Have you heard that rabbit’s teeth are growing long his life? Sound weird to you and to me as well at the beginning. However that is the fact. While the health problems come along with every one life, this is one common problem that disturbing his life that produce suffer both for you as rabbit’s keeper and the rabbit itself. Please continue reading this how to trim your pet rabbits’ teeth because at this time I will share some tips and tricks to deal with it along with certain health condition that will affect your bunny’s well being.
As mention above that rabbit’s teeth can grow along his life time. This teeth’s problem is known as malocclusion. The teeth can overlap from the lower teeth but also the upper teeth that pushing down overlapping. Some theories say that this health problem is caused by several reasons.
Causative factor for malocclusion
- Genetic or hereditary factor
Certain unfortunate rabbits have this teeth health problem since its birth. Malocclusion is taken down from generation to generation. So once you find the rabbit with malocclusion never used them for breeding. You better think that these problems stop there to the last bunny you take care.
- Injury or accident
While accident can happen at any moment even under well supervised, we never reject that sometimes the terrific thing can come along without invitation. That is what happens to the rabbit as well. If your rabbit gets an accident and suddenly predispose him to prone to teeth problem, you might think the worse condition can go with it. The teeth alignment can turn bad in position. This will cause malocclusion to your bunny.
- Poor feeding system
The staple and natural food for rabbit is grass or hay. The dry nutritious grass is the most products to help the health growing rabbits in overall. This will include the teeth at the most. While your bunny cut and chews this hay, his teeth are exercise to grow in the right alignment. This measure to keep the teeth sharpens but not overlaps each other.
What you can do if you have already rabbit’s with overlapping teeth? Trim the teeth are the only treatment to provide the best outcome for him. But how? Just by imagining the situation that already makes you sick. That is happen to me as well and to almost the bunny lovers too. Some research says that NEVER trim your rabbit’s teeth by yourself. But for the one that need trimmed for about every a month, visiting the good vet is not something that everyone can afford. This is still a lot of pros and cons regarding these issues. However, to give you simple information I would like to provide an overview as a general outline about how to trim your pet rabbit’s teeth that you may consider.
First of all you need to prepare every single thing before you go. Proper equipment will have to be ready and available for sure.
- Small, sterile wire cutter
- Clean, thin towel for wrapping the legs to immobilize the rabbit
- Chamomile cream for soothing aroma therapy
Steps to trim your rabbit’s teeth
- Hold your rabbit on your lap firmly and securely with your hands
As his friend you are supposed to give calm and relax for the bunny. Once you both have sweet bounding each other the bunny will trust you and this is good so he does not escape or run away while you holding him. Then secure his feet with the towel to prevent any movement that may cause the disturbance of the trimming session. This measure to protect the rabbit from getting another injury such as accidentally cutting the soft part of the mouth either lip or tongue. Also to prevent you cut the entire tooth on the root. Or maybe you will lose balance that make you cut or break the half of the tooth. These accidents can occur if the rabbit can move freely. So make sure you place him on his back and secure him tight enough. However pay attention not too tight that can harm his back bone.
- Put you index and middle fingers on the right or left side of the mouth
Make sure you separate the upper and lower teeth large enough to provide the space for the cutter works well. Once you enforce the mouth open, gently and steadily you put the small sterile wire cutter inside just right on the part that you will cut the extension of the tooth. You must do it at a time. Do not re-cut the same part. So you better practice this first to the artificial tooth from the material as strong as the real one. You may purchase this item from the vet or the pet store. This action will give you view how strong it is and how you will exert how much energy or power you need. While you do trim the tooth, make sure you do it right at a time so the edge of the tooth is smooth and not too sharp that may cause scratches to the lip and mouth.
- Apply the cream of chamomile
Once you finish trimming the teeth, you may apply the cream to the around mouth of your bunny to provide comfort and cool down as well as give antiseptic to prevent any bacteria or other bad pathogen come inside the source of the cutting teeth.
This review of how to trim your pet rabbit’s teeth is considered if your rabbit’s teeth are not as bad as the extreme disease that affects the overall health of the rabbits itself. If you see that you are not confident enough to do it by yourself or the rabbit’s condition are extremely ill, I highly recommend you to take him to the good experienced vet to do this treatment. In the vet’s clinic, trimming the teeth of the sick rabbit is most often by anesthesia or sedated drugs. The rabbit need to be trance before the invasive operation done. For this reason, the vet will examine whether the all surgical removal of the abnormal teeth needed. In some circumstance the option of the entire removal will give advantages for you as the owner and the rabbit as well. Considering that re-trim the teeth many times in a year is not something easy at all. While doing so can produce huge amount of fear and stressful for all. However the option remains postponed if the vet finds another poor complicated will arise after the operation. You will need to take extra observation before and after the surgical. Keeping an eye for any signs and symptoms is needed in case the rabbit needs to re-visit the clinic to get more serious medical intervention.