Balsa Rabbit Treats & Stasis

Question
QUESTION: Hello Dana,
I have a Holland lop rabbit, male, neutered, a little over two years old. He's recently developed very small fecals and is not eating much, but he is drinking a lot of water and urinating regularly. In the last week or so the only odd thing in his diet, besides extra romaine lettuce, has been balsa wood chews with different fruit flavors on them, acquired from a good source for rabbit treats. However, I am wondering if you have ever seen a rabbit develop stasis-like symptoms after ingesting these kinds of treats? He will be seeing his vet, but I wanted to know if you have any thoughts on whether these kinds of treats may have influenced this episode?
I had hoped I was giving him something he could chew to help grind down his teeth that would include good fiber, but perhaps his stomach can't handle this stuff? Or maybe there is a splinter of it lodged in his gums that is causing him discomfort?
I am looking forward to your opinion.
Thank you very much for your time.
Regards,
Mary

ANSWER: Dear Mary,

Balsa wood *should* be pretty harmless.  But you never know.  It's soft, so it wouldn't help keep his teeth short.  In fact, the best thing for that is hay (or fresh grass, if you have a back yard where he can graze under your supervision; no pesticides or fertilizers!), which promotes the side-to-side chewing movement that keeps molars nice and flat.  If the incisors meet normally, they will not need anything but wearing against each other to stay normal.

However, Holland Lops are notorious for dental problems, and I would recommend you read this:

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

Find a good rabbit vet here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

who can do a deep oral exam to see if he has painful molar spurs that are causing his stress.  

If he continues this, the inappetence could progress to GI slowdown, and even ileus:

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

So be sure to get him in for a thorough check up soon.  Please also see:

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

for tips on how to tell if he's sick, and what to do until you can get him to a good rabbit vet.

I hope this helps.

Dana

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

QUESTION: Hello again, Dana, :)
Today we are bringing this rabbit home from his first dental treatment, our vet found several spurs/hooks on his molars when we went for his checkup and she filed them today under anesthesia. He also had some mucous on the right side of his mouth, mixed with chewed hay, which she determined through radiographs to be the beginnings of an abscess. She did some debridement and wants to see him back in about 6-8 weeks to take more radiographs and monitor the tooth status. She would have to refer us to another vet if his cheek tooth needs to be extracted and it sounds like an involved process.
He will be taking Pen-G injections and Metacam during his recovery (he'd been displaying a snotty nose for some time before the stasis incident)  and possible probiotics to keep his digestion regular, but I was wondering if he also needs Reglan to keep his gut moving and help with queasiness from the Metacam? If he's eating after this surgery, he should be fine and not go into stasis again, correct?

Also, when a tooth becomes abscessed, isn't it just routine to pull it and the molar opposite? Or can he heal from this with no further complications besides having to have his teeth monitored for further overgrowth or infection?
Thank you very much.

Answer
Dear Mary,

I'm glad the vet found those spurs and filed them.  That could well be the main source of a lot of his problems.

If there is only mucus, not pus, in the mouth area of what might be an abscess, I would certainly not rush to have that molar removed.  Often, a long course of Pen-G injections can resolve an incipient abscess, and if things heal up well, you might not have to worry about it.  Time will tell, but ask the vet about a long-term course of Pen-G, perhaps for a month, to see if it will clear up the abscess before it becomes a real problem.

I've never seen tummy upset from Metacam.  It's supposedly a Cox-2 inhibitor, so it shouldn't cause as much acidification of the stomach as some of the other NSAIDs that inhibit both Coxs.  If you're concerned, then a bit of famotidine or ranitidine will control stomach acid while he's on the NSAIDs.  Reglan is more for motility than reducing the acidifying effects of NSAIDs.

If you do eventually find that the molar becomes problematic enough to remove, there are two camps regarding removal of the opposing molar.  Some believe that the teeth need the pressure of the opposing tooth to grow.  Others say that's hogwash, and both should be removed.  Since the chewing motion of the molars isn't strictly up and down if the bunny is getting the proper amount of hay and long-fiber food, I'd tend to go along with the second camp, though I hate the thought of removing a healthy tooth.  :(  It just seems that this could invite trouble.  

I hope it doesn't come to that.

In the meantime, I hope the antibiotics and other treatments get him completely back to normal!

Dana