Need your opinion

[Gina]

Our bunny Chewy has gone through a few surgeries in her lifetime for a jaw absess.  We give her Baytil daily and penicillin injections once a week.  She has lived WAY longer than any vet thought she would.  She is about 4 or 5 now.  She is one of those rare cases that lived for 3 years after being diagnosed with the absess.

Her absess has grown a bit.  It started out by her jaw and has worked its way down towards her neck.  She is still very affectionate and happy and eats tons.  Although it was rotting her teeth on one side, she has no trouble chowing down.

She is favorite rabbit (hate to say) and we love her to bits.  We are debating having her absess shaved again.  It will make her more comfortable, but who knows about the teeth. 

Should we do it if we can afford it?  The healing will be rough, but I think it will make her more comfortable over all.

[Sarita]

Have you discussed it with your vet? I say if the vet recommends it and it would make her more comfortable it’s worth doing.

[Beka27]

I would discuss your options with the vet. You definitely want to address the issues before she begins to suffer. What are your other options if you don’t have another surgery done? Would you decide to have her euthanized at this point, or only when she is visibly in pain?

[Gina]

i am sure my vet will want to examine her before performing the surgery and see if its worth it.

we would euthanize her if she stopped eating or was losing a lot of weight.  but she is generally a happy girl (when its not medicine time).  she has a bonded friend and seems to enjoy life (and food!)

[Nibbles_NZ]

I don’t have any knowledge or experience with this. I just wanted to tell you that I am sorry to hear that your little fur baby is having such a rough time. I really hope whatever it is you decide works out for the best. Good luck.

[Andi]

Do they know what is causing the abceses?

I just wanted to throw out some information I have had with re-occuring jaw abcesses, it’s second hand info from a lady I knew.
My friends bunny would have a re-occuring abccesses in her jaw, after surgeries and cleanings of the site it kept coming back. This put my friend into MUCH dept (Let’s just say if i sold my 2005 car, i’d not have enough to pay the Vet bill). The Vet was confused and did much testing to find out the rabbit had a VERY rare sort of condition. (Ok, lets see if i can even explain this one) Apparently some animals, I think it was wolves (?) have the start of tiny teeth in around the jaw, when a tooth is lost one of these start to grow into a full formth tooth. When i say tiny I mean only can be seen under a microscope.
It ended up this Rabbit had all those tiny little ‘teeth’ growing in the jaw where she lost a tooth, my guess was it just caused infection b/c a tooth wasn’t actually growing. Apparently this vet was going to write a paper on it in a veterinary medicine magazine, as this had not been seen before (So I was told).

Maybe this info was helpful, maybe not. I wish i had the outcome, but I lost contact with this lady and so never found out how it all went.

Goodluck with your bun, sounds like she has a great family

[Beka27]

Interesting Andi! Is that related to there being some of the tooth bud left in the socket? So it started growing again?

This also made me thing of odontomas in humans, small tumors that can form in the jaw that are comprised of the three components of teeth (enamel, dentin, and cementum). They appear like tiny teeth on xrays, but they never erupt. I wonder if rabbits can develop odontomas b/c that could definitely lead to cysts, tumors, or abscesses…

[Andi]

Beka, that sounds JUST like what I was trying to explain LOL So yes, little bits of wanting to grow ‘teeth stuff’ LOL … i’m so scientific :p
Like I said the Vet was very surprised to find this in a rabbit, though it is more common in some other animals from what I was told.

[Author]

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