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Grinding rabbit molars without anaesthetic

22 10:04:40

Question
Hi, Dana.
I am fostering a wonderful rabbit who has dental problems (incisors need trimming every 3 weeks, molar spurs are forming) and whose heart stopped twice when she was spayed, due to the anaesthetic (the vet is such a good rabbit vet that he was able to save her). I have heard of a veterinary clinic in Montreal that specializes in exotic animals and grinds rabbits' molars without aneasthetic. Because I live in British Columbia, I'd like to get some information about this in case my excellent rabbit vet here would find it appropriate to try with my lovely girl. Do you know about this practice and can you point me to any information on the Internet?

Answer
Dear Robin,

I don't know of the practice you describe, unfortuantely.  But if you can find out who told you about it, they might know.  Or you could join one of the many rabbit forums or listserves (e.g., EtherBun:  www.bio.miami.edu/hare/etherbun.html ) and ask the members.  Many ears will increase your chances of finding that vet who does this.  And then that vet may be able to do a consultation with your vet to see what the likelihood is of having this done for your bunny.

I actually do this for our bunnies myself.  We use a regular, blunt-tipped Revlon diamond dust nail file and an otoscope with a large bore for viewing.  With practice, your vet may be able to do this, too.  But it does take practice, and works better on lingual spurs (bottom teeth) than on buccal spurs (upper teeth), which are usually impossible to file without anesthesia.  (Fortunately, buccal spurs tend to be less common than lingual.)

Your vet may also be able to invest in one of the otoscope attachments that will spread the mouth wide enough to really see where the spurs are, and to file them.  Sedation will probably be necessary, but the vet might be able to do this without general anesthesia with some practice.  She just needs to be shown how to do it by someone who can.

I hope this helps.

Dana