headpeon

My latest rescue is down to five teeth. He doesn't eat hay. (He was shot in the face and abandoned at the base of one of our mountains, which are chock full of mountain lions. The bullet moved his lower jaw, so all of his teeth maloccluded. How a 5 lb mini Rex - who was 2.4 lbs when I found him in the shelter - managed to keep himself alive while bleeding from the face and unable to eat is beyond me.) At any rate, if you want a sounding board if/when you and your vet decide that incisor removal might have to be a thing, feel free to hit me up. Are you on the r/rabbits sub? Disabled Bunnies on FB is a pretty good group, too.

Both Oxbow and Sherwood have nutrition support supplements available. Supplementing with Oxbow's Critical Care or Sherwood's SarX would help with nutrition, but won't do anything for keeping his teeth in check. Have you tried kiln dried pine blocks, willow or dried apple wood toys, etc? Have you tried other hays like Oat, Meadow, and Orchard Grass? Different cuts of Timothy? Most commercially available Timothy is 2nd or 3rd cut; maybe your bun would like 1st cut?

Another of my rescues - all 3 of my housebuns are rescues - had never had veggies before. He still won't eat much in the way of veggies, but he does like aromatic herbs like parsley, cilantro, and basil. Have you tried tempting your bun via his sense of smell, rather than his sense of taste?

Are you sure bun has dandruff, and not mites?

Apologies for intruding on your convo, especially if you've already tried all of the above. At this point in the rescue game, I've dealt with every bun issue except cancer, so thought I might be of help. Sorry, doc, for hijacking your AMA!

Very much THIS.

Not a vet, but am human slave to three rescued house bunnies. In the U.S., Nationwide offers fairly good insurance. (All of the animal insurance I'm aware of reimburses you after the fact; it's not like human insurance, where the insurance pays first and you pay the remainder.) Nationwide covers rabbits, so I'm sure they cover guinea pigs. Just make sure you get coverage BEFORE something goes wrong because their pre-existing condition waiver is gnarly.

Mites, like E. Cuniculi, are opportunistic. They often show up when the animal's immune system is suppressed or depressed for some other reason. So if your bun's nutrition is off, and he's got mouth pain due to spurs or GI upset due to lack of long fiber, then mites could crop up as a secondary medical issue. As far as I know, the only way to decipher between mites and dandruff is under a microscope, so if your vet hasn't taken that step, then you can't be certain which it is. Caveat: If your vet is an exotic vet, s/he has a helluva lot more experience and medical knowledge than I do. But vets are also human, and if it hasn't occurred to your vet to check, then it'd probably be worth a mention.

No. All three of mine are microchipped, too.