My bunnies teeth

[z7uane]

Hi. I have a problem with my bunny. Her teeth are not growing properly. They are growing on the inside. I have been to the vet several times, and they always trim her teeth but every time it’s the same. I don’t know what to do any more. The vet isn’t helping my bunny and the vet also isn’t cheep. I really want for my bunny to feel good and for her not to have any problems, but it would seem that even if I take her to the vet, they just fix it in a very short term.

I’ve been feeding her with old (not too old), firm bread and carrots. She eats bread and carrots, but it’s not helping her teeth problem. She is not spayed. I don’t want to take her to the vet any more, because everything they do, does not help her. I want to know, what can I do, to help her, so that her teeth will grow properly? Is there anything wrong with what I’m doing? Is the problem in the vet? There are no other vets in the city where I live and this one does not look like she knows what she’s doing. Please help me. I think my bunny is in pain, but I’m not sure. She keeps biting her cage, even when she is most of the time outside. I hope we find a solution, because I don’t know what else I can do. 

[tobyluv]

Hay is what wears down a rabbit’s teeth. Is your rabbit eating hay? Safe chew sticks such as apple twigs might also help. A rabbit should not be given bread and should not have too many carrots because of the sugar content.

If a rabbit’s teeth are severely maloccluded and have to be clipped often, it’s usually recommended these days that the front teeth be removed. That has to be done by a very rabbit savvy vet. The rabbit can eat just fine without its front teeth. You may have to chop harder vegetables into smaller pieces for her.

If your rabbit’s front teeth are growing improperly, it’s possible that her back teeth may need some attention to. They might have high spots that need to be filed down. That has to be done under anesthesia.

Since there aren’t good rabbit savvy vets in every town, sometimes we have to travel further to go to a good vet. Have you tried looking for vets in other areas? Here is one list that shows vets by state. http://rabbit.org/vet-listings/. It’s probably not completely up to date. You can also post here with your location and see if any of the members have a vet recommendation.

[z7uane]

She has a lot of hay but she doesn’t seem to like it. She does not eat it, like at all. I guess I will have to remove her frontal teeth…

[Bam]

Many bunnies are picky about hay, and I can assure you that if my buns were given the chance to choose between hard bread and hay, they’d not choose the hay =/ Sometimes you have to try several types of hay before you find one that your bunny likes.

[tobyluv]

As bam said, rabbits can be picky about hay, so try different varieties and different brands. Many rabbits like orchard grass because it’s sweeter. I use Oxbow orchard grass as one of the hays that I give to my bunnies. Some rabbits prefer second cutting of Timothy hay, because it is softer. American Pet Diner Timothy Gold is a good second cutting hay.

You should try to find a more rabbit savvy vet, and have your rabbit’s teeth evaluated.

[z7uane]

I don’t know much about hay and also I’m from Slovenia, I don’t think we have all the hays you mentioned. Can her teeth be fixed with hay or will she have to get her teeth removed? I hope she can get better. Also what is a “rabbit savvy vet”? I don’t know what kind of vet you mean by that.

[BarbaraC]

Vets do not typically study the care and treatments of rabbits in their normal course. Rabbits are considered exotics so a vet either has to choose to specialize in this at school or take continuing education classes. It’s like a doctor who chooses to study cardiology. You wouldn’t want a general practitioner to perform open heart surgery on you.

Rabbits have very different veterinary needs than cats or dogs. Many of the medications used for these animals can be harmful and even fatal to rabbits. Unfortunately, rabbits are not as common as pets in many parts of the world and finding a vet who has studied their care can be difficult.

Hopefully someone on this forum knows of a vet in your area.

[z7uane]

Oh… So that’s what this means. I hope I can find such a vet somewhere near me. I’m still wondering thou, if hay can fix her problem, or will she absolutely need some sort of vet treatment? I hope that she wont have to. I will try to find a specialized vet for bunnies here in Slovenia and get my bunny to him. I’m also going to try different kind of hay. What kind of hay do you guys recommend for her to try out? And please tell me, where can I get this type of hay. I could get hay from a farmer (we live near farms), but I don’t know if this is what my bunny needs. Is hay from a farm different in any way, than the one you buy in stores?

[tobyluv]

Since your bunny has pretty serious malocclusion that requires frequent clipping of the teeth, I don’t think that hay will fix the problem. Hay will hopefully keep teeth from overgrowing, but once they are already overgrown or misaligned, hay will not reverse that.  Sometimes just one clipping will do the job and the rabbit’s teeth will be okay after that, but since you are having to get repeated clippings for your rabbit, it’s apparent that she has a long term problem. It was probably either a congenital problem and she was born with misaligned teeth, or she may have had an injury to the teeth to cause them to get out of alignment. Clipping teeth every few weeks is stressful to the rabbit and continual clipping can even cause problems, something even as severe as a fractured jaw. That’s why it is now recommended that the front incisors be removed. But that will be costly and you need to have a qualified rabbit/exotics vet to do it. More than 20 years ago, I had a rabbit with malocclusion and she had to have her teeth trimmed every 3 weeks. I know that she didn’t like it, but no vets were advising to remove the teeth back then. She also needed to have her back teeth filed down one time, since they had high points. That has to be done under anesthesia. I have no idea if there are any exotic vets in Slovenia, but I hope that you can find one.

Any of the grass hays are fine for adult rabbits. That would be Timothy, orchard grass, meadow hay, bermuda grass, prairie or oat hay. Alfalfa hay can be given to young bunnies, but when they reach adulthood, it’s best not to give alfalfa, or only to give small quantities every once in a while as a treat. If you have farmer’s hay available, it’s fine if it’s horse quality hay.

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