Rabbit choking on grass

Question
I have a 9 and a half year old dwarf lop rabbit & during the past week I have found him choking in the garden twice.  On the first occasion he was gasping for air like a fish. I ran out and cleared all the mucuous that was streaming from his nose and mouth.  Not knowing exactly what to do but knowing he would die without immediate attention, I put my fingers deep in his mouth to see if there was something blocking his airways, I then gave him mouth to mouth then mouth to nose.  I held him and kept rubbing his body until he started to breath properly again.  I took him back to his hutch & within minutes he was fine.  Today it happened again & reading up on choking after the 1st instance I put your method into practice.  It was not nice for him but undigested grass came out of his nose/mouth and after a few swings he recovered.   My question is what made this happen after never happening before this week?  The only thing that has changed recently is that he has a back tooth removed 2 weeks ago as it was pointed, could this be the reason & should I therefore prevent him eating grass in the garden as next time could kill him.  I'm also concerned now about his food that I feed him, is there something that I should avoid?  I've had him so long and would be so devasted if he was to die in this horrible manner.  PS - he lost his brother last week and they had been together 9 years. Many thanks, Sonia

Answer
Dear Sonia,

I was going to ask whether he's been checked for molar spurs, but you just answered my question by telling me he had a molar removed for a spur.  Unless that molar was infected, this seems like an unnecessarily drastic measure for the vet to take!  Removing the entire tooth could predispose him to infection in the socket, and when the easiest course of action is to simply *file* the molar spur off, I cannot fathom why the vet would completely remove the tooth if it was otherwise healthy.

I would take him to a different vet and have his mouth examined.  I have to wonder whether the tooth removal surgery might have damaged some critical facial or throat innervation, and has now resulted in his inability to properly handle food he was previously able to eat without problems.  But I've never heard of this before, except if there are molar problems.

I hope you can get a different vet (who does not have a vested interest in the surgery not being the problem) to find out.  I'm not sure where you are, but the very best vet in the UK for dental problems is Frances Harcourt-Brown.  Her contact information can be found here:

http://www.any-uk-vet.co.uk/harcourt-brown/index.htm

It might be worth a drive.

I hope this helps.

Dana