Rabbits are prey species and so hide the causes of their disease, even the fact that they are diseased, quite often until a late stage of their condition. Every sick anorexic rabbit will develop dental disease because if it's not eating, its teeth will overgrow. So if you radiograph only the skull of a sick rabbit you may well indeed diagnose overgrown teeth and perform a wonderful dental (coronal reduction). How frustrating, then, when the rabbit does not bounce back to full health! The value of treating pet rabbits as 'exotics', and performing survey radiography of the whole patient cannot be overstated. It is of course simple to diagnose a fractured femur from a radiograph of a hindleg; but often these cases merely present with anorexia, and lameness is missed if the patient is examined in repose on a table.

Skull radiography is vital to a full examination of the rabbit patient as dental disease is so common. Remember the rabbit patient may have more than one condition. Skull radiography is a great opportunity to draw diagrams for the owners (as this lecture will demonstrate!) and importantly to maintain a database of the animal for future reference at times of illness. Progression of dental disease, rather than simply assessing whether it is present or not, is depressingly more useful and relevant to the pet rabbit management. Interpretation requires an understanding of the normal chisel-shaped incisors, the usual normal size of the erupted and unerupted crowns of the cheek teeth and the normal convergent angle of the skull. Tympanic bullae sclerosis and opacity are common as rabbit middle ear abscessation is so common, with or without head tilt; again having a radiograph on file from a previous examination will allow better interpretation when the rabbit presents later with new clinical signs.

Do rabbits have patellae? fabellae? What's that funny thing where the hyoid bone should be? When is rabbit bone density too low (as we know that it's already lower than in the cat in normality)? Aspects of the normal rabbit and common abnormalities are essential knowledge when reading rabbit radiographs. Overdiagnosis of osteopenia is not uncommon in those used to viewing cat radiographs for instance. Most clinicians are now familiar with the fact that rabbit bone shows immense proliferation in the face of infection, such that a mandibular (dentoalveolar) abscess can resemble an aggressive osteosarcoma in the cat. The prognosis may, however, be just as poor. What is the significance of urinary sediment in the rabbit? Is it normal? Is that an os penis? Again, although in clinical practice we see a lot of abnormal rabbits, that shouldn't mean we interpret what is 'common' as what is 'normal'. Urinary sediment is not found in wild rabbits feeding on grass, their natural state; therefore, it can be argued this is not a normal finding for a pet rabbit either, just common. Fractures of the femur, distal tibia, bilateral femoral head fractures, rib fractures, damage around L7, nephrocalcinosis, urolithiasis, ileus (when is it a blockage?), cheek tooth elongation and abscessation, may all be found on a survey radiography of an apparently obvious 'dental rabbit' and will be illustrated and described.