Hi there, welcome

Hmmmm, this is interesting. Does she seem to groom herself OK otherwise? I imagine that would also involve the tongue.

The video definitely does look like she is not using her tongue as much as most buns too, and I see what you are talking about regarding the “horror mouth”!

I think that given all her dental work, scarring or some other mobility limitation is a possibility. It could also be a learned change in motion due to “normal” movements causing pain the past.

I wonder if chopping her veggies into smaller pieces would help her not get juice all over her face?

I can relate with a similar situation, though I really can’t offer any advice on your current situation. My Bindi (sadly passed earlier this year) used to get regular molar trims every 5 months. When he was due and the vet checked his mouth, it turned out that one of his molars was so bad it created an ulcer on his tongue which turned necrotic and about 1/3 of his tongue had to be removed. I was obviously horrified and felt awful (but he had shown no signs he needed his dental earlier) but he recovered from it like it was nothing. However, we wondered about whether he would be able to drink properly. He did go through the motions of drinking but so much of it got on his chin, there was the worry of dehydration.  We ended up giving him Sub Q fluids every day for the next 3 years.

So, while I have no idea what is causing the issues with your bun, I can suggest the following to maintain her health.

I suggest you carefully monitor how much your bun is peeing.  Does it seem less than before.

Does she eat pellets? If yes, perhaps you could try offering them wet and mushy like oatmeal. And lastly, monitor her weight carefully. Bunnies that can’t chew properly can have a hard time keeping weight on. My Bindi certainly did. We had to supplement his daily diet with a few TBSP of Oxbow Critical Care.

Magpie has terrible front teeth and doesn’t use her tongue when drinking. She does have a bottle though because she’s a Lop, and her ears get wet and then get her wet.
Before anyone gets worried:
She has a terrible underbite and the vet showed me how to safely trim her teeth at home, which she has done about once a month.
I wouldn’t be super worrie about her, but I would of course watch her carefully. Are her front teeth ok?

Perhaps unrelated, but in case it helps somewhat: buns are sippers of water more than lappers (like dogs, for example), which is why water bowls are better than water bottles for them anyways. My little guy uses his tongue very minimally when drinking… and all’s well healthwise.

To answer your question, LittlePuffyTail, I actually stopped feeding her pellets a while back because I noticed a couple of times that she seemed to be literally inhaling them. If this happened, she would compose herself after a few seconds, acting as if something were stuck in her mouth, but one evening, the apparent difficulty seemed to be enough where I got a full on adrenaline surge as I prepared to do the bunny Heimlich. That was it for the pellets after that event.

This also happened to Bindi. He ate super fast….and one night I thought I was gonna lose him. He was gagging and drooling and his eyes were bulging. Thankfully, he was able to get it down but after that I always gave him only mushed up pellets.  This was before his partial tongue amputation. Pellets can be dangerous for quick eaters.