# Recovering from teeth removal



## Viola (Apr 11, 2012)

My 11 month dwarf lop, Louie, just had most of his teeth removed because of his malocclusion yesterday. I went to get them removed the first time I took him to the vet, and she said that as he was young, with aggressive trimming we could get them to align, and that if I had them removed they could just grow back. She had had rabbits as pets, and was very good with Louie, managing to trim his teeth with a diamond drill without him being under any anaesthetic, he was absolutely fine afterwards. The second time I went, I had to have a different vet, she clipped his teeth with clippers and told me I absolutely had to get them out, and another vet agreed. I was wary but as I couldn't get a vet who wouldn't use clippers, I figured it would be better for him rather than putting stress on his skull with continued clipping.

Yesterday he was very dopey, falling over and snoozing. He sucked baby food off my finger, the vet says he can return to a normal diet of mostly meadow hay and pellet mixture in a couple of days. Today he is a lot more energetic, I gave him his anaesthetic, and different baby food with decent fibre content. He lives inside, so cold and comfort is not a problem.

Thought I would ask you rabbit geniuses though

1) Did I do the right thing having them removed?

2) Is there anything I can do to help him recover? Other foods I should be giving him? He has some hay, the vet said maybe some grass, which he wasn't much interested in yesterday, but he has never been interested in grass to begin with.


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## 1234bunnies777 (Apr 11, 2012)

the deed is done but do you know if they were rabbit savvy vets if they were i would trust them.


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## Acacia-Berry (Apr 11, 2012)

When they remove teeth, they remove the root. Teeth don't just grow back. They will only grow back if the root is still there. 

A bunny with removed teeth will be in a lot of pain for a while, they cannot eat hay and pellets as normal. When I had just one tooth removed in my mini-rex she couldn't eat hay for a while. She was getting ground up oats/hay and softened pellets. To encourage her eating this I used Critical Care for Herbivores. Then since she loved food so much she just ate her pellets on the other side of her mouth.
How many teeth were removed in your bunny?


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## Acacia-Berry (Apr 11, 2012)

(sorry for double post) 

Because the teeth in the back are necessary to grind up food. So you might be on a soft diet for a while, mash up hay and critical care in a blender with a bit of water.


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## LakeCondo (Apr 11, 2012)

He may learn to like grass if hay is difficult to eat.


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## tonyshuman (Apr 11, 2012)

Acacia-Berry is right that the teeth shouldn't grow back of removed properly. They shouldn't really be using clippers to trim them, however, a rotary dental drill works much better. Hopefully the removal did the trick, however, and you don't have to worry about it.

I think you did the right thing in having them removed. We have a member who had a bunny with no teeth at all, and other members whose bunnies didn't have all their teeth, and they ate fine. You may have to do pellet slurry for a while, and cut up veggies into smaller pieces, but he should do just fine once he's recovered.


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## hln917 (Apr 12, 2012)

My Shades, also a lop had her upper and bottom inscisors removed because we were having them clipped every 6 weeks. After one visit, she was traumatized so we decided not to subject her to any more stress. After consulting with quite a few bunny experts including the forum people here and my vet,we decided to have them removed. The first 2 days we fed her Critical Care. By the 3rd day she was eating on her own again. Did the vet give you any pain meds for her?


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## ZRabbits (Apr 14, 2012)

How's Louie doing? Hope all is well. 

K


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