A few days my rabbit started to struggle to eat – it was very sudden as she was eating her dinner the day fore bine fine but struggled to chew her breakfast pellets. Her overall demeanour was pretty normal, alert and playful as usual. But whenever she tried to eat pellets or hay – she would take ages, slowly shake her head from one side to the other (as if avoiding pain?) and no audible typical ‘food crunching’ sound could be heard when she was eating. She would often spit out the hay/pellet. She is also clearly very interested in food and runs up to me when I have some for her – but simply struggles to chew.

Of course, I immediately took her to the vet who did a thorough dental exam (as thorough as you can without sedation) and said that she cannot see anything wrong with her teeth or mouth in general. Our bunnies have an excellent diet and lifestyle with plenty of high quality Timothy hay and foraging available etc. The vet sent us home with some pain killers and instructed to see how she gets on in the next few days with the hope that she starts to eat things as normal.

I have been supplementing with mushy critical care that she is more than happy to eat by herself. She has also recently started to eat soft lettuce, dandelion and fresh grass leaves relatively happily and well. She has also started to pick up and throw some of her toys – something she likes to do, which tells me that her incisor teeth could not be the issue?

Anyway, I wanted to ask if anyone has experienced anything like this before and has an inkling as to what it could be? My leading thoughts are that she may have scratched/bitten something in her mouth. I was also thinking maybe an ear infection as she is a half-lop bunny but there are no signs of it (e.g. no balance loss etc). There is also no teary eyes which are typical of a tooth problem – just the slow head shaking (as if she was saying no) when trying to chew something hard.

We were told to go for a follow up with the vet if she does not resume normal eating by Friday and they will sedate her to have a further look into her mouth. However, this is not my preferred option as sedation is not the most ideal option for small furries, but of course will go for it if needed.

Any knowledge/tips appreciated!