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abcesses/infected jaw/infected eye/teeth

22 10:03:43

Question
7 year old spayed albino lop.
2 years ago she had an abscess on the left side of her face. it healed nicely,but the vet still wanted to keep her on antibiotics.
this past week she had to have the surgery again, only this time on her right side. the abscess infects her whole lower jaw and maybe some of her upper jaw because pus is coming out of her eye. the removed a tooth and placed a drain into her jaw. Dr. orders flush with betadine 2x a day, give durapen every day and baytril 2xaday with metacam on the high end dosage once a day. she is also getting a warm eye compress and gentocin eye drops and eye ointment. she will only eat mushy critical care, no hay no pellets or even lettuce!
i am starting to lose faith in our vet.
i guess my question to you is can and do antibiotics rot bunny's teeth?
is there any thing i can do to slow that down.
she still seems like she is in alot of pain, but the vet will not give us anything other than metacam. what can i do to make her more comfortable?
she eats the mushy stuff really well(1 bag a day), but she now has lost almost a pound of weight since the surgery. is there any thing i can feed her to get the weight back up? again she won't eat hay no mater how fine i chop it up, or romaine lettuce or even pellets.
thank you,
Kim

Answer
Hi Kim,

antibiotics rotting rabbit's teeth.  Not antibiotics themselves, but depending on what they mix them in to make them palatable, possibly if there's sugar in some form in there.  It is always good to stay on antibiotics as long as possible with rabbits because their infections are so hard to knock out completely if you don't hit them extremely hard and thorough the first time.

I don't think the problem is the antibiotics as much as it is her infections themselves.  She probably doesn't clean her mouth with her tongue as much as she otherwise would due to the infections and the pain involved in simply eating and cleaning her mouth.  This will leave food particles in between the teeth or on the teeth, and since rabbits only have enamel on the tips of the teeth, the rest of the teeth area is a lot more prone to decay if they can't keep them clean.  I fear that the mushy stuff is partially the problem when her mouth area is in pain, she won't clean her mouth out well and move her jaws and tongue as much to reduce the pain she feels.  

I suppose you could ask the vet about getting a baby toothbrush and at least doing the front teeth with a non-fluoride toothpaste from a health food store.  Lots of them have natural peppermint or spearmint flavor that rabbits might like.

Metacam should cut through the pain.  It's pretty powerful and lasts for about half the day.  If she will take pets or you can hold her, I'd do more of that just to have a calming effect.  you could try some Bach Flowers Rescue Remedy and put some drops in her water or even a couple on her tongue.  You could also try some Arnica Montana pills (little sugar pills infused with Arnica) for mild to moderate pain relief and swelling/bruising).  Try 2 pills every 6 hours.  I'd normally avoid giving them sugar pills but the benefits might outweigh the concerns.  Just be sure to be giving her Bene-Bac daily.

I'd still keep giving her the hay, as her pain subsides she may find it doesn't hurt so much to use her teeth and jaw muscles and she'll start eating again.  Another thing you can offer is hay cubes.

I'll pray for her.