A Difficult Situation...

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Phwoffy

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Shetland, UK
Hi, new member here so please go gently! And my apologies because this may get long...

We have a 6-year old (probably) lop x lionhead, named Monty. He is our absolute baby, free range (although he chooses to live between his bedroom - where his house etc live - and ours), lots of attitude, plenty of fun/bossing etc.

The last few days, Monty has stopped eating hay. He has not lost his appetite, has wanted to eat hay, but at points we have seen him try to take it in and for it to just stop, and fall back out. Wednesday evening things weren't great, and he was pretty miserable, so on Thursday we took him to see the v-e-t. Now, this is where things get... Complicated. We live in Shetland, a group of islands in the North Sea, and there are 3 vet practices here - all run by the same group of vets. This is a farming community, and so there is much more of a focus on livestock and sheepdogs than on bunnies. We are also a 40 minute drive from our closest practice, a journey which Monty finds very upsetting.

The vet we saw was absolutely useless. Hia handling of Monty was dreadful, and he almost had me in tears at points, with his very obvious derision for the not-sheep that we had brought to see him. However, he used an opthalmascope and got what appeared to be a very long and decent look in Monty's mouth. He could see nothing, although I am not 100% convinced by this diagnosis, but surely if there were spurs etc causing pain, they would have been a little visible, even to an imbecile...

He gave Monty pain relief, an antibiotic (he did not tell us this until after he has given it, and could not say why...) and a gut motility injection, which Monty did not need. He had an appetite, was just unable to eat.

When we got home, Monty had a huge drink, and has spent yesterday evening and today improving, slightly. This morning he even ate a few strands of hay. He has been eating crumbs from hay cookies, plenty of grass, mushed down pellets etc., but to see hay going in was huge. We are on tenterhooks to see if he will try any more this evening.

Now, the reason I am here is... For advice, for guidance, just for reassurance. Monty is our first bun, and we came into bunny ownership with very little knowledge. I have been reading about bunnies for 4+ years, and keeping a mental diary of his every movement, but there are plenty of things which we have little-no experience of. And in this location, we are not going to get any help. Nothing, as far as I can tell, aside from a few injections and manhandling of our lovely boy.

Since December 2017 Monty has had an asymmetry of his face. It causes him few problems, although since then he has been, sometimes, a slower and more deliberate eater. We don't know what caused it, the vets acknowledged its existence and did an almighty shrug, and we are very against pushing them to find out because I don't believe they would know where to start. I don't know if the asymmetry would contribute to this - sometimes we feel his jaw just gets a bit stiff, other times we have feared tooth problems - but whatever eating trouble he has had, it usually clears up - sometimes in a day or two, sometimes during the same meal. These last few days have been the absolute worst of it, and I am very unsure how things will go from here but...

I just want some Bunny-loving folk to tell me that we are doing ok, even if our vets aren't, and that we can find ways to get through this without giving them too much control.

I'm really sorry for the length of this.

tl;dr: Bunny with facial asymmetry having big hay troubles. Teeth checked, human has no idea on way forward.

Extra note: The next nearest vet is an overnight ferry away. The closest rabbit-savvy vet is even further. We are doing the best we can, we just need some help.
 
He could still have a dental problem regardless of what the vet didn't find. Sometimes the overgrown tooth can be at the very back of the mouth and can't really be seen unless the rabbit is sedated so the vet can get a really good look.

But to me it sounds like there could possibly be an infection. Facial drooping/paralysis on one side could have been from a stroke if the limbs on the same side of the body were also affected, but a more likely cause of facial drooping in rabbits would be an inner/middle ear infection that could be linked to a dental issue or just causing enough pain while chewing that he is reluctant to eat certain foods. Though how he would have gone 2 years having this problem I don't know. So it's possible there is a dental problem linked to an inner ear infection, or just an inner ear infection causing pain and reluctance to chew. You are likely going to need to get xrays done and your rabbit put on the appropriate rabbit safe antibiotic(some antibiotics can be fatal if given orally) and pain meds.
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Neurology/Otit/otitis.htm
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Dental_diseases/Differential/D_problems1.htm

Try looking on these lists to see if you might have an experienced rabbit vet anywhere near your location. Though it's likely you are going to have to do a bit of traveling to get to one. Another option might be for your local vet to consult with an experienced rabbit vet. I'm pretty sure Molly Varga is a specialist and does consults, there's also the Royal Vet School. Crablane vets in Harrogate had the best rabbit specialist(Frances Harcourt Brown), particularly with dental problems, but she's retired, though she may still consult with the clinic, so that might be another option.
https://www.harcourt-brown.co.uk/ve...s-that-have-been-recommended-by-rabbit-owners
https://rabbitwelfare.co.uk/rabbit-care-advice/rabbit-friendly-vets/rabbit-friendly-vet-list/

In the meantime, feeding soft foods may help. If you can get Oxbow critical care food mix, Supreme recovery food, or Excel dualcare recovery food, then I would start feeding that. Making a mush out of his pellets and warm water is also an option. And if he will eat soft foods like fresh grass and leafy greens/herbs, those are good too. You just want to keep him eating and his gut moving until you can get this problem solved.
 

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