Common Tooth Problems of Pet Rabbits
What your rabbit eats has a huge impact on both dental and overall health. Feed lots of quality hay!
Rabbits have some of the most unique teeth among our pet companions. In fact, much like our fingernails, their teeth never stop growing! This continuous growth is necessary to keep up with the constant side-to-side chewing needed to properly digest their fibrous diet. If a rabbit’s teeth didn’t grow, they’d soon wear down from all the grinding.
Rabbits’ teeth must be kept in tip-top shape to match their efficient chewing style. Every rabbit parent should be aware of common dental issues and take preventive steps to stop dental conditions from becoming detrimental to their rabbit’s health and well-being.
Here are three rabbit dental issues to be on the lookout for to keep your furry companion happily chomping for years to come.
Malocclusion
Malocclusion is a condition in which a rabbit’s teeth are misaligned. Essentially, the upper and lower incisor teeth no longer line up properly when the rabbit closes their mouth.
This misalignment can cause the teeth to overgrow. If left untreated, malocclusion can make it more and more difficult for your rabbit to eat. What can you expect? Initially, your rabbit might not be able to grasp hay or other food properly, food might fall out of their mouth, and they might drool. Malocclusion worsens without treatment, so it is a serious medical condition.
Causes Of Malocclusion
Genetics can predispose some rabbit breeds to malocclusion. This is especially true for Netherland dwarf rabbits or other breeds who have a shorter skull length, but their teeth are proportionately longer compared to other rabbit breeds.
Injury to the rabbit’s jaw area can also send teeth out of alignment, as can dental infections and abscesses. Get your rabbit to a rabbit-savvy veterinarian any time your furry pal suffers an injury to the mouth area or shows signs of infection, abscess, or disease in the mouth.
A diet lacking sufficient fiber can increase a rabbit’s chances of developing malocclusion. Rabbit’s need a consistent supply of fiber-rich foods like hay to chew to wear down their teeth and prevent overgrowth. Lafeber Nutri-Hay and Berrie-Bale are two excellent hay options to consider.
Minimizing Or Preventing Malocclusion
To maintain healthy tooth length, the bulk of a rabbit’s diet should be hay. Timothy hay is most often recommended by veterinarians for healthy, adult rabbits. Fresh, leafy, rabbit-safe green vegetables are considered a healthy snack (about 1 to 3 cups per day; with small breeds receiving 1 cup and large breeds receiving 3 cups).
Rabbits can have a sweet tooth and will happily accept banana slices, watermelon, and other sugary fruits as snacks. Consider rabbit-specific treats like Hey!Berries instead, because they’re nutritionally complete. Avoid rabbit-safe fruit or offer only in extreme moderation, because your rabbit needs to fill up on food that works their teeth — which is hay all the way.
Dental Abscesses
An infection in the root of a rabbit’s tooth, either due to dental disease or injury, can cause an abscess to form. This pus-filled area in the tooth or gum can make eating very painful for your rabbit.
Signs of abscess: With an abscess, you might notice swelling around your rabbit’s jaw, as well as a decline in appetite due to pain when eating.
Some causes of abscess: Abscesses are more likely to form in the cheek teeth. Bacteria can get into a fractured tooth, or, if food becomes packed around the tooth, bacteria can form along the gumline and cause an abscess.
What to do: Dental abscesses should not be allowed to fester. Any abscess is a serious medical condition that requires a visit to your veterinarian to create a treatment plan. Treatment can include removing infected tissue, removing affected teeth, draining the abscess, and a course of antibiotics.
Molar Spurs
A low-fiber diet can also cause spurs to form on your rabbit’s cheek molars. These sharp spurs can make it very painful for your rabbit to eat, because the spurs dig into their cheek or tongue. Signs of molar spurs include food avoidance, swelling on the face, and drooling. Your rabbit might also paw at their mouth due to the extreme discomfort.
Molar spurs require veterinary care to file the spurs down while the rabbit is under anesthesia. Your veterinarian will also want to make sure you are feeding enough hay.
Protecting Your Rabbit’s Dental Health
Comparably speaking, dog’s teeth, cat’s teeth, and our teeth are more forgiving when it comes to many dental issues. For example, diets that can be adjusted with softer foods to accommodate missing or misaligned teeth. This is not possible with our rabbit companions. They need all their teeth in proper working order to properly digest their fibrous diet, which plays a vital role in maintaining their gut health.
Rabbit parents need to check their rabbit’s teeth regularly for proper alignment and to keep a lookout for any facial bumps or lesions as well as any drop in appetite.
Always keep in the mind that the biggest preventive measure you can take to help protect your bunny’s teeth is unlimited access to quality hay.
Written by Laura Doering
Shared with permission from our friends at Lafeber.
Original article: https://lafeber.com/mammals/common-tooth-problems-of-pet-rabbits/
