Tummy and Teeth Problems

[Rabbittherabbit101]

About 3 months ago we brought our rabbit to get her teeth spurs fixed. She’s been amazing and eating like a champ. We brought her on Tuesday to get her nails clipped at the vet and she was alright but then on Wednesday she very slowly ate her food, not at all like normal and then yesterday she would only eat if we forced her. So today we took her to the vet.

He called us to say that he thinks she has some impacted food in her intestine and her teeth are impacting her eating. He’s putting her on fluids, going to give her an xray and then put her under anesthesia and get her teeth fixed. Luckily he doesn’t think its stasis because we have been forcing her to eat so her gut is moving (thank god) but I’m just a distraught parent.

Has this happened to any of you? I am amazed how quickly her teeth have gone back to being a problem. Considering up until this week she would eat an entire rack of hay in 2 days. Does anyone have any advice or even if they have had something similar happen and how it was resolved.

[DanaNM]

It’s tough, some bunnies just have misaligned teeth and need regular trimmings (and sometimes once they get even a tiny spur they will stop eating). I think every 3-6 months is a typical frequency, and it can become a little less frequent as the bun gets older and growth slows down a bit. It’s really great that she normally eats her hay well, that’s really the best thing you can do.

I think once you get a sense of the frequency she’ll need, you can kind of plan ahead for it and not have to do x-rays and all of that before hand (just schedule her in for a filing once you notice the very first symptoms).

. . . 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.  

[Rabbittherabbit101]

One of our key things is that the last time something like this happened it was also after a nail clipping. Though that time was almost fatal. 7 days in the hospital. This time I have faith, since she was taking food when I was forcing her, that she’s just in pain and once she starts eating fully again she’ll be fine. It just worries me because she has so many issues with eating that it’s hard to know if she’s just not in the mood, or if she’s actually in trouble.

[DanaNM]

I do wonder if the stress of the nail trims set her off. Some buns practically go into stasis after vet visits from the stress (and I wonder how the vet is actually doing the nail trim).

Have you tried to do nail trims at home?

. . . 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.  

[Rabbittherabbit101]

So I’ve taken her to do a trim at the groomers but I’ve been there with her and because of Covid our regular groomers is closed with no say on reopening. So I decided to take her to the vet, but it was only 3 nails they had to trim and my other rabbit is perfectly fine.

I tried 2 weeks ago and cut her quick and had to take a trip to the emergency vet cause I couldn’t get it to stop bleeding. So we thought the vet was a better option. But she wouldn’t let me touch her feet so I’m not sure.

[DanaNM]

Ah, I was about to share this video that shows a really neat way to clicker train a bun to get them used to having their nails trimmed without restraint, but it’s not available anymore on youtube!

The basic idea is you slowly desensitize the bun to having their nails trimmed using clicker training. First you just touch the foot, click and treat. Then once they are good with that, you move the clipper near the foot, click, and treat (if the bun doesnt move). Then once that is going well you get a piece of uncooked spaghetti, and clip the spaghetti near the buns foot (to get them used to the sound of the clippers cutting), click and treat. The trainer did this on a training mat (similar to target training), and the bun had access to a “low value treat” (pellets) while it stayed on the mat. The treat given after the click was a tiny piece of raisin (a high value treat). Once all of that was good the trainer was able to trim a nail. Usually they just did a few nails per session, but it seemed awesome!

I want to do this with one of my buns Cooper, because he’s pretty good with being touched all over, but can be really squirrelly if you pick him up for nail trims. I can usually get his front feet while he’s getting cuddles on the couch.

. . . 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.  

[Rabbittherabbit101]

Ironically Rabbit was great whem we were clipping her nails.  But I cut her quick and couldn’t get it to stop bleeding soni was nervous to do it again. But I’ll just clip them weekly and just a small portion. The vet said thst it seems like its not worth the nail clips if she gets like this so we will just have her at home and do them at home. 

The vet did say that she had some concerning blood results so they hope they can get her to eat.

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