bunny feeling poorly after molar filing

Question
my 1 1/2 year old dwarf bunny Beatrix has molars that don't align and we have been taking her to the vet every month since we discovered the problem in September. she has so far been able to let the vet do this without being put under, however she does fight it a bit. on Tuesday she went to have her back teeth filed and when she came home she was not as chipper as usual. the last few times she has come home from this she has been eating well immediately and back to her old self the next day. this time she was not, so we took her back to the vet to check if they had missed something and they could find nothing, and she was unusually still during all the poking around. we went home feeling very concerned with no answers. she is having a hard time eating since coming home and only taking very small carrot bites and pellets. i tried to make some mushed up carrot for her but she wont go near it(she has a lot of attitude!)something just doesn't feel right. i am going to call the vet in the morning anyway, but i want to know if its possible that they broke her jaw while opening it to file her teeth? if she is still poorly tomorrow can i ask them to x-ray her jaw? what else could it be?
i am really worried about her!

Answer
Dear Krista,

It's really unlikely that the vet was so rough he broke her jaw during the exam, but it's pretty clear that *something* must have happened during her tooth filing.  Most vets will put the bunny under, not only to reduce stress on the rabbit, but also because it allows better access to the back teeth without the bunny fighting back with her jaw muscles, and possibly causing injury.

In my experience, it's an extremely rare vet (or any physician, for that matter) who will own up to *knowingly* having injured a patient.  For this reason, I'd suggest taking her to a *different* rabbit-savvy vet for a complete exam.  Tell the new vet the story without mentioning the other vet's name, since that will make the new vet feel more comfortable about being frank with you if there is a problem.

You can find another rabbit vet here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

If you're stuck with the original vet (I hope not), then I would ask him some frank questions without being accusatory.  Ask for pain medication, since if this is a soft tissue injury that's generated some inflammation, Metacam and/or tramadol may be enough to get bunny through this long enough for healing to start on its own.

I hope you can get to the bottom of this, and I do think your best bet is with a different vet, who doesn't have a vested interest in proving that nothing is wrong with your bunny.  :(

Hope this helps.

Dana