Seriously Overgrown Teeth.

[Mikoli]

My friend's rabbit Layla went to the vet about a week or two ago. We both use the same vet, and they are reasonably rabbit saavy. Not the absolute best you can find, but they seem to be very well-informed about rabbits. Anyway, at that point, she was told that her teeth her fine, just a little too long, so she got them filed down a bit. For a while, she seemed fine, and my friend noticed nothing wrong with her teeth. She doesn't actually check her teeth everyday though, but she didn't actually see anything.

Well, yesterday I slept over at my friend's house, and we were playing with her rabbits in the backyard. We got bored, so we started trying to teach Layla to hop through a hoop. When she was facing my friend, she said that she could see Layla's teeth when her mouth was closed. I thought she just meant that her mouth was a little bit open, so I told her not to worry about it, and that was how my rabbit held his mouth too. But when she turned and faced me, I actually saw her teeth.

Since I don't have a picture, I'm going to have to describe it as best as I can. The bottom teeth were about five centimetres long, and were on the outside of her lip. They were seriously long. One of the teeth was straight, and the other one was sort of on an angle behind the other tooth. At closer observation, I saw that the flesh underneath the teeth was a bit red and looked very sore. After convincing the rabbit to open her mouth (which was very difficult considering her teeth), I saw that her top teeth had grown down behind the bottom teeth, and were touching the bottom of her mouth.

To sum it up, it looked like she had hadn't had her teeth done in fifty years. I have never, ever, even on rabbit meat farms and people that have never taken their rabbits to the vet, seen teeth like that.

My friend was supposed to be taking her other rabbit (whose teeth are fine, I checked) to the vet today, so she was taking Layla along as well. She took her around midday, and it is now 8:30 PM, so I am going to call her later and see how Layla is.

Does anyone know why this happened? I'm sure that the vet would have filed them down or fixed her somehow, and probably gave her an explination for it, but I have never heard of teeth growing that fast before. She is only a small mini lop, so five centimetre long teeth are huge for her. Is there any advice that you could give me that I could tell my friend that could help? They are already given hay, pellets, and usually greens, so they have a balanced diet.

Thank you,
Rachel.

 

[pamnock]

Rabbit teeth grown 1/2 inch or more per month. Properly aligned teeth wear down, however, teeth that are not properly aligned may continuously grow and create serious health problems for the rabbit. Teeth that require trimming need to be done once a month.

Here's an article that I had written many years ago . . .

http://www.geocities.com/billynock/TEETH.html

Pam

 

[ra7751]

Hi Rachel,

Just wanted to add to Pam's response. As she mentioned, a rabbit's teeth will grow continuously. Like a horse and rodents, the teeth are open rooted and will continue to grow as long as the animal is alive. In an ideal world, those teeth are properly aligned....called "occlusion". When the animal chews, the teeth will wear down from the tooth to tooth contact. Hay is the primary way to keep the teeth properly worn down since it requires a lot of chewing. However, in some animals, there is a condition in which the teeth don't align and won't contact each other. They grow unchecked. The condition is known as malocclusion. Incisor malocclusion is the most obvious. All six of the incisors will grow and can become like tusks. It can prevent the rabbit from eating and/or drinking. It can be caused by anything from heredity, infection, age or trauma. While it can happen to any breed, it seems the flat faced buns like Holland Lops and Netherland Dwarfs are the most prone. Those incisors, all six of them, need to be trimmed. Many people do it with clippers. Upside-it's fairly easy. Downside-the rabbit may get stressed and start to struggle which can lead to injury, the cut will not be clean and the tooth may fracture under the gum line which can lead to an infection. We do clip teeth with clippers in this manner. Not the best way to do it, but we have been successful so far. Many vets will prefer to use a dental dremel to trim the teeth. It is usually done under sedation...but we had a rabbit that would allow a dremel to be used at any time. In severe cases, the incisors should be removed. We have done that. It is a major surgery and requires about 72 hours of intense post-op care. It is difficult and painful for the rabbit short term, but the long term benefits are worth it. If you check our blog, Noah has had her incisors and several of her molars removed. It was touch and go for a while after the surgery...and a stressful time for her and us...but we now feel that removing those teeth was the best thing for her. We sedate her now about twice a year to examine the remaining molars and trim as needed.

Having said all of that, the molars are also open rooted and those little guys are not easy to see. They are curved and can grow until they either trap the tongue or cut into the roof of the mouth. These are called "molar spurs". The only way to trim them is under sedation. They are very difficult to extract in young and healthy rabbits.

If you check our blog, look for Yoshi. Upon his being admitted into rescue, his lower incisors were grown outward and curved into his nostrils. The six uppers were even worse. The primary incisors had punctured the roof of his mouth. They also forced the peg teeth to separate and essentially block the front of his mouth. He couldn't eat or drink. The girl that had his said she thought he had problems with his teeth. As Pam said, the teeth can grow about a half an inch a month...so malocclusion is going to be an on-going problem unless the offending teeth are removed from both the upper and lower arcade.

The rabbit you mentioned should be seen and treated by a rabbit savvy vet ASAP. Again as Pam mentioned, serious health issues will present themselves if this rabbit isn't treated.

Randy

 

[Mikoli]

Hi,

Randy, I checked your blog, and that is exactly what I mean, except Layla's teeth didn't grow outwards, but sort of straight up into the rabbit's nostrils, making them a bit harder to notice.

Just a bit of history on the bunny: Layla is a mini lop, one year old, treated by the vet yearly or whenever needed, and has a reasonably well-informed owner. She's not the best, but she understands how to take care of them. She has never had any problems with her teeth, and, as far as I know, they have always been rather small. I have checked her teeth before, as have vets, and they were all perfectly straight. Now one has twisted around and they have grown from being a very average, if not rather small teeth, to the teeh of Yoshie in a week. That is what I find alarming.

She went to the vet yesterday, so hopefully she has had them trimmed, if not possibly removed. As far as my friend knows, she hasn't had any trouble eating, and it is a bit difficult to check if she is skinnier because she is such a small rabbit. She was eating before, so maybe she was eating on the side or found another way around her teeth?

Thank you for your information, I'll pass it onto my friend when I call her later.
Rachel.