Dental spur surgery

[amyef2000]

Hi, just curious to find out others’ experiences with dental spur surgery. One of our rabbits, Pebbles (5 year old female mini-lop) has spurs which have remained the same since first identified by our vet around 6 months ago and in that time she has been eating and behaving normally. Our vet has said they’d like to operate to remove the spurs in around 3 months (non-urgent unless Pebbles stops eating or behaving as normal) as this operation will only get riskier as Pebbles gets older. Is this the normal way to handle spurs? Apparently due to her face shape she is prone to them despite us giving her harder vegetables and plenty of toys to naw on. Just conscious that with every surgery comes risk and there is surely a possibility that Pebbles’ spurs will not grow sufficiently to cause her problems, or that they may regrow and she would need another surgery when older anyway. Of course we are still happy for her to have the surgery if it improves her wellbeing – just curious as to normal procedure!

[DanaNM]

Hi there,

So the short answer is that your vet is recommending the normal procedure. 🙂 Sometimes buns will get spurs around middle age due to changes in bone density and tooth alignment, and in these cases often will just need 1 tooth burring. Other buns get them earlier in life and need burrings periodically throughout their life.

The procedure itself is low risk, with the main risk coming from the anesthesia (as the procedure itself is just filing down the spurs). Your vet can also do pre-anethesia blood work that can indicate if a reaction is likely.

The main way spurs get ground down is from chewing longer strands of hay, as it’s the side to side chewing that keeps the molars in check. But this wont really help once the spurs are formed.

Often spurs aren’t really noticed until there is a problem with chewing. Did your vet just notice them during a check-up?

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[amyef2000]

Ah that’s good to know, thanks! Yeah our vet just noticed them during a normal vaccinations and checkup appointment. The vet has impressed us when operating on one of our other rabbits so we do trust them with anaesthetic etc. – always a bit nervous still! Interesting that hay eating wears them down, Pebbles loves hay more than any other bun I’ve had so guessing for her it’s more related to age and face shape.

[DanaNM]

Thats good she is a good hay eater! That means she might be good with just this one burring. 🙂

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[Author]

Messages