Rabbit molars

Re: Rabbit molars

Alison McIntosh — Mon, 06 Oct 2014 20:34:31 GMT

[quote user="CatherineThomas"]

I hope 'teeth trim' means burred and not clipped!

If the first presentation was with runny eyes I would suspect that the molars were the first problem with effects on the tear ducts. I agree with the others that you want to get some decent skull x-rays to assess prognosis and burr molars as necessary. You could always post the x-rays here for more help.

For diet I always encourage them to swap to a decent pelleted food if not already on it. As a rough guide it should be eating a pile of hay at least the size of it's whole body every day and a pile of vegetables about the same size as it's head. Pelleted food should only be a small handful once a day. I find clients are pretty much always giving too much pellets/museli.

When you do the dental if you are unsure what or how much to burr just do a little to try to get the shape a little closer to normal and try to get some good pictures for us all to see so we can discuss what to do next time. Warn the client before you start that it may take several procedures to get things in a better condition and that it will probably need repeat procedures at variable intervals for the rest of it's life.

The new BSAVA manual of rabbit surgery and dentistry is pretty good and has some good pictures and descriptions of many procedures so may be quite helpful if you can get your hands on a copy.

[/quote]

Sometimes burred sometimes clipped depending on the vet the rabbit came in to see( I know, I would never clip teeth either but that's a whole different debate which I don't want to restart!!)

I will take skull xrays if the owner lets me - and then try and see what I can do with the molars. I do not have high hopes (especially as I suspect that if I tell her that it may take several GAs she will opt for euth instead).

Also, I like the eat 'hay the size of its body, veges the size of its head' guide :)

I'll keep an eye out for that manual too - I have referred to it in other practices, but we don't have it here sadly. I shall put it on the list!

Cheers,

Alison

Re: Rabbit molars

Mark Hedberg — Mon, 06 Oct 2014 08:56:51 GMT

[quote user="Stephen Courtney"]

Does anyone NOT look inside a rabbits mouth these days? Would have thought it was SOP. I view rabbits as an overcomplicated set of teeth fronting a fiendishly delicate fermentation vat designed to turn grass into muesli.....

[/quote]

Really? I thought they were small, furry horses - take any chance they can get to have expensive gut issues...

Re: Rabbit molars

CatherineThomas — Sun, 05 Oct 2014 23:04:37 GMT

I hope 'teeth trim' means burred and not clipped!

The new BSAVA manual of rabbit surgery and dentistry is pretty good and has some good pictures and descriptions of many procedures so may be quite helpful if you can get your hands on a copy.

Re: Rabbit molars

Alison McIntosh — Sun, 05 Oct 2014 22:11:34 GMT

It lives in a hutch on grass and is also fed rabbit food - I don't know the ratio of grass to food, and I'm not sure if it's pellets or a mix.

I amazed it can eat anything with its crazy molars though.

I've just checked it's record and it's just over 3 years old. It started having runny eyes in June 2012, and was first noted with maloccluded incisors in November 2012. Thereafter it's been seen every 1-2 mths for 'teeth trim' with the visits becoming increased in frequency. Spurs were noted on cheek teeth in 2013, no mention on the record of molars prior to this but I'm pretty sure they would have been looked at.

Re: Rabbit molars

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Sat, 04 Oct 2014 12:39:51 GMT

What's the rabbit's diet?

Re: Rabbit molars

Alison McIntosh — Sat, 04 Oct 2014 10:37:07 GMT

[quote user="Evelyn Barbour-Hill"]

Gillian, I was composing post at the same time as you. I suppose I was thinking the rabbit was a few years old, also perhaps jumping to an unfounded assumption, from the tone of the original post, that nobody had ever bothered to look inside the mouth but just kept hacking off the incisors.

[/quote]

Oops - no 'tone' intended in this case! I looked back through the record and a few months ago 'spurs' had been noted but that they were not currently causing a problem.

Thanks for all the replies - I really appreciate it; and it gives me a plan to go back to the owner with. I'd just never seen molars coming out at quite such an angle before and was a bit flummoxed as to what the best advice would be.

To answer the other questions, the rabbit is about 5 years old (I think, at home and I can't remember the notes exactly) and it's been getting 'teeth trim' done every 3-4 weeks for the last couple of years - the owner told me that she had always resisted any procedures involving anaesthetic due to cost and risk concerns.

Cheers!

Alison

Re: Rabbit molars

Stephen Courtney — Fri, 03 Oct 2014 23:07:59 GMT

Re: Rabbit molars

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Fri, 03 Oct 2014 11:24:44 GMT

Re: Rabbit molars

Gillian Mostyn — Fri, 03 Oct 2014 09:33:03 GMT

Evelyn.... The post has not mentioned the age of the rabbit but I suppose I assumed it was young. I have seen a fair few young rabbits that have primary incisor malocclusion, where early removal prevents long term molar issues. I would agree, however, that once molars are abnormal, or in older rabbits where the molars are the primary problem, then incisor removal has little benefit.

Re: Rabbit molars

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Fri, 03 Oct 2014 00:23:16 GMT

The commonest cause of incisor malocclusion and overgrowth is cheek tooth overgrowth. Cos of jommitry.

Really you should radiograph the teeth – they will be abnormal for sure, but you will be able to asess how abnormal and in what manner, and to visualise (quantitatively measure, if you wish) the abnormal angle of upper to lower jaw, which will at least help with prognosis. But I admit this might make little difference to treatment in this case.

The molar crowns need trimming/cutting/rasping/floating/ call it what you like to relieve the immediate trauma on the soft tissues and to reduce the excessive pressures and to allow the jaws to approach a more normal angle, and to at least start the teeth toward a more normal occlusion. This may take two or three sessions at intervals of say two months. Eventually it may be possible to progressively reduce the intervals between sessions, although re-examinations every two months could be wise.

The work on the teeth will be far better performed with power tools (low speed handpiece from a dental unit).

However, note that the aim is not to carve the teeth into some sort of theoretical normal ideal, but to do no more than the reshaping required to achieve the aims outlined. Excessive reduction will be just as bad as neglect for the rabbit .

It's a good job the owner has resisted incisor extraction, as this would not have helped in the least with the primary problem.

(It's probably irrelevant in this case, but sometimes pulp extirpation to stop tooth growth can be helpful. Marie has done some and we had a thread about this a while ago.)

Re: Rabbit molars

Gillian Mostyn — Fri, 03 Oct 2014 00:16:35 GMT

The problem with the molars is likely to have developed due to long term incisor malocclusion issues...and removing the incisors, IMHO, is still the best option. It should certainly be cheaper than monthly trims!

As far as the molars... Ideally xray skull while under GA to assess the problem, and how likely it is to be manageable. Assuming fairly normal roots then taking down the molars significantly and then feeding a grass based diet should help reduce overgrowth... But is the molar eruption is very abnormal then repeated trims/rasping is probably inevitable.