how to get my bunny back on his diet

Question
My rabbit recently went through, and is still somewhat going through a health crisis. I took him to the vet to get tooth surgery (trimming and an extraction), which he didn't react well to. He has barely eaten a thing, the only thing I can get him to eat is banana and some apple, and not that much of either, but he is eating some. He seems to be on the road to recovery amazingly (it had been about a week since he had really eaten or defecated-though he is defecating now, somewhat), my question however is how do I get him back on his usual dietary track. He refuses to drink water from his water bottle, he'll only take it from a bowl (which I really don't mind) but my worry is he won't go near the pellets. He has been eating this brand for almost a year, and he will go over and sniff them but doesn't eat them. I was hoping you knew a trick to getting him to eat them, he really needs to. Thank you very much, and if you can help it would be greatly appreciated.  

Answer
Dear Romney,

His mouth is still bothering him.  If it's been this long since the treatment and his eating habits are still "off," then he needs to be re-checked by the vet to be sure there's not a missed spur or some other problem that has developed.

At the very least, pain medication might help him through this "rough spot."  But a bunny acting like this still has dental problems, even though they might be very subtle and difficult to detect.

It sounds as if you already have a good rabbit vet, but just in case you aren't sure, check the list linked here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

for one who can give you a second opinion if the first vet can't find anything wrong.  Since you say he had a tooth extraction, another thing to consider is that he has developed infection somewhere in one of the tooth sockets.  I hope that's not it, but if he was recovering well and then suddenly took a downturn, that's not an unreasonable suspicion.

I hope this helps.

Dana