miuth issue

Question
hi Dana,
background: beautiful 11 year old neutered dwarf bunny with, mature cataracts, chronic molar spurs, arthritis left foreleg and spondylosis. he takes tramadol and metacam everyday.
approx every 60 days my vet drills off a part of a molar{s} containing a spur { Susan Kelleher's technique}. this has given him way more than the 25 or so days he got with the knock off and file technique.
so, last Thursday he had his teeth done, i was standing right there , and saw the whole thing. came home he seemed good, went back to hay eating etc, approx 3 days later he gave up hay, on the 4th day he stopped eating pellets, when i offered him one he moved it around alot in his mouth and started to gag. then he was having a hard time with veggies {he never has a hard time with veggies} he kind of nibbled them with his front teeth and dropped the rest back into the plate. he takes metacam everyday 4 drops from a plate... the metacam was torture.. he started making awful faces and bringing his paws to his mouth,this Thursday {1 week post teeth  work} i called my vet and said, " could we have missed something" , he said, "no way!", i told him what was going on and he said, "i hate to put him back under but if you insist we will take a look", {i was hoping that a small spur got by us and had now grown causing all the trouble. we looked at every tooth, his tongue... nothing! the vet checked for loose teeth, spaces around teeth, etc,..... nothing, took head xrays..perfect {thank god} except for what he said was a very small space around 1 molar  that was not appreciable on exam and did not compare to other xrays he had seen {on other bunnies}.
so now its Friday, mu boy hopped over to the pellets and then hopped away, hasn't  gone near his hay, is eating veggies, but i am breaking them into smaller than bite size pieces, metacam hurt him this morning, luckily he likes and is eating critical care well.
i am terrified that something is brewing that we just can't see.....any ideas??
thanks
Jeanine

Answer
Dear Jeanine,

Your fear that "something is brewing" is not unfounded.  We've sometimes had rabbits act this way, have normal exam and head rads, and then suddenly a huge abscess shows up in the jaw or throat.

The gagging suggests that there may be something going on in the throat.  And I do have to share a scary incident one of our New York vets experienced.  He had a bunny under for a molar exam due to gagging like your bunny's.  Nothing visible. Then he noticed a thin, dark band around one back molar.  He scraped at it, and it moved.  He pulled on it, and up from the throat came a HUGE wad of hair and food that had been stuck there because a thin strand of wool had caught on a back molar and suspended it there!

This was a unique thing, as far as I know.  But given all the normal exam results of your bunny, it's something to consider.

In the meantime, while you're waiting for bun to go one way or the other, I'd be sure to keep him on Critical Care so he doesn't lose weight and become a poor risk for anesthesia, should he need it.  It's good he's on pain meds.  But this is one of those truly puzzling things that may not be answered immediately--until the culprit suddenly is found or makes itself known.

You might consider briefly joining EtherBun:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/etherbun.html

to toss the idea out and see what the 5000+ members have to offer in terms of their own similar experience.  That can sometimes really help.

I hope this helps.

Dana