Not sure mine has problems with teeth but she loves willow.
I made a willow ball – that looked anything BUT round!! – in May and she’s still chomping it – it’s quite hard…. would that help ?

Fresh grass and hay, Apple twigs and willow are my suggestions. My Yohio went a whole year without needing his molars burred on a diet with an increased amount of hay and grass and twigs. His first two burrs were only 6 months apart.

Vitamin D-deficiency s primarily associated with insufficient absorption of dietary calcium, and rabbits need lots of calcium because their teeth grow all their lives (as you know).  Another adverse effect of getting too little vitamin D is of course osteoporosis, which potentially could change the density and alignment of the jaw-bones. Frances Harcourt Brown has written about this and the importance of getting vit D from sunshine, not from dietary supplements in a thesis 2006. It can be downloaded here:

Harcourt Brown thesis rabbit teeth

Her conclusion can be found on page 145.

The whole thesis is of course very long and detailed since it’s a thesis, so here’s a shorter article that discusses her findings: 

Vitamin D rabbit teeth

I don’t know if this is helpful at all. It’s a difficult decision you are facing. 

oh no – put to sleep? Surely not if he’s a happy bunny….? But it’s your call, of course.

Zou is over 2 now and she’s never had a problem with her teeth. I guess I’m just lucky (…you watch, she’ll start going off her food tomorrow…!) or else it’s because she quite happily chomps through the thick plastic fencing I put up for her initially (I then spotted the holes and reinforced it with a metal fence, but she can still get through to the plastic – she doesn’t eat it, but its her desperate attempt to freedom on the grass!! LOL

As bam says, it’s a terribly difficult decision. Animals shouldn’t be about the money – but 300usd every 2 months….!!? Golly, poor you.

oh well, that’ll explain my previous post…..

While fresh grass I’m sure is good for the teeth, with free access to it it’s likely that he doesn’t eat a great deal of hay which would be much more beneficial to tooth wear than fresh grass. That being said, if the teeth as misaligned in any way, even with more roughage the teeth will always need trimming (though perhaps less frequently). Misaligned teeth simply don’t wear down properly when grinding up food as the surface of the teeth don’t meet in the correct way. If they’re not misaligned, an adjustment to the diet focusing on an increase in stalky hay consumption could really help.

It may actually be beneficial for him to have a more confined and controlled environment (indoors perhaps) as it will enable you to better control his diet more strictly as opposed to him just foraging on the lawn. You can always clip lawn and bring it in for him, but by being able to control the amount, you can encourage him to eat larger quantities of hay. Just something to consider in terms of management.

Hi Karla : )

How do the incisors look with occlusion? Sometimes they can be reason the molars won’t occude properly, so removal on incisors might be something that helps with some rabbits.
Does the vet just trim of points, spurs? Or shape the crown of the tooth. I don’t know if you remember Sarita’s rabbit Pepe, but he was a rabbit that required frequent trims. At one point, she mentioned the vet was trimming the crown right down and that was leaving longer periods between dentals.
What teeth are being affected? Both upper and lower jaw? Some years ago there was a technique being trialed where they killed off the pulp of the tooth, however, this was only useful in the lower molars. I cannot remember what the procedure was called. Will post it if it comes back to me. I don’t recall seeing anything on it in recent years.

Very interesting about gender and dental issues!

I think the procedure is called pulpectomy. There is also one called Apicoectomy. Are they mentioned in the document bam linked at all?

Yes, one of the mods now lol. This place keeps busy! Thank you.

But honestly, right now, things are not looking good. He has a head tilt and he can’t eat or drink. Maybe the vet has accidentally cut his tongue or something. I have an appointment this morning with a new vet, hoping that he can help him.

Sorry to hear this! It’s unfair how things compound more as they get older. I suppose that’s true for all of us. Is he on some pain relief after the dental?
Sending {{{vibes}}} for him.

An edit of the original post informs that this rabbit has passed away.
https://binkybunny.com/FORUM/tabid/54/aft/146390/Default.aspx