Common Dental Problems in Rabbits

1 Rabbit Dental Problems

Common Rabbit Dental Problems

1. Overlong teeth

Incisors grow for life, so rabbits must chew to wear them; otherwise they get too long and hurt eating, even causing other disease. Too little hay means poor wear and overlong teeth. Hay also nourishes. If incisors overgrow you can see them — have a vet trim them promptly.

Molars can also overgrow but are hard to see; endoscopy and imaging (DR, CT) are needed to assess them. Overlong molars affect the jaw roots.

2. Tooth spurs. Lack of wear forms spurs in the mouth that interfere with chewing and can damage cheeks and tongue; early signs include watery eyes, later severe, even fatal root abscesses.

What to Do About Overlong Teeth

Overlong teeth come from congenital and acquired causes. Congenital ones appear in small-skull breeds (dwarf, lop) with lower-jaw protrusion, often in kits but surfacing years later.

Acquired causes include:

1. Trauma. Falls or hard chewing can damage incisors and change growth direction, causing breakage or crooked growth; trauma can also dislocate the jaw, causing deformity, wry neck or nerve disease.

2. Human-caused breaks. Malocclusion can be fixed by proper veterinary filing, but bad ‘tooth cutting’ badly damages roots, causing permanent outward incisor growth or lower-root infection.

3. Root infection. Jaw infection or abscess causes malocclusion and pain that harms appetite, and can make teeth overlong unevenly.

4. Not enough chewing. Diets low or lacking in dry hay let incisors and molars degrade from poor wear; too-soft food also can’t keep up with growth. Provide dry hay.

If teeth overgrow, only regular filing or extraction helps — at a proper vet using a professional rabbit dental drill. Don’t do it yourself. Severe cases may need extraction; a rabbit can still eat well after, but cut food into small pieces.

Feed sensibly, give plenty of dry hay, and offer chew snacks and toys to prevent overlong teeth.