I’m trying to get an appointment for the only other exotic vet near me but currently they’re always unavailable when I call. So here’s the deal.

2 weeks ago my rabbit stopped eating hay. Rarely she attempts to eat a piece of hay but it’s obvious she struggles with it. Sometimes she makes a wet noise while chewing like she just can’t grind it down and then gives up. 99% chance it’s tooth problems, right?

I took my rabbit to a vet recommended on the house rabbit society website. I seriously think they should be taken off of the list. The vet at first thought she was anemic and needed an emergency spay. She said she’d have to check her blood levels to see if she was VIABLE enough for surgery, otherwise she’d probably die. 20 minutes later she says my rabbit is the picture of health and that we can spay whenever we want in the future. She was told about how she has trouble chewing hay. She said maybe her stomach didn’t feel good so she was spitting up food (rabbits have no gag reflex). I was given critical care and a $200 vet bill and was told to get her to eat hay.

Well today I decided to call because maybe she was confused with the information she was given. One of my family members took her so it was kind of a game of telephone. Nope. Today I kept bringing up how I was worried about her teeth, but that she can eat pellets perfectly fine. She concluded my rabbit has a problem with her glottis, and that she might have a rare degenerative disease with her throat. WHAT? I kept asking whether her teeth looked ok in the exam and never got a straight answer. Then she said it’s difficult to see in the mouth of long-faced breeds without them being put under, which she wasn’t. She also said it’s probably not a problem with her teeth and is a swallowing problem because rabbits swallow pieces of hay whole. But…they grind that hay down before swallowing it. Which is what I said she’s struggling to do!! She also kept telling me to feed her critical care even though I kept reiterating she IS INDEED eating so she doesn’t need to be force-fed.

It’s just mind-boggling to me how she keeps offering these super rare ailments instead of addressing the most common ailment rabbits have, which is tooth problems. It’s like there’s no common sense. I had to vent because now I’m probably going to have to wait weeks before getting into this other exotic vet.