Damp bunny

Question
Hi Dana, thanks for your help and advice with regards to the English Spot bun with gut problems, sadly he has now passed away.  However, I've now got another question for you.

Alice is a satin fox doe, very long haired.  She was found wandering on a hillside along with 4 other domestic buns which had been dumped.  We've had her for around two years now and no problems up until recently.  About 5 months ago, she started drooling from the mouth.  We took her to the vet to check her teeth but they couldn't find anything.  We gave her antibios and painkiller to see if that would help clear it up, and booked her in for a dental and a spay the following week.  The antibios and painkiller didn't help at all.  Under anaesthetic the vet still could't find anything out of the ordinary in her mouth, what teeth she has aren't the greatest but what there is, seem to be perfectly functioning, no tongue or cheek lesions, no abnormal tooth shapes or spurs.  Head and chest xrays didn't reveal any problems either. She did have a tiny pimple on her tongue which was investigated and revealed a tiny 'smaller than a pinhead' bit of 'something' like hay which was removed, but it's made no difference at all. All her neurological responses work ie. tongue, eye reflex, ears etc., no paralysis, she manages to eat without difficulty although slowly.  Her jaw line isn't the best but isn't unduly lumpy, her roots again aren't the best, but nothing she shouldn't be able to cope with.  No weepy eyes.  

At rest, Alice's mouth just drips saliva constantly, her coat is constantly damp and matted which is a worry as she is an outdoor bun and the weather is getting very cold, we would bring her indoors but she stresses out.  I've tried clipping her fur to make it easier for her to groom herself but it still doesn't solve the drooling problem.

She's not on the antibios now as I didn't feel it was doing any good.  I've kept her on the metacam just in case there's pain when she's eating due to pressure on closing her molars together, but that doesn't seem to help any either.  The vet suggested it may be a 'reflux' problem and to try her with Zantac, but that didn't work and she hated it!

We're at a loss and we hate to see her in this condition, can you suggest anything we may have overlooked?

Lynda

Answer
Dear Lynda,

The very fact that her jawline is a bit lumpy suggests that this is a dental/tooth root problem.  Though she might not have obvious spurs or abscesses, there is evidently something in her mouth (or farther back, possibly in her throat) that's causing enough discomfort to make her drool.

Some rabbits are far more sensitive to even slight irregularities in their mouths than others, and they'll drool like a faucet if things are not completely smooth.  Ask the vet about checking for even *slight* buccal and lingual molar spurs, and filing *anything* that's even slightly sharp.  Sometimes this will do the trick.

I've also heard of a rabbit who was "brewing" a jaw abscess for months, drooled like mad without any obvious signs of what was causing it, and then BAM!  One day he had a massive abscess in his throat, near the molar root in the back.

Another rabbit had a mass of food and fur caught in his throat because it was dangling from a back molar by a tiny loop of fur caught there.

In short, there are some pretty weird and unexpected things that can make a rabbit drool, and it may be that Alice is in that category.  I really think this will turn out to be related to her molars, so that's where I'd concentrate my investigations.

For more ideas, you might consider consulting the many experienced folks on Etherbun, a free rabbit health listserve with more that 5500 subscribers, worldwide.  Many are rabbit experts, including vets.  They may be able to offer additional insights:

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

I hope this helps get you on the road to solving Alice's mystery and drooling problems.

Take care,
Dana