( RIP) new bunny with bad teeth

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shawnwk1

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okay so i finally got a good look at my rabbits teeth (the rabbit i adopted yesterday) and they look pretty bad to me, but i'm "new" to rabbits (been 16+ yrs since i've had one). he only has one upper tooth and it's way crooked and looks very painful. the bottoms don't look as bad, but as you can imagine not all the damage was done to the top ones. just wondering what i have to look forward to when i take him to the vet thurs. will they pull the top tooth out completely or just file it down (i would assume filiing it down will just cause more pain to him since the tooth is so crooked (it's almost laying completely sideways))? i know different vets/where you live = different vet costs, but my other question is just in general how much approx. does it cost for what he'll need done? i definitely wasn't execting to pay a $400+ vet bill the first week i have him, but i guess it's my fault for not looking at his teeth closer when i got him from the no kill shelter.

and yes he is also going to be getting a full blood work up and a calicivirus vaccination (my cat has had calicivirus in the past so is still a carrier of it and i don't wanna take any chances of anything being passed to him for whatever reason (not that he'll be that close to the cat most of the time anyway)).

oh yeah and if they do pull the tooth then what do i have to look forward to? any complications with eating, drinking, etc. that i will have to worry about?

 
Ya unfortunately they aren't back in until tuesday and he is refusing to eat anything and peeing all over my floor
 
Is the not eating and peeing all over the floor even though he's litter trained something that's typical of rabbits in new homes (is it an adjustment period or something serious)?
 
shawnwk1 wrote:
Is the not eating and peeing all over the floor even though he's litter trained something that's typical of rabbits in new homes (is it an adjustment period or something serious)?

it isn't normal :(
he may possibly not be able to eat because of his teeth. Do you know if he was eating and drinking normally at the shelter. ?
The shelter should have checked his teeth before adopting him out so don't feel like you made a mistake

It is dangerous medically for a rabbit to go without food or water for even a short amount of time so you may need todo a few things for him.


Take hispellets and add some really hot water to them, let it sit a few minuteswhile the water is absorbed and then mix it up until itis crumbly and soft .
Youcan try sitting that down for him to see if he will eat it.
I would also try putting plain water in a crock and see if he will drink out of a bowl
; if he will not..You can add a little apple juice to the water to entice him

You can also try to see if he will eat veggies. Try a little fresh parsley

Do you have hay available to him ?

. Rabbits pick up food with their incisors (front teeth) and move the food back and chew with their molars; if his molars are normal he still should beable to eat but if they are also overgrown he could have a big problem


If he will not eat anything on his own you will need to syringe feed him. You can get feeding syringes from chain pet stores. These are some things you may need to get :

1) feeding syringes

2) pedialyte (infant electrolyte drink )

3) critical care is a complete food for ill herbivores ( you probably cannot get this today and then again maybe you can depending on exactly where you live )

4) pure canned pumpkin in a can ( not pie filling with seasoning).


5) different kinds of vegetable baby foods


Fluids are more impotant than food initially because you cannot feed a dehydrated animal .
I will give you a link on how to feed a rabbit

http://www.rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=15552&forum_id=10


If you read "medicating your rabbit" you can learn how to hold the syringe. You need to give small amounts in his mouth and then watch him swallow so he is not aspirating anything.

I know this is a lot for new owner to do but try wetting pellets first.

might help also to put your location in terms of finding a vet etc.

Ican post more later ....
 
i have a great rabbit knowledgeable vet (i actually take my hedgies to him, he's amazing w/ small animals and gave me some rabbit hints before i brought Tucker home). i'm pretty sure that he will work with me and get him in tomorrow and let me pay him thursday when i get paid so it's just a matter of getting Tucker through the weekend.

he is not on pellets per vet instructions. he is only on timothy hay (available at all times) and veggies/fruits. he will not eat anything especially not the hay. he top tooth is overgrown along with being almost laid completely to the side along his top gums. poor guys gotta be hurting.

he does seem a little more alert and active this morning so i'm wondering if possibly it is because he is not used to it being so warm since i'm sure the shelter was cold. i try to keep the heat down for him, but when i have a hedgie out i have to up the temp to 74 so they don't get cold and get sick. and it's a little warmer anyway up in his room since it's on the top floor. i'm going to start bringing him downstairs to be with the rest of us, but can't do that until he's had bloodwork done and a calicivirus vaccination. i don't wanna risk his health or any of my other animals and definitely don't want them passing anything to each other.

he ate the veggies two days ago when i first brought him home, but not the hay so i know he was at least eating something then. it was just yesterday that he started refusing to eat. he was grinding his teeth and seemed pretty excited when i took him veggies today and offered him a green pepper so hopefully he will eat today (haven't checked back yet to see if he's eaten, just gave it to him a few min ago).

his bottle did go down maybe an inch so he is drinking a little unless that's just what dripped from the bottle. how much do they usually drink? i am switching to a bowl asap though because i absolutely hate bottles (just like hedgies it strains their neck and is very uncomfortable for them to drink in that position so i hate them).

i do have subq's here if i absolutely need to get fluids in him, but have no idea how to do it with a rabbit. is it the same as with a cat? do you place the needle in the scruff of their neck or where?

sorry for sounding so ignorant. i was planning on asking the vet all this stuff when i took him for bloodwork this week, but as it turns out he's got issues before then :(

oh and the shelter not checking the teeth. yeah that shocks the heck outta me because when i adopted him the lady was stressing how important it is to check their teeth and make sure they sit normally so you'd think that they would have caught how bad his teeth are :( poor guy
 
tried to check if he was dehydrated and found something pretty horrifying, he has no excess skin to even grab ahold of. then felt completely down his body and all his ribs are very sharp and apparent. this poor rabbit has no fat on him whatsoever. he had to of not been eating at his previous owner or the shelter for a long time for him to be this bad, no wonder he's in stasis or whatever is going on with him. poor baby. definitely going to try to get him in to the vet first thing in the morning.
 
Ooooh poor little guy. I'd say talk to the rescue place and ask them to pay for treatment. They shouldn't have adopted him out with problems like that, or atleast let you know. He definately needs a vetASAP.

What does the poop look like? Cause if it's runny and unformed that's not good.
 
as i said above the shelter people aren't back in until tuesday and if at all possible, i'm not waiting that long to get him in. his poop is small and round, not runny, but softer today than yesterday (yesterday they were almost rock hard)
 
Oh yeah definately don't wait. What I meant maybe they can pay you back for whatever it cost to get him healthy.

Hmmm that's good that it's not runny.
 
i won't hold my breath (states on the contract i signed that i'm responsible for vet costs after the day of adoption), but doesn't hurt to ask for sure.

he's also not eating his cecos anymore, just leaving them around too

:(
 
:grumpy: Hmmm definately ask, because he should have been treated while in their care or at the very least have his health evaluated. How long was he with them? I mean really at my SPCA if an animal becomes sick while on the floor it is pulled and treated and then put back on the floor when it is better. AND they mention it if the animal would need further medications.

Anyway I'm glad he's getting some help from you tho :) Maybe you could hand feed him the cecos? I'm not sure about that one.
 
it wasn't the humane society it was another no-kill shelter here. they said he was vet checked 2 weeks ago when they got him neutered. idk
 
If the rabbit cannot eat hay because he cannot chew it and this rabbit was on pellets at the shelter you should at least try to see if he can eat pellets dry or wet. rather than not eat at all.

The vet most likely was giving you his "theoretical" knowledge of rabbit feeding without knowing that this rabbit has dental issues.

Some vets do not believe in feeding pellets but we are not dealing with an ordinary case here. ...

We recently had a rabbit at our shelter with extreme malocluusion and overgrowth of incisors

he was only able to eat pellets by cocking his head a certain way to chew them. ..could not eat hay or veggies

You can give subq fluids much the same as you would a cat; except you may need to put him in a towel or have another person hold him

Iwill look for a video
 
i hear ya, but as i said he is all bone with no fat on him....he wasn't eating the pellets there is no way he got this bad eating pellets, he's way too skinny.

i'm scared to do anything for fear his little heart may not be able to handle any more stress and trying to help him will just kill him. i wish the vet was open like now
 
wish i could, but i don't get paid until thursday. i'm hoping my primary vet will see him tomorrow without payment until thursday when i get paid.
 
so he's at the vet right now and as i guessed his teeth are really bad and he's gonna need some pulled (which has to be done by another vet since mine doesn't have the correct instruments to do it).

he is filing down his one top tooth that's so overgrown it's growing to the side and has him under right now to check his mouth, file the tooth, trim his nails, and check everything else.

he doesn't think that him not eating has to do much with how bad his teeth are though. he's definitely worried he has gi stasis, but just from palpating his stomach he said it doesn't feel bad so if he's in it then we caught it early enough. he's also worried there's something else going on with his mouth, possibly an oral tumor or ulcer in his mouth (another reason he put him under to check his mouth really to find out).

poor little guy
 

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