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- This topic has 33sd replies, 16 voices, and was last updated 16 years, 11 months ago by
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So Rucy is going in for a tooth spur trim tomorrow. Normally it wouldn’t be such a big deal, but it’s more risky this time because of her chest mass (which we can’t determine is if it’s truly a hernia or some mass - whole nother long story) Anyway, this mass/hernia restricts her breathing as it restricts her lungs a bit. She lives okay with it, but putting her under anesthesia does put her at more risk with her somewhat restricted breathing, and so the vet chose to wait until the point where her spurs really have to be done (thank goodness, they don’t have to be done often). She’s been drooling, eyes watering and her tooth check last week revealed that they really are at the point of “have to”. I knew it was getting there.
Rucy’s bloodwork came back fine, and she recently had another set of x-rays, and so the vet said she has a plan of how to position her during the trim to keep the pressure off of her chest. Even with that there is the additional risk, but I trust my very rabbit savvy vet, and I know that if something does go wrong that it wouldn’t be her fault, that she would have done her very best to prevent her from passing. I, of course don’t want the “worst” to happen, and so Rucy could use all of your positive vibes tomorrow! My vet is staying positive, I am too, that’s why I haven’t let many negative worries enter throughout this week in anticipation for tomorrow, but this is now the night before, so I am feeling normally anxious. I just try to replace fearful thoughts with positive thoughts and images of how it’s all going to be just fine.
I drop her off tomorrow morning (Friday)
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I just got a call from the vet. It looks like all the positive vibes worked because Rucy had no problems with the anesthesia! Yeah!!! What a relief.
This is the first time she was to go under with this mass the way it is, (that we know of) plus she’s reaching 9 years old (if she’d not there already) but it all went just fine! The one thing the vet find did find though is that a group of three teeth that had spurs were also very infected and abscessed at the roots, and so they were pulled. She has been on antibiotics for many weeks now due to what we thought could be infection and she has had ongoing infection problems that we haven’t fully been able to take care of with the meds, so I’m glad they found the root of the problem, literally.
Poor Rucy though, she has lost several teeth so far over the years. But she has done fine with just chewing her food on one side of her mouth. But she’s alive and I know she will be feeling even better now once she has healed.
bunnytowne: yeah, she doesn’t show up as much on the webcams lately because i don’t think she had been feeling so well, fighting off her infections, and as well as Jack has been extra “amorous” lately, and won’t leave her alone at certain parts of the day, so I put a little hidey house up on a bench that only she can fit into. She likes to sleep and hang out in there alot. Sometimes I aim the camera in there though. Once she has healed and is off pain meds, I bet she’ll more energetic…for her age.
Thanks again everyone!
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Rucy was doing well after her surgery. The vet callled and said she was ready to be picked up. That Rucy was recovering well, and was already digging at her litterbox and picking at her hay.
After talking more at length with the vet when we got there, we got even more info. This won’t affect Rucy’s eating because she didn’t have many bottom molars on the right side of her mouth anyway, (she always ate on the left side) so the top molars on that side weren’t ever really being used, hence spurs would grow, and then food would get stuck there, so they just rotted. The teeth were just dead. The vet said that when she would push on them, pus would come out. The teeth came out easily, and then she put in an antibiotic bead.
Also, my vet decided to test the bacteria of the pulled teeth. Once the results come back, she will have a better idea of which antibiotic will work best in this case. I’m so glad she thought to do that. We have tried so many antibiotics over the years to fight off infection to prevent more surgeries. Many times it worked, but sometimes not. Though this test won’t necessarily gaurantee that a certain antibiotic will help, it at least will give us a better chance at fighting it in the future.
This has been something that has been ongoing with Rucy – even before I adopted her, and when I asked my vet about why do tooth issues seem to continue to happen in some rabbits, she said that with jaw/teeth issues, it just is common for the bacteria to hang in there and move to the next tooth. Rucy has had four surgeries over the years, but she has always healed well, and enjoys life.
Right now, she is feeling a little “icky” but pain meds are keeping her as comfortable as possible and for the first few days, I’ll be feeding her critical care and soft foods.
Katnip: I think Jack will be very happy to have his Rucy feeling back to normal. He’s been rather lonely without her more spunky self this last month.
Mimz: It is common for teeth issues to be hidden because the roots can be infected and so you can’t necessarily spot it even with a general tooth exam. In Rucy’s case, it got more serious than I would have preferred – We would have had xrays or a more extensive tooth exam done earlier, but we really waited on purpose this time because of the concern that anethesia would be more risky for her.
Thanks again so much for all your kind words and positive vibes!
UPDATE: I just went to check on her and she was munching up greens without a problem!
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I can understand not wanting to eat or do much of anything with a bad tooth in your head. When my wisdom teeth came in, at first they did fine, but the lower right impacted over the years and just made me miserable. I had the dentist knock me out and take them all at once…can’t tell you what a relief that was to have it gone…and it gave my sis-in-law a good laugh to see how goofy I was coming out of the anesthesia, because I was completely loopy for a few hours before I passed out again. lolz…. Those docs have some great stuff. ^_^
Wow, the test for the particular bacteria I wouldn’t have guessed would even be thought of. Great vet you have there BB!
Hmmm…can bunnies become ‘allergic’ to antibiotics like humans can? And considering how widely these drugs are used in every form of food on the planet, I wonder if there is a steady rise of immunity to certain antibiotics? Would this account for the ineffectiveness? That would be something I’d like to know. Of course, if Rucy has had these problems all her life, she most likely has run the whole course of several treatments, hence the poor results with them.
Poor thing! Well, we’re still sending complete healing vibes! ^_^ Glad to hear she is eating well!
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