anesthetic

Question
Hi, My rabbit is beggining to get sharp teeth at the back of his mouth. The Vet told us, this could get bad and we should consider having him put under and a local anesthetic and having them filed or clipped. She did however keep talking about the risks of anesthetic on rabbits, because it is a much a higher ris that they could die than it is for dogs and cats. Do you think you could please tell me about these risks and what chance there is we could loose him! I'm a very protective owner! thankyou :)

Answer
Dear Aly,

It's great that your vet is aware of the potential problem of molar spurs in rabbits, which can indeed cause serious complications:

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

However, it's odd that she should give you what sounds like an "over the top" warning about rabbits being poor candidates for anesthesia.  Our experienced rabbit vets anesthetize and do surgery on literally thousands of rabbits every year, and with the exception of an occasional idiosyncratic bad reaction to anesthesia (which can happen in any species), the results are not much different from what you'd see in a dog or cat.

This makes me wonder if your vet is very well educated about rabbits, but lacks the practical experience working on them to feel fully confident.  I'm sure she is quite competent, but her inexperience with rabbits might make her wish to give you really severe warnings "just in case."

If this gives you pause, then you might consider going here:

www.rabbit.org/vets/vets.html

to find another rabbit-savvy vet in your area who can give you a second opinion, and who  might be more experienced with molar filings.  This should not be a major ordeal, and an experienced rabbit vet should be able to do this with minimal risk, as long as the anesthetic used is one of the safer ones for rabbits, such as isoflurane inhalent with appropriate pre-anesthetics for rabbits.

Hope that helps.

Dana