Hello everyone! I hope it is okay for me to post about a medical issue my bunny is having. I’m reaching my wit’s end about this and would love any thoughts that anyone might have.

My rabbit is turning 6 years old this year, and has always been extremely finicky about eating hay. That’s putting it mildly, actually. She despises hay, but will occasionally eat alfalfa hay. Nevertheless, she is always offered a mix of timothy and alfalfa hays, and various ‘flavors’ of timothy hay, at that.

Diet and her breed (Holland lop) have led to my rabbit developing molar spurs that need to be ground down by her amazing vet (I love her), under general anaesthesia, every 6.5-7 weeks. My rabbit has one molar tooth in particular that does not come into contact with her other teeth whatsoever, and continues to grow in a tusk-like fashion, impeding her eating ability. We have talked about removing this tooth, but it appears that removing molars in rabbits is strongly discouraged unless absolutely necessary, for fear of the jaw breaking.

I really don’t know what to do. My rabbit has been taking all of her surgeries like a champ so far, but her recovery times have been growing after each surgery, and her time between surgeries has been lessening. Does she have any other options besides just grinding her teeth down every 7 weeks? I spoke to my vet (who spoke to other vets) about an apparently rarely-done procedure known as the apicoectomy for that one tooth, which would involve removing the “root” of the tooth, which, in turn, would lead to the tooth not growing anymore. Upon further discussion, we decided that this surgery was far too risky/dangerous/painful to be truly worth it.

Does anyone, by any chance, have any other ideas? I know that this is a common issue in short-faced rabbit breeds.

Thank you all for your help. I cannot explain how much I appreciate the opportunity to talk to so many people about this.