Dental malocclusion in rabbits

What is dental malocclusion?

One of the most common diseases in rabbits is tooth overgrowth. This disease affects the incisors, molars, and premolars. Teeth tend to grow 5 millimeters a month, and that is why it is so important to offer food to gnaw on your rabbit.

Rabbit teeth have a constant growth throughout their lives and need to wear daily and continuously.

The wear is produced by the friction of the upper teeth with the lower ones, and HomePlan also by the abrasive effect of the food during its consumption. That is why it is as important as offering hay daily and unlimited.

How to detect tooth overgrowth?

Rabbit teeth with malocclusion

The first symptom that we will detect is that the rabbit stops eating hay and may begin to lose weight gradually. In that case there is already damage suffered by your pet, so it is best that you carry out monthly check-ups yourself to check the dental status of your pet. When our pet has this disease it will have difficulties to eat, even to take food and it will cause discomfort and pain when chewing.

It is one of the most obvious diseases to diagnose and you can detect it yourself at home. The lower incisors tend to grow outward, and the upper incisors grow inward. They could get stuck in the palate of the pet, so to avoid unnecessary damage and suffering it is very important to detect this disease in time.

What are the causes of tooth overgrowth?

One of the main causes is an incorrect diet. Diets rich in fiber favor wear during chewing due to its abrasive effect on the teeth. Thus, the most important food is hay, since it is rich in fiber and its regular consumption favors the natural wear of the teeth. Viagra 100mg .

Another of the causes would be genetic pathologies such as prognathism in the mandible, which consists in the fact that the mandible and the maxilla are not the same and when the mouth is closed, the wear of the teeth does not occur due to friction between them.

How to prevent dental malocclusion?

Offering your pet a correct hay-based diet and conducting routine check-ups at home to check the condition of your rabbit’s teeth is very important. In the event that you detect that your rabbit has signs of dental overgrowth, you should go to your veterinarian immediately to avoid damage and greater suffering.

Annually you should submit your pet to a veterinary check-up or annual check-up to check the good state of his health.

How to cure dental malocclusion?

Rabbit teeth with healthy growth

If the cause is genetic, your pet will have no choice but to have a veterinarian intervened in an operation to equalize the length of the jaw and maxilla.

If the cause is a food deficiency, the solution is obvious: We must change the rabbit’s diet and make sure that it always has plenty of hay at its disposal.

You can also take your pet to the vet to have his teeth filed every 4 or 8 weeks, although this is a painful practice for your pet, and being able to offer him a diet rich in hay would save him this suffering.