rabbit molar spur

Question
QUESTION: hello,

i have a problem with my rabbit. he is a almost 3 years old Holland lop ear rabbit. he had his first molar spur filing in Feb 2011, second on the April 2011, and the third time was May 24th. Everytime he goes for his filing, he stops eating for almost a week. and normally after the 3rd day, ill bring him back to the doctor to check, he will normally have FEVER and a bloat. i do force-feed him during the recovery week. as now i have to monitor him everyday, he seems active, he is just not eating! so i force-feed him every 2 1/2 hours with 2 spoonful(syringe feeding) which i know is stressful for him.

do u think he is bloated cause of me force-feeding him? or he is in pain? or just stressed out?

anyway he is now still recovering from the 3rd filing. he got 2 shots of antibiotic and i have to syringe feed the antibiotic daily for a week. i suspect, there might still be something wrong with his molar.

final question. i am from Malaysia. and it is almost IMPOSSIBLE for me to find a doctor that specialized in rabbits. however i found a doctor who has done a removal of insicors. but not the molar. does it mean that my rabbit has to remove all molar because they need to grind against each other? if i am not mistaken, his spurs are on the upper left and lower right!

the doctor does not advice for my rabbit to go for the surgery as the recovery might cause more problems. however i could not just bring my rabbit to the vet every month for his filing and then he takes a week or more to recover, by that time it is due for the next filing.

Please help.Thank you.
Maggie Tan
(i am allergic to the rabbit but i could not just dump him now that he needs more help. Furthermore it is causing my parent's coughing. No one will want to adopt him knowing that he has so much problems.)

ANSWER: Dear Maggie,

Molar spurs on the top teeth can be very difficult to file, as they are very close to the cheek and hard to reach without cutting the mouth.  It's possible the vet is not able to get them completely filed off, and thus they return to a problematic condition relatively quickly.  I am not sure what you can do about this, but I would not recommend removal of the molars.  Perhaps find another rabbit vet who can fix the buccal (upper) spurs:

www.rabbit.org/vets

I am sorry I cannot fix this problem.  But for the stress-induced inappetence that follows the molar filings, please see:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/ileus.html

I hope this helps.

Dana

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: dear Dana,

that is true. i myself suspect that the previous doctor did not do a good job. he told me himself that my rabbit is bleeding a little as they scrape a little of his gums. i think that is where the infection is that is causing his fever. BUT i do not see/feel any bulge around his face/head.

i am bringing him to see another doctor. the doctor recommends another xray just on the head to see how bad the roots are up against his eye socket. nevertheless shooting up a dye up his nose to see if there is any infection in there that is causing the fever. i think i will just ask the doctor to do her best in filing all the spurs down and see if they will grow back aligned. or maybe she will do a better job that he recovers better than the previous vet.

thank you.

ANSWER: Dear Maggie,

That sounds like a good plan.  The sooner you get your bunny to a more experienced rabbit vet, the better.

I hope he will be fine soon.

Dana

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Dear Dana

so sorry to bother you again.

he went for his xray, his roots are REALLY close to his eye socket. so the doctor tried to flush his tear duct A FEW TIMES to see if they are blocked as he has teary eyes and they are rather white-ish but not think just watery. the doctor said they are totally blocked. at the same time the doctor got his teeth file down. ask me to monitor his eyes and make sure they don swell/bulge.

the doctor did not want to pull any of his teeth cause they were all strong teeth and nothing was rotten.

i was thinking if giving him ciloxan eyedrops whenever his eyes gets crusty. IF his eyes bulge, or thinker tears were to come out THEN maybe extracting his teeth would be the next option?

P/S: he has been having tears since he was 1 year old. he is now almost 3.

advice?

thank you.

Answer
Dear Maggie,

Many Holland Lops have this problem.  They are congenitally not really normal in the molar/tear duct department, with their short faces.

Your vet is right:  If the teeth are healthy, there is no cause to remove them.  And removing them will not guarantee that the tear ducts will open again, since calcification will likely already have permanently closed them off.  One possible solution is to allow him to choose a spayed mate who is very kissy, and who can groom his face clean.  I know a vet who "prescribes" that for bunnies with chronic runny eyes.  :)

Warm compresses can help, as can eye drops.  But this will probably be a lifelong problem.  It is not rare, especially in lops.

Dana