Need Advice

[amy662]

I posted a thread a couple days ago about my 4 and half year old male bunny who I was sure had molar spurs. After taking him to the vet on Monday a dental exam (minus x-rays) showed no molar spurs. This greatly surprised me because he has all the symptoms. He has become very picky and sometimes has difficulty chewing. On Sunday he was drooling quite a bit. The skin and hair on his front paws and under his chin has become irritated from drooling and constantly cleaning himself. Basically my poor bunny is an absolute mess.

The vet did say that he could have an abscess and just not have any signs of it in the actual mouth so he is scheduled for x-rays tomorrow. I am very worried because I know something is wrong and now that it has evolved I can look back and realize that he actually developed symptoms a while back, possible months back. However it is really the last two weeks in which he has shown obvious signs of something being wrong. I am worried it has progressed too far for the vet to help him. He is still eating certain vegetables but not enough.

I am wondering if anyone else has gone through anything similar or has any insight. I have read that there are now non surgical treatment for abscesses, mainly injecting a form of penicillin. Has anyone had a vet recommend this?

 

[PaGal]

I haven't had any experience with what you are going through but did want to give you and your bun my best wishes for the vet to find the problem and for it to be successfully treated. Buns are notorious for hiding illness and pain well. I hope that since your bun is still eating although less that he will be able to recover with treatment.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

ray: We had one that we thought had an abscess, but, it turned out to be cancer.

 

[Ilovemyrabbit]

I'm so sorry. I'm not good at this kind of thing but I hope everything turns out good for your bunny. ray:

 

[tonyshuman]

Abscesses can be treated but every case is different. This site has a story of a bunny with severe dental abscesses and malocclusion who underwent some extensive surgery but recovered well.
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Dental_diseases/Stella/Stella.htm
I don't have a personal story, but I have heard several successful rabbit dental abscess stories on this website. I'm sorry your bunny is so unwell. These things can hide or not seem serious until suddenly, they become very serious. If your vet is confident in doing the procedure and has done it before, I would not be worried. Your bun will need some take-home pain meds for sure--preferably narcotic as the pain from dental surgery is high. If the surgery goes well and the abscess is completely removed, the most common problem is not eating after surgery. You will probably have to force-feed Critical Care and reintroduce other foods slowly. Long-term, abscesses can reoccur if the teeth have underlying problems related to jaw/face structure and/or the entire infected tissue isn't removed.