We just took one of our Jersey Wooly’s…….Chester…….to the vets yesterday because of his teeth. Poor thing has what the vet called a “Malacclusion” (sp?), which in layman’s terms, is an underbite. Dr. Vena said it could be a genetic disorder or maybe from an accident he had…..we’ll never know, but his top teeth were curling under and would’ve soon grown into the roof of his mouth and the bottom teeth were already making his top gum on his left side, bleed. She trimmed them with simple wire cutters and showed us how to do it because it’s something that will need done the rest of his life unless we find him something he likes to gnaw on to keep his front teeth ground down to where they should be.
He had a really bad weepy eye on his left side also, which was most likely caused by the teeth issue and she gave us an antibiotic to give to him twice a day for 7 days. He’s already acting more like hisself, which I am just tickled to death about !
He also has a spot on his back that Jersey’s get…….kinda like a “hot spot” that dogs get…….and Dr. Vena checked it for mites and/or ring worm. Both were negative, so we were ecstatic ! We have some anti-microbial spray that came from a vet that the lady we originally got Chester from (he was one of her retired Grand Champion show bunnies that she couldn’t use anymore, so she gave him to us along with two other Grand Champion Wooly’s) uses. It’s called Melasorb, I think. Anyway, we’ve been spraying that on his spot twice a day and he’s doing so much better !
The vet was able to use some kind of an instrument, instead of aenesthetizing him, to see if there was any problems with his other teeth further back in his mouth and she said that they’re not too bad…….but we have to constantly monitor his front teeth.
I told Jenn (the original owner of Chester) about Chester’s teeth and she said, “WHAT ??? I never had a problem with him whatsoever ! Do you give him corn ?”. I said I didn’t because it’s not good for rabbits and she said, “I’ve been giving my rabbits corn on the cob for 13 yrs. and have never once had a problem ! It keeps their teeth ground down in the front and also keeps them occupied. They love gnawing the corn off the cobs and the little bit that they ingest won’t hurt them.” So now she wants to give us some of the corn she uses for her rabbits. At this point, I think I’ll try it because I’ve made him all sorts of toys and given him all different kinds of hay (we’ve had him since Jan. of this year) and since he was a show bunny, I’ve never observed him playing or eating any hay. We even tried breaking up hay cubes from BB and putting them in with his pellets but he just eats around them.
If you could’ve seen how pitiful he looked when he was having trouble with his teeth *sniffle*…..well, I’ll try anything to keep that from happening again. His teeth seemed to get out of control over night and he’s always been a bit skiddish so we try not to stress him too much, but in light of this new situation we will have to be more diligent with checking him more thoroughly, more often.
All in all, he has grown to really love & trust us and actually comes over to us when we call his name. He loves being petted and will actually shove his head under our hand for pets when we are putting fresh food in his dish. When he first came to live with us, he was so scared. I don’t think Jenn messed with him much, even though I know she loves her animals but just not the same way we do.
Anyway, Chester is one of the loves of our lives and we just adore him ! He didn’t even cop an attitude with us for taking him to the vet……in fact, I believe he feels closer to us because he knows we did it so he could feel better :o))
I guess we’ll see how we fair with the teeth trimming when the time comes. I can’t help but feel nervous about it. If worse comes to worse, we’ll just take him back to Dr. Vena and have her do it. She only charges $18 for an office visit. Can’t beat that !
Here’s a coupla pics of our little boy, Chester. He’ll be 4 yrs. old in December:
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