Hello! That’s really a bad situation…. you didn’t include detail as to where you’ve got her, but if she had dental problems so early on what comes to my mind is that she’s either the result of bad breeding or she didn’t receive good care before coming to your place (or both…)

As for antibiotics, you can switch her to orally fed ones to try and see if the infection(s) she’s having can be battled. Did the vet send to the lab a sample to know exactly what bacteria is troubling her? It will help pinning down a good alternative antibiotic.

My hope is that the bacteria from her mouth didn’t find the way to travel and cause her a systemic kind of infection, but that should be assessable only by bloodworks/bacterial culture. Sadly, mites shouldn’t affect appetite. Can I ask what pain med is she on? Since she had a big surgery, it may be she needs something stronger than Metacam (if that’s what she’s on) and be switched to something stronger.

Spitting out food is a sign of dental discomfort (either pain, spurs, internal wound, etc), which could be still justified by the huge surgery she had. What’s her diet, except for the CC you’re righteously feeding her? Does she eat CC on her own if you leave some fresh out for her or she plain dislikes it? Is she drinking on her own consistently?

As for putting her to rest… you as the owner have to call that. Usually what is said is to check the quality of life of the animal (still playing? still doing normal bunny stuff?) and the “light” in their eyes. Does she look like she’s still fighting and willing to live her life? Or does she look dull/depressed? It’s certainly a very hard issue to tackle and I suggest you take her in for as many consults as you wish both with your vet and to other vets. If there’s a vet university clinic or a rabbit specialized shelter they may be of help to give you insight of the real situation.

I’m so sorry you and your baby have to live this situation. Please keep us updated and we’ll try to help as much as we can.

As Muchelle says, the question of putting her to rest is a call you need to make, after assessing her satisfaction with her life. This includes playing, doing normal activity, and the will to go around and live life is present.

I am experienced with dental issues from a different origin. Wick is a bit older, 1yo +3mo, but he’s had 6 molar grindings. His jaw is crooked and he has an underbite, so his natural inclination is to chew abnormally. Because of this, his bottom incisors need to also be trimmed down drastically (lower than the cheek bubbles), which means he can’t eat big or square food; it needs to be a small, vertical strip that he can easily cling and put into his entire mouth, without requiring front teeth to pull.

My observation and what I suspect is occurring in both Wick and potentially your baby as well, is the spitting out of hay may be due to discomfort, but also it could be the result of inability to efficiently pull in and grind hay strands because of the abnormal chewing (Wick’s as a result of misalignment; yours as a result of missing teeth/bone). If the chewing motion is not normal, it’s very difficult to rotate and position the hay in the mouth in order to be ground. If you sit and watch a normal rabbit eat hay, it usually rotates the hay in its mouth with its chewing motion before actually eating it.

I switched Wick to Oxbow harvest stacks, a compressed hay puck. He rarely spits out hay anymore because the hay strands are scrunched, making it easier for him to get grips on it with his teeth and chew on it. Straight, loose hay gave him lots of issues, and I chalked it up to him being picky. He is definitely picky, but being on 100% hay stacks for a while now, I realize it’s definitely just easier for him to eat the scrunched hay vs. loose, straight hay. Maybe you can by a pack and test this out. The intent of the product is for the rabbit to dig and pull out strands, but Wick is not capable of that, and I suspect your rabbit wouldn’t be either. I break it apart for him, and tease those chunks apart so they are very loose and he can still “scavenge” for the best pieces. Again, the texture and shapes of the hay in the hay stacks is much more agreeable with Wick’s mouth structure/chewing motion.

Wick never developed abscesses from injections, but he did form one slightly raised scab literally weeks after an injection, so that sounds natural; Wick’s vet said it was not surprising. The formation of the abscess could be your rabbit’s unique reaction to having that fluid injected, meaning in the future, maybe trying oral items instead.

I don’t want to carry everything Wick does over to your rabbit, but due to Wick’s weird jaw alignment, he does chew to himself occasionally; but I know it’s not pain. I think he just does it to work out some teeth kinks when he’s relaxing, or to just maneuvering around spit accumulating due to lubrication needed to sustain his weird alignment (lubrication does stem from feeling discomfort, but Wick isn’t in pain; just minor “ugh” feeling).

For what it’s worth, I think it’s possible to have a happy rabbit, even if hiccups occur more than occasionally; as long as the quality of life is still there. Wick has gone to the vet, on average once every two weeks since I’ve had him. He went from URI > Neuter > Grinding > More URI > Grinding > Grinding > Grinding > Tooth infection > Grinding > Ringworm > Grinding > Ringworm (present). So a lot. He’s racked up quite a number of medications, syringes, and needles in his first aid kit, and many bills, but I know he’s happy. http://www.instagram.com/wick_theboogeyman/

Keep us updated and best wishes.

Have you sent these masses out for a pathology? The true way for you to be able to know her quality of life is to test the masses to see if it is cancer, and to take skull x-rays. A good exotic vet will be able to look at the x-rays and tell you if it is dental disease. I’ve had bad dental disease problems here, one of my girls had to have a surgery, three incisors were removes and the most diseased one resides in her sinus cavity for now because it isn’t hurting her. Pathology is expensive (usually $60-100) and the surgery wouldn’t be cheap (which I am sure you know), but IF this is really the cause then you should be able to have a normal rabbit. 

Forgive me if I missed it, but even dental disease that isn’t causing abscesses can be halted in it’s tracks with Vitamin D. I have two girls with this, one of them had bad enough dental disease that we had no option but to do the surgery, she was suffering, in pain, not eating, and had to have monthly trimmings. The other one has teeth that fracture easily, but she is doing well on Vitamin D and avoiding surgery. Has your vet mentioned Vitamin D at all?

The fluctuations may be the result of dental issue recurrence. For some rabbits, like Wick, regular dental grindings are needed to maintain it. Wick is also a netherland dwarf, so genetics and bad breeding are at play.

Financial concerns are legitimate. When I discussed this with Wick’s vet, we decided to stick to an every 5 week-grinding schedule. If he seems to be suffering earlier, we’ll make it sooner, but 5 weeks is a good range at the moment. Maybe dedicating to a regular maintenance may help financially to deter any larger, more serious operations from waiting too long between dental maintenance.