Teeth Grinding Results

[phineas]

Our 4 year-old  boy began grinding his teeth recently.  He has showed injterest in eating, but when he starts, he only gets through about four chews before he closes his eyes and stops.  We took him to the vet and they performed some sort of teeth grinding procedure.  There was minor improvement and he actually ate half his food a couple of times.  Then he got much worse (with grinding) – louder and more often.  We have been force feeding him ‘Oxbow Critical Care’ as prescribed and he has not missed a meal.  He always shows interest in eating.  I am growing skeptical of the vet since his mouth seems to have gotten worse as a result of the grinding procedure. 

I’m curious if anyone has gone through this process and had similar early results.  In particular, is it common to go through several grindings to get this right?  Is it possible that he is grinding his own teeth down and we just need to keep him strong and well-fed?  Should I even give this vet another chance to grind his teeth?  Does anyone recommend someone in the SF Bay Area who excels in this procedure?  Please share any experiences you may have in this area – it would be much appreciated.

 

Thanks

[peppypoo]

Do you know why exactly your boy has this procedure done? Does he have a history of malocclusion (misaligned teeth)?

[Sarita]

When did you have the procedure done?

Here is a list of vets in your area from the House Rabbit Society:

http://www.rabbit.org/rabbit-center/resources/vets.html

I would look at this list to see if there is someone near you – there is a rabbit dental specialist listed in Albany – is that near you?  Also Dr. Carolyn Harvey is listed and she is one of the best rabbit vets around – she treats the HRS rabbits and she’s in Hayward.

[phineas]

Thanks for the links..

Gulliver has no history of any teething problems.. this is his first ailment in the 4 years we have had him. One of his back teeth had a small spur that was ground down – they didn’t mention touching any other teeth.

I am particularly interested in hearing from people who have gone through this procedure. Did it take your bunny a couple of weeks to recover? Has anyone had a bunny that recovered right away? Can the process be a little slow with some rabbits? Maybe they eat half of their regular diet for a week and then slowly recover all of their eating habits? Has anyone had to go back to the vet for a supplemental grinding after they thought they had taken care of the problem? Maybe someone has had a bunny that ground his own teeth down over time?

Our current vet (IMHO) is sort of throwing everything at the wall – perhaps knowing that rabbit ailments can be unpredictable and don’t want the perception of misdiagnosis around their necks. When we brought the rabbit in for an exam, the vet seemed preoccupied with other possibilities – cautioning us that there were a myriad of problems associated with teeth grinding. We pay close attention to the behavior of our animals and this issue began suddenly when he refused to eat and started grinding his teeth – I mean it was loud, noticeable, and highly unusual for him to walk away from food. He would try to eat – taking some parsley into his mouth, chewing four times, closing his eyes as if in pain and stopping, mouth closed on the fourth ‘chew’, head tilting forward.

It’s not that we don’t trust our vet or respect their opinion, we would just like to hear some real life experiences to balance against what we have observed in Gulliver’s ongoing care. He is upbeat, bright eyed, and active. Actually the second time we force fed him Oxbow after his procedure he gobbled it down. Same thing with the third feeding. He may have been defending himself against the syringe because he kept trying to bite it, but he gulped down 12 full syringes each time and a little extra. Since those feedings he has become combative at being force fed and has started to eat – maybe 1/3 of his normal intake – but he chews more slowly and spits out some things. Does this behavior seem familiar to anyone? It could very well be that this is the normal process for this type of recovery.

At any rate.. any real life experiences with this type of recovery would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again!

[Sarita]

It should not take a few weeks to recover.

I have had many rabbits with dental procedures done by different vets and the maximum it has taken is 2 days. It totally depends on how the vet does the procedure too – one of my vet gives valium and that takes a few days and the other does not and the rabbit is back to normal pretty much right away.

Many times dental problems can develop later in life when rabbits age too so that could be the case with your rabbit (although I cannot know for sure).

[Sarita]

And yes, I have had to take one of my rabbits back for further dental trims because they weren’t as aggressive initially on the trim.

I would take him back or get a second opinion if it were me.

[jerseygirl]

Were you given pain meds for home care? Was he given some as part of the procedure or directly after? Just wondering if that could be why you saw initial improvement but then a regression after pain med wore off…

Where was the spur that was ground? I was reading the other day that the buccal (check side) spurs on the upper jaw are very commonly missed…

Sarita, by “aggressive” do you mean grinding the area down further? I do remember your having said this seem to be effective for Peppy.

[phineas]

Good to know.. thought we might be expecting too much too soon. He ate some real food in the morning (always interested), and then last night he gobbled all of the Oxbow down like he did a couple of days ago. He had been real stubborn and refused to swallow – holding it in his mouth and letting it drip out, biting the syringe and not giving up. There is improvement, and then he quits eating.. then there is improvement.. then.. repeat.. He has great spirit, keeps his head up, and is getting good exercise.

I have to think that bunny dentistry isn’t all that exact a treatment. When I have been to the dentist to have any rearranging done, I always get impressions taken because the way your teeth fit together is important. Taking a grinder to a rabbit’s teeth seems like an educated guess at best. I realize that human teeth are a bit more complicated, but how they fit together is no less important to them.

Thanks for sharing.

One last question for Santa – was the valium for you or your rabbit?

[phineas]

Hey Jerseygirl.. yeah, we started pain meds actually a day before we got him to the vet.. it did help and it does seem that they wear off a little faster than the 24-hour dosage permits.

I thought it (the grinding) was on the lower jaw, but I’ll check.

We’re going to try some antibiotics for a week and see about upping his pain dosage. I’m not too keen on taking him back in for another go-round with grinding before we deem his recovery a failure. I’m not crazy about anesthesia being administered on a weekly basis – could just be a slow recovery and since his spirits are so high, I think it is safe and makes sense. It’s never easy, though.

[Sarita]

LOL – the valium was for the rabbit but I could have used some.

My other vet does not use valium and the recovery time is significantly faster.

I do know that molar spurs can be very painful and uncomfortable for rabbits and I always had the same concern about anesthesia as you do. My rabbit Pepe who recently passed away had his teeth filed every 4 weeks – he had horrible weird teeth. His death was caused by heart failure due to a bad heart though and the vet used isofluorine gas for anesthesia which is safe for rabbits. I think for him, it was so necessary to file his teeth to manage the discomfort.

I have a netherland dwarf right now who has to get teeth filed but it is more like every 5 or 6 months due to having some molars pulled because of a dental abscess – he was dumped due to his condition at a guinea pig rescue and was in very bad shape – he is fine and healthy now except for the dental maintenance.

[jerseygirl]

 

I have to think that bunny dentistry isn’t all that exact a treatment. When I have been to the dentist to have any rearranging done, I always get impressions taken because the way your teeth fit together is important. Taking a grinder to a rabbit’s teeth seems like an educated guess at best. I realize that human teeth are a bit more complicated, but how they fit together is no less important to them.

For molar trims I don’t *think* they actually trim the occluding surfaces. It’s more to the side of the molar so most of the occluding surface is left as is.  (I don’t know on this for sure. )

See pic below. You can sort of see the angle they’d need to trim here. If they were to trim horizontally across occluding surfaces there would still be the sharp spur left somewhat.  They’d end up trimming down the occluding surface and awful lot and then the opposing tooth might then end up over growing causing further problems.

 

Hope that helps get an idea of what possibly is  going on in Gullivers mouth. Their mouths are impossibly small! I can see why something might get missed on the first attempt.

[Author]

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