Sore, wet chin on bunny

[Poppy&Joey]

Poppy’s had a sore chin for a few days now and I’ve been keeping an eye on it – I swapped their bowl for a bottle but it doesn’t seem to be helping. She’s pretty good at being handled but doesn’t like her mouth area to be handled so only managed to get a quick look at her teeth and I think they looked ok but can’t be sure.

She has never been a massive hay eater but I think she’s gone off her veggies a little bit recently as well (they’re indoor by the way), she prefers nuggets and dried fruit (which I try to limit ). Poppy also drinks A LOT of water! Before I took the bowl away, she would drink much more than her husbun, but doesn’t like the bottle so much so I’m a bit worried about that as well. I know she can drink from it, but its just whether she’s getting enough.

Do you think I should take her to the vet? Or put some sudocrem or something on her chin? She’s still as active and loving as ever.

Thanks a lot!

[tobyluv]

It sounds like Poppy may be having some teeth problems – a sore, wet chin and not eating as much are big indicators of that. Drinking a lot of water can also be an indication of teeth/mouth problems. The water is soothing to them.  Her back teeth could have sharp points, which may be cutting into her cheek.  There is no way that you can see her back teeth, so even if her front teeth look okay, there is a good chance that there is something wrong with her teeth or inside her mouth. Go ahead and take her to the vet for a dental exam. You don’t want her to be in pain or develop an infection.

[Poppy&Joey]

Thanks very much for your reply – I’ll take her to the vet next week. I didn’t know that excessive water drinking could be soothing tooth pain so learn’t something new as well!

[Poppy&Joey]

Hi again, I planned to take her to the vet tomorrow but this morning she stopped eating completely and was very unhappy. I knew she wasn’t right so rushed her to the vet. Her front teeth are a little misaligned and she has a spur on one of her back teeth, not so bad of the other. They’re giving her an anaesthetic and filing them down etc, and they said she would have to have regulate treatment (which I was expecting). Thanks for the advice.

[Bam]

It’s great that she’s having her teeth filed! My bunny has had his teeth filed twice and back to normal he went, after a few days’ convalence. Ask for a pain-killer to take home (metacam). My bunny needed extra pain-killer after both his filings, not because there’s sensation in the teeth themselves, but his gums were probably sore.

[Poppy&Joey]

Thanks for all you help – will your bunny have to have further dental treatments or not?

[Bam]

I think he will, but I expected him to be due in November 2015, 6 months from his 2nd dental. But my vets don’t want to anaesthetize him unless he shows symptoms, (you know the rule vets have about performing no unnecessary procedures) and he hasn’t shown symptoms. The symptoms he had were refusing to eat, running up to food but not taking it or dropping it on the spot. He had so small spurs that they couldn’t be seen with the otoscope, but he got well again after his burrs.

I’m not altogether sure I agree with my vets on this – I know several people here take their buns for regular dentals to prevent symptoms from ever cropping up. But since having my buns anesthetized scare me, I can’t find it in my heart to try and find a vet that will put him under just for a proper check-up. I’m not even sure I could find a vet that would.

It’s a bit difficult. But if he starts showing symptoms, I’ll take him in asap, because it really did him good those two times.

[Poppy&Joey]

Yeah, I agree with you on that one – you’ve given me hope that my girl will be ok. Her mate stopped eating while she was in hospital that’s how close they are! She got home about 5 hours ago and is already eating happily.

[Author]

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