gum infection issue

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polly

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Ok so one of my pet rabbits Alfie went into get his molar spurs done today. I knew they weren't to bad but he also needed his front teeth clipped and Alfie doesnt like heights so I figured best to get both done while he was under.

anyway when they went to do the first spur one of his back teeth fell out and on checking he has a gum infection so basically all his back teeth are wobbly because they are sitting on puss :(he has been given antibiotics for us to give him by injection but my questions are

is this likely to lead to abcesses?

do back teeth regrow? ( i know front teeth constantly grow but dont know about back ones)

can rabbits do ok without back teeth?

I suppose I am a bit worried about the fact that he won't have a tooth to grind against the other one for chewing :(

BTW Alfie is acting fine at no point before or after is he behaving in pain or not eating he is perfectly happy other than not speaking to me lol :p

thanks :)
 
Oh no, sorry to here aboutAlfie's teeth. Did the vet say if he would lose all his back teeth? Poor bun.



I think if he lost his teeth you may have to feed him thru a syringe. It may be critical care. A expert can tell you more.



Hope he gets better.:pray:
 
They will have to remove the teeth that are on the opposite level to the tooth that they're taking out. I would consider this an open dental abscess, since it was an encapsulated infection before, but the teeth fell out and that opened it up. It may be very difficult to treat. Injectible, strong antibiotics will be key. A combination of zithromax and bicillin would be my choice.

As for how he will eat, it will be ok. Some bunnies without teeth do need to be on a liquid diet, but I'm pretty sure Ali's Dallas the toothless wonder still eats solids--just chopped into smaller pieces. I have heard of other bunnies with no cheek teeth needing a slurry diet, however.

I don't think they will regrow, since they are falling out, tooth roots and all, I assume. If the roots are gone, they will not grow back (same for front teeth). Back teeth do constantly grow as well in a bunny with tooth roots.

So sorry--this is a big medical issue and it's not going to be easy. Make sure he has some good pain meds as the pain from dental surgery can be very bad for bunnies. Something like buprenorphine or tramadol is a must (a narcotic). Good luck!
 
Thanks thats the strange thing Tonys human he has been munching fine and still is ( he is on pain meds) I will see how he gets on I know Bruce was angry that they didnt take the other back tooth out that corresponds with the one that fell out. I have to take him back in on tuesday so I will have a chat with Ian then it wasnt him who did the surgery because he would have probably phoned us at the time. I will keep a close eye on him and will let you know.
If it is going to be ongoing and he is in pain then I will pts because I dont feel its fair on him been down a similar line before and would never do it again tbh :( Just now he is very happy eating and drinking as he was before the surgery.
 
Did the vet do an xray to see more of what is going on? There could be an abscessed tooth root or other problem in there.

As far as living without some of their molars, Janet's Patrick is still a happy nearly-toothless old man. His teeth just fall out on their own, no infection problems. I know Patrick still eats solids- pellets and veggies, not sure if he eats hay or not. I think Angieluv's Beau has similar problems, with gum infections to boot.

I'm guessing he isn't in much pain from the dental work, although his gums are probably sore from the infection.

:hug:
 
Thanks he doesn't seem in pain even before the op. He has been fine. I had no idea this was going on!! He is sulking with me a bit for sending him mind you lol. As long as he is happy in himself then we will fight it all the way.
I guess we try these antibiotics and take him back on Tuesday see what's happening.

The only thing funny about him at the moment is he finds it weird to pick food up but he is always like that when they clip his front teeth forca day or 2 till he gets used to it again. I will keep you updated on what they say at vets

edit to add one fell out when they went to work on it the others seem a bit wobbly :)
 
My Beau has has an on-going issue with bad molars and gum infections.
The first time I saw the dentist Beau had 5 infected loose molars and the dentist took them all out. They were loose enough to come right out.

Since that time he has had a few more infected teeth pulled.


The dentist believes in pulling only the loose infected teeth whereas many vets will pull out the opposing teeth even if they are healthy .
I think generally the opposing teeth are supposed to be pulled but it is possible thatthis dentist has decided this would not be best for a rabbit with Beau's specific issues.

Rabbit teeth are strange in that if you do not get every particle of the root out the teeth often will regrow. Some of Beau's molars have regrown.

If you do not pull the opposing teeth you need to go back to the dentist maybe every 6 weeks to 2 months to have the teeth filed down but many people do this anyway for molar spurs. Beau needs total filing and realignment of his bite regularly as his incisors also grow in an abnormal manner.

Unlike some rabbits with less teeth Beau has not been able to eat solids whatsoever and has critical care and BBT as his primary diet. he actually does well on this and has maintained a good weight ; he eats this on hisown and is not syringe fed



There is no reason to keep the infected loose molars if your vet can take them out competently ; Angela is right that you do need dental x-rays.

Beauhas not had any jaw abscesses as of yet and these problems have gone on for about 3 yrs; he has been on one antibiotic or another all that time due to what is considered severe chronic gingivitis

I hope that Alfie gets the teeth out as your description "sitting on pus' sounds exactly like Beau's situation. ... but make sure that you find a vet or dentist who is very comfortable and skilled at doing this and has done it many times before.
 
I'm going through a similar ordeal with a young foster Lionhead. Her lower incisors had grown almost to her nose and her uppers were curving into her mouth. She was starving to death when I got her. Her incisors were clipped and an x-ray taken. The molars on the right side were overgrown to the point that they were deformed and she couldn't close her mouth, even with the incisors clipped.

Initially, the vet thought he'd try grinding down the molars, but when he got in there he found that the molars were swimming in pus and extracted all 5 molars. The infection was so bad that it had destroyed the tooth sockets. Instead of 5 individual sockets, there was just one huge hole.

He did not extract the corresponding upper molars. He'll grind them down if needed, but thinks they may stop growing on their own. We'll see. She'll also need to have her incisors removed, eventually.

She gets Zeniquin antibiotic once a day and a penicillin injection every other day. Metacam every day, too.

Five days after having 5 molars extracted:

[flash=425,344]http://www.youtube.com/v/uLz-5U5x_IE&hl=en&fs=1[/flash]

 
Umm....well I have to disagree with any vet that does not extract opposing teeth in open rooted tooth animals. The opposing teeth will not stop growing onit's own and will result in additional dental work....and of course at an additional expense...to do in thefuture.

Interesting to see Zeniquin being used. Not something most vets will use. That drug is basically an updated version of Baytril....without the resistance issues. I use it here from time to time and have had no problems with it at all. Seems to be well tolerated (as much as an oral antibiotic can).

Randy
 
He may still remove the opposing teeth, but at the time of the extraction, Stella was in the initial stages of recovering from starvation and the situation was a rock and a hard place. We did not want to add more stress to her emaciated body and compromised system by adding surgery to it, but, we couldn't allow the infection to go unchecked either. Four exotic vets were consulted and all of them agreed that Stella's mouth was the worst they'd ever seen and the molars had to come out ASAP. Only 1 of them felt comfortable about doing the surgery.

By the time the vet had ground down one molar on the other side that was twice the length above the gum of all the other molars, filed down several points, clipped her incisors, and extracted the 5 molars, Stella had been under anesthesia for over an hour. To then remove the opposing teeth would not have been in Stella's best interest at that time. Too much time under the anesthesia and too much trauma to her system.

Once her mouth has healed from the extractions, the infection has been killed off, and she's further along in recovering from starving, we'll reassess her needs. In the meantime, we are keeping an eye on the growth of the opposing molars and, of course, the incisors.

You're right about the expense. She's already a member of the 1K ($1,000) Bun Club!

I took videos of the whole procedure and am working on getting it on MediRabbit.com. It'll be at least a 2 part series. I was surprised about the lack of blood!

 
The video of Stella is really cute...:)


When I made the mistake of going to a regular vet to have Beau's teeth done. She was gung ho to pull them ;

She pulled about 6 teeth at once and I am not sure they were infected?
His recovery was absolutely horrendous; he was a mess for months , lost weight ; I thought he would die from the stress of it and I would never put him through that again.
His recovery (like Stella's) is always great when the teeth are loose, infected and most likely very uncomfortable.

he is getting older and so we are just sort of going along with it.
 

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