly have had no reason to mistrust your vets, they have given you 7 years of good service. You have not done anything wrong. There is a very good chance that you made the right call and spared him the stress of several burr removals, if it needed doing you would have had it done eventually. Better now than later!

And buns are fickle things, sometimes you can't seem to do the right thing for them no matter how hard you try. I regret not going for the invasive treatment with a few animals, but then I regret choosing to operate on another animal as she did not recover from the anesthetic and had we not operated she would have had at least a couple more happy months. There seems to be no right or wrong when choosing treatments, I just wish that rabbits featured more heavily on the syllabus in vet school!

If you can keep eating then I see no reason why his quality of life should diminish even a little bit. Jem never let it bother her she was a happy little thing, I don't even think that she realised that there was anything wrong. On one occasion a family member asked if they could give the buns some veg and we found her heartily sucking on a carrot about half an hour later as she couldn't fit it into her mouth:lol:

Keep him warm, calm and offer lots of his fave treats that are soft enough, baby food was a life saver for us. Herbs might work well as they won't hurt his sore gums, and prepare for a few days of syring feeding, just in case he doesn't start eating on his own right away.

Good luck!
 
One of my buns had hr inscisors removed and she made a wonderful recovery and was able to eat dried food almost immediately also hay and grass but veg needs to be in small pieces. Hope bunny is ok.
 
My Snoopy had his removed and he does fine. I do have to cut up veggies a bit and cut some grass for him, but it doesn't seem to bother him at all. I wouldn't hesitate to remove them in the future because he recovered so well and had 1 day of stress rather than stress every 4weeks. Yes they can grow back, my mums bun had his removed but his little peg teeth grew back, it means he can chew bits and pieces and they break themselves off over time so you don't need them trimmed.

If you have any other questions I will try to answer them :D
 
My Herbie had his incisors removed one of them and two peg teeth grew back.....he had the op again, now one peg tooth grows back! I didn't want to put him through the op again so I get his peg tooth burred when he needs it, occasionally it does just snap off by it's self.

Some bunnies are fine with burring, but some get really stressed with it.

Now that your bun has had them removed just keep an eye on his mouth in case any grow back, which can happen if the vet never managed to kill the tooth root, like MichG's mums bun too.

My Herbie copes really well without his incisors, I only need to cut up his veg. He eats hay and pellets as normal :)
 
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