I feel sick to my stomach right now. I am very upset.
As i have posted before, my sweet Baby bunny has been pulling his hair out and chewing on it. I have been trying everything; giving him more hay, letting him out of his cage more so he doesn't get bored, taking the hair out of his mouth when I catch him chewing, giving him fresh veggies. I have also noticed lately that he's lost weight.
I have been trying to resolve the problem myself because I can't really afford to take him to the vet. Our van crapped out this week and we have to buy a new one so money is kind of tight right now.
Well, this morning Baby was chewing on hair and I picked him up and started to get the hair out of his mouth. Then I saw something that looked a little funny so I opened his mouth up and looked inside. His top teeth are extremely overgrown. They curl a bit like overgrown fingernails and dig into his lower gums, which appear to be infected and abscessed.
Needles to say, I was horrified by what I saw. It looks extremely painful. I feel terrible that Baby has been living like this and I had no idea.
I made a vet appointment for him today. I am worried that whatever he needs will be more than I can afford and I will be forced to put him to sleep. I am scared that the vet will accuse me of animal abuse for letting it get this bad. But I had no idea! Was I supposed to be looking in his mouth periodically? I don't know. I am so worried about him and feel awful.
I don't know what is going to happen. I don't know if everything will be ok, or if i will have to end up putting Baby to sleep today. I feel sick.
Packing & Moving
4 years ago
6 comments:
Hey Lisa...have you done any internet searches about Baby's situation yet? THere are a lot of various breeders out there who can be really helpful. I have been having to research llamas since I am taking care of some now and I have been learning alot...for example, they have "fighting teeth" that need to be filed down on occasion...and I could probably learn to do this myself. I know with rodent animals like mice and rabbits, their front teeth never stop growing so they need something really hard to chew/naw on to wear thier teeth down. Maybe if you got Baby something hard like wood chips it might help trim him teeth. Let me know how things work out with the vet. I feel your pain. It is so difficult to have a sick pet....you feel so helpless and the costs are really overwhelming. I hope things work out okay for you and Baby.
karo, thank you so much for your comment! I have been looking on rabbit websites for a little bit now about hair pulling and hair eating. They all say to make sure the rabbit always has timothy hay, which he does. They say the roughage of the hay in his diet should be enough. the thing is, I don't see him eating the hay vey often. I am wondering if the cedar chips I use for litter in his cage make the hay smell fully to him? I will have to ask the vet. Maybe I will switch to using the hay for litter, too.
i was holding Baby just now and feeling so sad. I was feeling how skinny he is. I guess I was hoping if I just kept feeding him he would plump back and quit eating his fur. I feel just horrible. The vet appt is not until 2:15. I wish it was now so I could quit worrying about it and just know what was going to happen.
I'm so sorry to hear that. I know how worrisome it can be when a pet does that. When I had my son, my cat started tearing his fur out and putting it on my chair, in the baby's crib, everywhere in a cry for attention. The poor thing. I never did figure out how to fix it, but I know what you're going through.
Hiya, i used to work as a veterinary nurse. This is a really common problem, and some rabbits teeth grow at an alarming rate!the teeth themselves wont be hurting him, but if its looks like there are sores or pussiness at all, then will need antibiotics (usually Baytrill, which you drop into their mouith with syringe, or put in drinking water), and the teeth will be clipped-if baby isnt to nervous, this is something that vets tend to do really routinally, and as it doesnt hurt, without aneasthetic (no nerves in teeth, promise!) This shouldnt cost too much, and if baby trusts you, then some people routinally clip their own rabbits teeth. Worse case scenario-he will need a dental under anaesthetic, but vets dont tend to do these if they dont have to!hopefully, cleaning up the mouth and getting the teeth trimmed will be fine.
you are not going to get accused of animal abuse!that i can promise you, rabbits are very sneaky at hiding these things, and trust me that its pretty common, and also looks worse than it is. He'l soon put weight back on when hes tteth are ok and he starts eating more again, so dont worry about that. I should imagine he wills ttop pulling fur out to when they are fixed, as was probably due to anxiety.Try putting lots of wooden chew toys in hutch, lots of carrots, that sort of thing, ad please dont worry too much!
hope this helps a little, any questions just ask away, or my email is vkbaker@hotmail.co.uk.
take care Vic x
sorry ment to say, i read the other comments and you mentioned about him not eating hay much?Rabbits are really fussy, so if you are using hay for bedding, then they wont eat it at all, in case its 'dirty'! Best thing to do is get a little hay rack for the cage and put it in there, or use straw for bedding, with woodchips or something. also try short chop hay, some look almost greeny in colour and are really little chopped up pieces which he might find easier to eat now. Sorry i shall stop waffling on now!
Praying for Baby.
And don't worry, I dont think this counts as abuse seeing as you had no idea!
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