Rabbit Not Eating After Dental Work

Hello, My rabbit is not eating after a molar trim. It has been 5 days. I have fed Critical Care during this time. It is my understanding that this was a bigger dental job than I expected. He will not eat pellets or hay. He barely shows interests in greens. I know his teeth are o.k. because I saw him bite off a piece of hard carrot and chew it! (I do not feed him carrots regularly, it was to see if he was interested in anything.) I am watching him for stasis as the quality of his poop is up and down. Sometimes small, sometimes normal (larger). The vet advised to keep feeding the CC and maybe my bunny needs time to recuperate from the procedure too. He does seem tired. But, as well, I have seem him do a telescope and dig a little bit at the sofa. I have a follow up appointment with the vet this week, but I am at my wits end. I do not know what else to do to help him eat. I do not know if his antibiotics are giving him stomach upset either. Does that happen? Does any of this sound normal after a big molar trim. Thank you for any advice at all!

Hello - and Im sorry that your rabbit is having a hard time.  For more background to this procedure, you might like to read an existing article in the blog.  It's called 'rabbit dental - more than just a tooth clip' by Katheryn Burton and typing a few key words into the search-bar should bring it up.   I wonder whether they might be in pain - has pain releif been prescribed?  However, I don't know why the molar trim happened - some rabbits, because of their head shape, have a poor jaw confirmation and teeth that don't seem to grow in line.  But commonly, rabbits' teeth overgrow as a secondary problem, after even a very short period of not eating (which then reduces chewing, which makes the teeth likely to overgrow more).  This could be for any reason that normally puts a rabbit off their food, for example abdominal pain.  Rabbits are not very good at letting their owns know when they are in pain (you have to learn the signs to look for - it isnt intuitive) so overgrown molars can be a bit of a 'chicken or egg' situation - are their molars overgrowing because they are failing to eat or are they failing to eat because their molars are overgrowing? Well done for keeping your bunny's food intake up.  This sounds to be a complex problem that is likely to need repeated veterinary visits.  We would be interested to hear how the case finishes up.

Pain releif is often needed in these cases.

Hello there, He stopped eating when his molar burrs became painful so I got him right into the vet. I am under the impression that it was a bigger job (as in a lot of filing) He had the procedure and still off his food. Thank you for sharing the article. I will certainly read it for a btter understanding of the procedure!