Molar/cheek teeth issues

[suzy pepper]

Hello everyone! I hope it is okay for me to post about a medical issue my bunny is having. I’m reaching my wit’s end about this and would love any thoughts that anyone might have.

My rabbit is turning 6 years old this year, and has always been extremely finicky about eating hay. That’s putting it mildly, actually. She despises hay, but will occasionally eat alfalfa hay. Nevertheless, she is always offered a mix of timothy and alfalfa hays, and various ‘flavors’ of timothy hay, at that.

Diet and her breed (Holland lop) have led to my rabbit developing molar spurs that need to be ground down by her amazing vet (I love her), under general anaesthesia, every 6.5-7 weeks. My rabbit has one molar tooth in particular that does not come into contact with her other teeth whatsoever, and continues to grow in a tusk-like fashion, impeding her eating ability. We have talked about removing this tooth, but it appears that removing molars in rabbits is strongly discouraged unless absolutely necessary, for fear of the jaw breaking.

I really don’t know what to do. My rabbit has been taking all of her surgeries like a champ so far, but her recovery times have been growing after each surgery, and her time between surgeries has been lessening. Does she have any other options besides just grinding her teeth down every 7 weeks? I spoke to my vet (who spoke to other vets) about an apparently rarely-done procedure known as the apicoectomy for that one tooth, which would involve removing the “root” of the tooth, which, in turn, would lead to the tooth not growing anymore. Upon further discussion, we decided that this surgery was far too risky/dangerous/painful to be truly worth it.

Does anyone, by any chance, have any other ideas? I know that this is a common issue in short-faced rabbit breeds.

Thank you all for your help. I cannot explain how much I appreciate the opportunity to talk to so many people about this.

[Sarita]

I’ve had quite a few experiences with different rabbits with molar problems. I don’t think that removing the tooth is going to solve the whole problem – it could cause the other teeth to shift so you may still have to do the molar trims.

My current rabbit Bobby who is a Netherland Dwarf has no lower left molars due to a dental abscess (he was dumped at a guinea pig rescue because he wasn’t eating and this is what the vet discovered) – he in time lost all the bottom left molars due to the abscess and just general gum problems. We do have to do molar trims on him every 2 to 3 months still.

I do believe the problem with your rabbit is age and genetics. As rabbits age they lose bone density which causes dental problems.

How long has she been having the molar trimmings done?

[suzy pepper]

Thank you so much for your response, Sarita. Even when it feels like there’s no solution to this problem, it’s still really helpful to talk to people about it. My rabbit has been having molar trimmings since one year ago – her first dentistry was in June 2013. However, her problem was pretty bad by this point and she had teeth embedded into her cheeks, poor bunny. Because she had continued to eat and play and act as she always did, I hadn’t realized that she was in pain until much later.

Sorry to hear about Bobby! That’s awful that he continues to need trims. It would be wonderful if we could find a solution to this.

[Beka27]

Oh gosh… She’s lucky to have you and a caring vet!

Unfortunately, this isn’t something easily solved. If the one pesky molar is much worse than the others, I wouldn’t necessarily rule out removal, but understand that it’s still a 50/50 chance of making it better.

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