How to look after your rabbits teeth
Rabbits have open up-rooted teeth which continually expand during their lifetime. They have large, long front teeth, referred to as incisors, and a fantastic established of higher and decrease molar tooth in the back of their mouths, which are applied for grinding down and chewing their meals. Rabbits also have two modest, tube-formed incisors (peg tooth) at the rear of their big higher incisors.
Dental difficulties are sadly really typical in rabbits. Malocclusions ie imperfect positioning or conference of the tooth, induce poor progress or dress in designs and so overgrowth of the incisors and/or molar teeth can frequently arise.
Overgrown molar teeth also generally have sharp points, or “spurs”, that can slice and injury the rabbit’s tongue, cheeks, gum tissues. In the case of severely overgrown decrease molars, worryingly these could also sort a “bridge” in excess of the rabbit’s tongue, leading to it to be trapped and harmed. Overgrown back molar enamel can also in transform modify the way that entrance incisors fulfill, and therefore also have an affect on the normal put on of these entrance tooth as well.
Malocclusion of incisors will at times cause these front tooth to protrude from the mouth and they can then carry on to increase at an angle to each other.
All these dental issues can direct to bacterial infections in the mouth and dental abscesses, problems eating, irritation, drooling, pawing at the mouth, difficulties grooming, intestine troubles, reduction of fat and standard debilitation.
Rabbit’s tooth typically grow at a huge level of 1 centimetre each individual month and in the circumstance of an unopposed incisor, progress can be as substantially as 1 millimetre per day!!
There are various components that bring about dental complications in rabbits – but a substantial one particular is their diet program.
Rabbits will need to be fed a diet regime superior in fibrous content and roughage to grind their teeth down obviously. Eighty for every cent of a domestic rabbit’s food plan really should be hay or grass (but not lawn clippings as these can lead to digestive upsets).
It is pretty significant that your rabbit is on an recommended suitable diet, so that it chews its meals nicely and wears down its enamel in the system of eating. A significant fibre diet is important to put on down their teeth and assist avoid dental overgrowth that can guide to existence threatening troubles.
Dental complications may possibly also be hereditary, especially in the lionhead, dwarf and lop-eared breeds.
As a rabbit owner, it’s important to hold an eye out for dental issues and examine your rabbit’s normal wellbeing consistently. Rabbits instinctively consider to cover pain and soreness, mainly because displaying any indication of weakness in the wild would make them a goal for predators. With any condition they typically turn out to be very tranquil and withdrawn. Signs and symptoms include looking boring and much less energetic, a reduced appetite, body weight reduction, a dirty bottom as self-grooming will become complicated, diarrhoea or delicate faeces, salivating and wetting of the fur underneath their mouth, tooth grinding, weepy/crusty eyes, and a runny nose.
Your rabbit’s treatment method will rely on the dental disorder they have but is likely to involve a mix of medical procedures, agony reduction, medication to help their intestine motility, and assistance to get them taking in yet again, and recommended dietary improvements and common dental checks thereafter.
As a rabbit owner, it is important to continue to keep an eye out for dental complications and speak to your vet if you discover everything unconventional. Dental ailment can be extremely painful and if remaining untreated can cause big well being problems, together with intestinal issues such as intestine stasis and bloat. In addition to standard checking at property, have your rabbit’s enamel checked at the very least 2 times yearly by your vet. More mature rabbits need to be checked additional typically.
Alison Laurie-Chalmers is a senior consultant at Crown Vets in Inverness.
