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Is rabbit front teeth removal surgery safe? Will it improve life?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Small Animal | Rabbit | Male | unneutered | 1 year and 3 months old | 6 lbs

How risky is the surgery and the recovery of a rabbit getting his front teeth removed? would quality of life still be good? Is it worth putting a little guy through that? It's £200 that I will happily pay if it will benefit him, but I want to know for sure, if not then it will be regular trimmings every 5 weeks, I want to know what is best for him.. would surgery fix the problem forever? Make him happy and pain free?

2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Andrea M. Brodie, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on December 7th, 2016

The surgery itself (removing the teeth) is not risky, however there is always an anesthetic risk. A vet who does a lot of rabbit surgery is well versed in rabbit anesthesia and will be able to minimise the risk. Your rabbits quality of life will be better than before the surgery as he will not have to go through shortening the front teeth again as before, This was always stress. The surgery will fix the problem forever. The only thing that is different, and you will have to help him with, is to regularly brush him and wipe him down with a moist cloth as without his incisors he cannot groom himself so well any more. But that beats having the stress of having teeth trimmed every 5 weeks.

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Other Answers

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    Answered By David Elbeze, DVM, MRCVS

    Veterinarian

    Published on

    Surgery will fix the problem forever if the teeth are removed entirely, which is not an easy task, but with the right equipment and skills this should be the final result, the teeth will not grow anymore. Your rabbit will lack of front teeth obviously, which will make you adjust his diet (he won't be able to eat large pieces of hard food anymore). The recovery can sometimes be long, about 2 weeks, in some cases pain is severe and your rabbit might stop eating, which will then probably cause gut stasis which is another problem that will need to be addressed. As I told you before, I do not usually recommend having this surgery done, but some owners find it difficult to have the front teeth burred every 4-6 weeks so they choose to have it done. If he recovers nicely from the surgery his quality of life should be very good.

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