Molar spurs and dentals

Question
Hi,

I have 2 elderly rabbits (9yrs old) that go for regular burring down of their molar teeth.  They've been going for about 2 years now, but the time frequency is gradually decreasing unfortunately and whereas they started off with about 8 weeks intervals between dentals, they went down to about 6 weeks for a time, but now they are more like 3 and a half to 4 weeks.  Firstly, I am just wondering if the repeated effects of burring their teeth so frequently may be loosening teeth at all?  Also, have had concerns regarding the recovery times from the past 2 dentals, especially for my eldest rabbit Pepsi, the vet told me they had been taking the teeth down shorter (the previous time it was described as flushed into the gumline) and this second time round, it has been 11 days since the dental and she has only now started to eat properly, having shown a lot of mouth discomfort.  The vet who burred her teeth last time told me her teeth get long on the lower jaw and spikey on the upper, but that its harder to burr the upper and is more susceptible to tissue damage.  Since they gave Pepsi an antibiotic last time, I'm assuming they may have been concerned about this and hence this has been the reason for post dental pain (unless teeth were taken too short aswell?)  Do you have any thoughts on this??  I have read posts were vets are able to perform dentals on rabbits so their teeth don't hurt afterwards, I am now questioning their expertise slightly as it seems such a struggle afterwards to get them on the mend, even with pain meds too!

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Many thanks,

Sue

Answer
Dear Sue,

It's true that the older a bunny gets the more likely there is to be osteoporosis that can contribute to loosening molars, and hence, more molar spur problems.  I really doubt that the filing itself will be a major contributor to loosening of the teeth, compared to natural aging processes and possible metabolic bone disease causing loss of bone mass.

And the vet is absolutely right that the top teeth are *very* difficult to file without hurting the gums.  I actually do my own molar filings with a Revlon nail file.  The bottoms are easy, but the tops are nearly impossible if the spurs are short and growing close to the sides of the mouth (which they usually are).  So though your vets may indeed be having difficulty with the top teeth, it's probably not because they're clumsy:  those top teeth are a real b****.  :(

It's good that they put your bunny on antibiotics as a prophylactic against infection if they really did injure her gums--which is not hard to do.  So I think they really do sound as if they care, and are doing the best they can.

If you feel the need to let another rabbit vet have a go with the molars, you can find vet listings here for vets who are experienced with rabbits:

www.rabbit.org/vets

As rabbits age, they become poorer candidates for anesthesia, but if your bunnies are generally healthy this might not be a major concern.  Wish I had better news!  The good news here is that they don't have jaw abscesses, which become more likely in older rabbits with chronic molar malocclusion.  So someone must be doing something right.  :)

Hope this helps.

Dana