Arliss wasn’t eating right one day about a year ago, and when I took a look in her mouth, there was pus coming out around the bottom teeth. No root canals for bunnies, so she had the abscessed incisor removed.
Most of my fellow rabbit folks recommended having all four incisors removed, their experience being that the repeated tooth trims over the rest of bunny’s life are too stressful (rabbit teeth never stop growing and without an opposing tooth, one will keep growing and soon obstruct the mouth). Rabbits without incisors do well–they can still chew with molars, and the only accommodations are typically tearing up greens into small pieces or maybe cutting hay into shorter strands. My vet talked me into just doing the one tooth, though, believing the top teeth would accommodate the single bottom one and she’d need very few trims.
Arliss had one trim a couple of months after the surgery, and now at almost a year out, the vet says she’s well aligned and shouldn’t need any more trims! What’s more, all her molars are good, and for a lop to have good teeth is a blessing indeed. I’m thrilled at how this has healed. I tried to capture the new incisor arrangement:
Arliss is about seven now. She’s my cranky bunny–and I love her for it!
Poor Cappy the guinea pig, though, appears to have cysts or cancer after I examined her on Sunday night. She’s going to the vet today but I’m not expecting very good news.
