mouth injury

Question
QUESTION: Hi my name is Erica I am 15 years old and my I have three Netherland Dwarf rabbits. One of mine is very territorial about her cage and I went to take her bowl from her cage and she came charging at me and hit the glass bowl face first. Now she keeps licking her lips, does these weird twitches with her head, and it looks like it hurts her to eat or drink. I have not looked inside of her mouth because I do not know if it will do any damage or not. PLEASE tell me if there is anything wrong with her if I need to take her to the vet or anything. Thanks sooo much for taking your time to read this!

ANSWER: Hi Erica,

It does sound like she might be in a little discomfort.  My main concern is that she might have broken one of her teeth.  While that isn't painful itself, it might have cut the inside of her lip or cheek or may be broken under the gum line.....and that could lead to an infection.  In this case, I think if there were an error in judgement, I would error on the side of caution and have a rabbit savvy vet take a peek in her mouth.  Some pain meds might be in order here.  You don't want her to stop eating and drinking as that can lead to some serious digestive system issues.  If you can safely hold her, I would try to open her lips to get a look at the incisors just in case.  Since she appears to be a little skitish, use extreme caution since she can injure herself if she kicks or spins wrong....and she could scratch you.  If there is a cut or a broken tooth under the gum line, I would keep a close watch for any signs of infection.  I don't like using antibiotics in rabbits unless there is a clinical sign of infection.  

You might also think about addressing her cage aggresssion.  Many times this is a hormonal behavior and it is possible to reduce or even eliminate this behavior by being spayed.  A spay in a rabbit is a very invasive surgery and not all vets are capable of pulling that one off.  But in the hands of an experienced rabbit vet, the risks are minimal.  Spaying usually takes care of the hormonal aggressions and it will also eliminate the possibility of unwanted babies.  Females that are not breeding and are not spayed can also suffer from very stressful false pregnancies and can develop serious medical conditions of the reproductive system such as endometriossis or uterine cancer.

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QUESTION: Hi it is Erica again. I checked my rabbits mouth and her top front teeth are pushed back and twisted to the side a little bit but I did not see any cuts but I am really worried I don't know what I should do. She is eating and drinking and acting fine but her teeth look bad. Thanks.

Answer
Hi Erica,

The best course of action is to seek the help of a vet.  It is possible, but unlikely, that the jaw is broken.  Usually when that happens, they refuse to eat since it's so painful.  The teeth are open rooted so if they are broken, they will regrow soon.  But sometimes when the teeth are broken, there can be an alignment problem, known as malocclusion, and it will allow the teeth to overgrow.  This may or may not happen depending on the damage to the roots.  Keep in mind that there are 4 incisors on the top (there are two small peg teeth behind the primary upper incisors) that need to be watched too. We have had good luck so far as all of our broken teeth came back in properly....but we watched it carefully.

If you can get to a vet, that would be the best action. If not, watch her teeth closely over the next month or so to make sure the teeth are stil properly occluded and they are wearing to a proper length.