Bunny back from dental surgery

Question
Hi,
      My Netherland dwarf had dental work done yesterday late afternoon.   Like you had told me to expect in a previous response, the vet found molar spurs, a little bleeding, and one loose tooth.   He did pull the loose tooth, although he said he couldn't be sure the root is still left, and ground down the other problems.   He came home still a bit woozy from the drugs, but still went right for water, so I was quite happy.
   Since then, he has only nibbled on the smallest amount of parsley and I have used a syringe to put water in his mouth in small amounts to try and keep him hydrated.   While it's only been less than 3/4 of a day, I was wondering what the normal time of recovery would be before he would eat something.   He does go to his dish and look and smell, and is picking up his hay, but that's about it.
He ate a good amount of pellets and food yesterday morning before the vet, and has gone to the bathroom both ways a little since coming home, but the doctor didn't give me a normal range of time for him to eat in, just that it wouldn't be the same as his last surgery when he had a bump/tumor removed and came home ready to gobble.   Thanks so much.   I appreciate your service and love for this great kind of animal.                      Robert

Answer
Dear Robert,

Mouth pain can really put a dent in the appetite, as anyone who's had dental surgery can tell you.  I hope the vet gave you some pain medication for the bunny, because that will really help.  Please ask about metacam and tramadol (both) for pain until he starts to heal and the inflammation goes down.

In the meantime, you can make pellet mush by putting his regular pellets in a bowl, and then covering them with warm water or chamomile tea.  This will make them "fluff" in about 10 minutes, and then you can add more water to make a slurry.  You can feed this via syringe with a large bore (small bore will become clogged) or via a dropper with the narrow tip cut off.

I hope he'll be eating and feeling much better soon!

Dana