Why is my rabbit drooling?

[stephiemarie78]

well i feel him oxbow pellets, i'll get some other kinds of hay. He's not a big chewer. In there cage right now they have a few different chew items. The willow tent, cardboard condo. this knoby wood toy, a small basket. willow ball, chew sticks, wooden chew toys. he's a little piggy so i don't think i'll have a problem with him eating pumpkin, i'll have to get some tommorow. he is a big water drinker =) Im glad i saw him actually drooling today, i'd hated to see him get worse before i saw any sign. poor baby. im going to call every vet in the phone book tommorow. what kinds of question should i ask them to make sure i pick the right one.

 

[Pipp]

Check this link...

http://rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=15036&forum_id=17

Good luck!



sas

 

[Pipp]

PS: Don't use the phone book, use the rabbit-savvy vet list I linked for you earlier in this thread. Not a lot of vets are rabbit-savvy, the list is the place to start at least.


PPS: Here's a couple of threads about diet and molar spurs... (including Usagi Chan's).

http://rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=16587&forum_id=1

http://rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=21259&forum_id=16


sas :?

 

[Usagi_Chan]

Pipp wrote:

stephiemarie78 wrote:

I have noticed that he seems to act like he is chewing a lot even when he's not eating.

Again I agree with Pipp. Usagi did this also as well as drooling and going to a corner where he never did beofre. He also wet far from his litter box and left a pile of marbles outside the litter box near the corner where he was newly retiring to. Again he had never done that since he was litter-trained.

As for the EP, amen on the expense. I was offered three different treatments from $230 to $550. He was mis-diagnosed and the treatments that were advised would probably have killed Usagi. I now suspect that they didn't know a rabbit from a snail in the ER. That's another reason to avoid ER. It is very possible that the vet on duty will not be "rabbit-savy."

Usagi_Chan

 

[JadeIcing]

Ok at little OFF TOPIC but I am going to start a thread on emergency visit prices. I know we have some about regular vet prices.EmergencyVet Visits

 

[stephiemarie78]

Well i did use the vet list from here but either was out of my price range. 92$ just for a visit. So i called a few others and ended up being told to call Clark Road Animal Clinic. They treat a lot of rabbits and are able to work on his teeth =) The visit is only $40.00 I don't have a lot of money till next friday so I hope that it doesn't cost more then 250.00 cuz that all I have =(

 

[stephiemarie78]

We just got home from the vet, He said that Snoopy looks very healthy he's at a good weight he didn't seem to be drooling alot. He weights 6lbs 43oz. He checked his eyes, ears, teeth,felt around his jaw for awhile and his belly too. He said he didn't feel anything to alarm him. That there is a number of reasons the could contrubt to him drooling from spurs, to something stuck in his teeth, or something in his food/water bowls or cage, being too hot ect. He said the only way he can check his molars is to put him under and he doesn't want to do that unless he get much worse. Told me he'd like me to add some different hay to his diet and more varity of harder veggies since i said he doesn't eat a lot of hay. he sells oxbow so i picked up a bag of orchard hay. i feel a lot better. Im going to keep a very close eye on snoopy and if he drooling gets worse or he stops eating he told me to call that they would page him if its after hours.

 

[Pipp]

In other words, you got all the exact information already in this thread, but youwere charged for it. :lol

I think my vet has a dental xray machine that doesn't require them to be put them under (although I'm sure nervous bunnies are tranquilized). I think otherswill try and sedate thembut not knock them right out,and use regular machines. And others rely onreally good scopes that can get a good look, although the back molars are really tough to see.

Was this the inexpensive vet? Hesounds knowledgeable. (We should add him to our list if he's not there already).

Good to rule things outwith a good degree of certainty. Maybe with the right diet (check the links above for a lot of choices if you haven't already), you can break them off and keep them in check, so in that respect the vet may be saving you money. On the other hand, if the symptoms persist, you'll be paying for another visit. Six of one, half a dozen of the other I guess. Hope all remains well while you're away.



sas

 

[Haley]

Sounds like you've gotten some great advice! I hope you are able to find a vet near you to check the spurs.

Sending lots of good vibes your way. I hope its just spurs and not something more serious.

PS. Just to be sure, did you feel around his jaw line for any lumps?

 

[stephiemarie78]

It wasn't a complete loss I found he weights6lbs 4oz. lol He even trimed his nails for me. I did check out all the links =) and It was on 40.00 so not that bad at all. I did talk to him about getting Chloe spayed and its going to cost me 115.00. Im going to the store tommorow and get some different veggies and he told me he wanted try and get him to eat more hay. I told him I did cut him back from unlimited pellets recently =( I got to find something that he will chew on so he uses the back teeth more or something. He did say that the tooth thats behind his front teeth was a little long but he didn't think that he was causing any problems. It wasn't to bad of a drive there only 20mins. I felt he knew a fair amount he did tell me he wasn't ashamed to admit he doesn't know everything. He said he works alot with rabbits and even helps out at fairs for 4h checking out the rabbits.


On another note it was HOT today I have got to find something to tell me what the temp is in the apartment. What maybe hot to me might not be the same for him. Plus he has all that fur.


oh and he did feel around his jaw line for bumps and didn't find anything he spent quite a few mins checking too

 

[Pipp]

stephiemarie78 wrote:

It wasn't a complete loss I found he weights 6lbs 4oz. lol He even trimed his nails for me. I did check out all the links =) and It was on 40.00 so not that bad at all. I did talk to him about getting Chloe spayed and its going to cost me 115.00. ...

oh and he did feel around his jaw line for bumps and didn't find anything he spent quite a few mins checking too

Heh! Wasn't criticizing the vet visit, I wasblowing our collective horns about the advice in the thread being right! Always great to have it confirmed by a good vet. Most of us aren't professionals, vet visits are ALWAYS recommended.

And this guy does seems great! Reasonably priced,too! We'll definitely add him to our list. (What's his name?)



sas

 

[Rabbit Hutch]

Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....as I bang my head on the wall......

What is it with vets & rabbits??? It's really not rocket science, especially with the net and the info vet etc

You can't *feel* the spurs, especially if they are on the lower molars.....upper spurs grow out into the cheek, lower spurs grow in and into the tongue.

You *don't* have to knock them out to see the spurs, cheek or tongue....mine have never been knocked out to see the spurs, nor has an x-ray been used to diagnose it either - a rabbit savvy vet with the proper equipment can do it, heck even an otoscope with a tip can be used to do it.

It may even been a tooth root abcess? That needs an x-ray to see. I think sending you back to wait & see is the advice that gets people in trouble with rabbits...with rabbits you can't *wait & see*

Anyways.....JMO....from my experiences.....I am thankful for my vets here as I have 8 with molar spur problems.

 

[Pipp]

Well, at least he knew all the things that it could have been. It's not terrible. There are much worse out there. Snoopy was showing few symptoms when he went in, maybe he was hoping it was something caught in his teeth. And he may have quite logically thought if it was spurs,it was early enough to still see them ground down naturally with an altered diet.

I got the same treatment when I brought Pipp in to the rabbit-savvy guys here. No symptoms (other than anorexia), no visual.They were revealed only on the x-ray.

That said, Pipp is a 2.5 lb dwarf with atiny mouth.Snoopy is over 6 lbs. He should have been able to get agood visual without putting him under. onder:

And Pipp did have spurs that were controlled (accidentally) by a dose of Metacam and a hard diet. (It was a long weekend, I had no choice).

I would have wanted to rule out a tooth root issue right away with an x-ray, which I assume is the next step if his symptoms persist. (But I'd hate it if I paidbig bucks for a celery string).

Let us know how he's doing! Is he still drooling?



sas

 

[stephiemarie78]

Yea I haven't seen him drool, but there was food and water left when i got up this morining and thats not normal. I gave him some apples he is eating them now. He usally doesn't eat until night so Im just a little worried atm. I'm him might not eating could be because he went to the vet or that I'm dog sitting, or the tooth problem. The vet didn't say anything about x-ray. Im going to call monday and ask how much will that cost. He might be a good vet but hasn't delt with much teeth.

I went to

Thom Smith D.V.M
Clark Road Animal Clinic
94-922-5007

 

[~Tracey~]

Yer we had a rabbit years ago that drooled and it was his teeth

 

[Pipp]

stephiemarie78 wrote:

Yea I haven't seen him drool, but there was food and wate rleft when i got up this morining and thats not normal. I gave him some apples he is eating them now.

If he'll only eat certain foods, they're bothering him and he's on the downward slide.I'd see how he does with pumpkin and maybeslurry, he may have to live onit for a few days. At some point it mayget to where yougive him treats just to get him eating, but best to try for less problematic food.

Just carefully document what he will and will not eat.

Good luck again!



sas :?

 

[stephiemarie78]

what is slurry?

 

[Pipp]

stephiemarie78 wrote:

what is slurry?

You can get a product like Critical Care from the vet or you can make your own pellet slurry, which is ground up and well-soaked pellets (best to use a new, clean coffee bean grinder, it's not that easy reducing them to a manageable powder, or strain the bag of pellets for the powder residues found at the bottom), which makes it possible to syringe feed (with a big syringe that can also be supplied by the vet, or get a baby syringe with a rubber, not plastic, stopper from the drugstore, they work even better).

The advantage of Critical Care is that it has lots of extra nutrition-vitamins and energy ingredients, probiotics (esp.recommended for bunnies on antibiotics), etc., that all help.The down side is that it's expensive and a lot of rabbits don't like it.

Rabbits may be more inclined to eat a 'slurry' version of the pellets they're used to. You can mix it with canned pumpkin,Pedialyte, Benebac or another pro-biotic, to beef it up and make it more palatable.


sas

PS: A good supplement to add to the slurry is Nutri-Cal,packed with vitamins and calories for bunnies off their food.It's made for cats and dogs, works great for rabbits.

 

[stephiemarie78]

Thanks, I think he might just have been a little stressed last night buz he's eating out of his food bowl as i type this.I'll see how things to in the morning! to see if i need to make that

 

[stephiemarie78]

Well this morning the water bowl was empty but not the food bowl. I cleaned the cage really well so I can keep track of poops. He is pooping. I did get him to eat some apples and crasins yesterday. I let him out of his cage last night and he ran around as normal. He's chewing the cardboard condo thats in the cage. So that has me puzzled. If my teeth hurt that i didn't want to eat, i wouldn't be chewing anything. I'm going to go store this morning and pick up some pumpkin and other things you've suggested. I'll call the vet back monday. Find out what we should do next if he will not check his molars then I'll find someone to.