Chinchilla Community Forums
Chinchillas => Health => Topic started by: dozla on April 15, 2015, 03:21:59 PM
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Hi, my chinchilla has a broken bottom incisor tooth.. its hard to explain but it has pretty much cracked from top to bottom, he has been to the vets and he said it was best to leave it and let it grow out and has been prescribed metacam for the next few months to help manage the pain but his weight is still dropping and I am at a loss as what to do.. has any one every heard of a chinchilla having a filling? as obviously the pulp of the tooth is exposed so will be very sore :( he is still picking at his food but crumbling it alot.
Have started giving him critical care to help him but he hates it and forcing a syringe into his mouth when he has a broken tooth is obviously not the best way to go. On his last vet visit the vet said he isn't too concerned about his weight at the moment but I don't want him to lose any more.
He grinds his teeth still and I can see a small red sore.
Are there any better pain meds available or shall I get the tooth removed?
please anyone who has had experience with this any help would be greatfully recieved
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I'm certainly no expert on this but if it's causing a sore something must be done to correct this. I am concerned mostly about the sore. You should ask your veterinarian about this as it could result in an infection if it is not healing. If the problem is caused by the damaged tooth it may need to be removed which can result in a different set of complications and isn't necessarily the best solution either. You'll need to manage this based on the least traumatic option. A filling is totally out of the question. The tooth will grow continually and must be ground down by the tooth above it.
Metacam is probably the best you're going to get without some serious side effects long term. And even at that watch for side effects and learn how identify them. Consult your veterinarian if you think your pet's pain is affecting its health.
It is true you don't want to him to continue him to lose weight, but unfortunately, the only way you'll prevent that is syringe feeding until your pet can eat properly. Do not feed treats or anything besides normal hay, pellets, and critical care until your pet is health again. You can try to see if he'll eat critical care off a spoon but chances are that's not going to happen. Certainly monitor your pet's weight closely and provide its nutrition as prescribed to maintain its weight. If you carefully plan ahead and systematize your syringe feeding routine you can minimize the stress on your pet and the time it takes to accomplish your feedings. Keep in mind that rodents have a sizable gap between their incisors and molars. See if you can take advantage of that as much as possible without choking him. Make sure he swallows the food down on his own.
I'm sorry you are going through this. It has to be a major pain to deal with!
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I don't know what has changed from last night to this morning but I thought I would try putting a tiny bit of metacam in the syringe just on the tip so he thought he was getting that but the syringe was actually filled with critical care and he has just ate about a teaspoons worth watered down! he seems to prefer it feed through the bars of his cage at his pace :) I had a look at his mouth again and I think I was actually looking at a lower pinker bit of gum as opposed to a sore.. der.. I panicked.
Obviously I will not hesitate taking him back to the vets if I thought I could do something different/better than I am.
I am going to carry on topping him up with extra syringe feeds and see if I can start bulking him out abit but if any more signs of his weight going down with me helping him then back he will go.
Now he appears to be pigging the CC down, can I feed too much?? he is still eating his hay and pellets so I don't want him to stop that due to that keeping his teeth in check.
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Yes you can feed too much. If you overload his stomach it can cause him to aspirate into his lungs and this is deadly. This can also cause chemical imbalances in the intestines that can also be fatal. Follow the recommended dosing instructions from your vet. If you have questions on how to properly adjust the dosing consult your vet. Considering he is still eating his hay and pellets on top of that and you are not forcing it down I think you're safe. Chinchillas typically are self-regulating but still be careful. Feeding liquids is not a normal thing to do.
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If he is eating hay and his pellets, i would stop the syringe feeding. Are you weighing him to make sure he isnt loosing weight? CC is great but its best to only use it as needed. Chins love it but if they dont eat their regular food it can cause the molars to over grow, so it is for temporary use only. Make sure to watch his top incisors, now that the bottom one is broken off the top one may over grow till the bottom one grows back out to normal length and may need to be trimmed. Is there any gum disease or any sign of why the tooth broke off?
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How much does the chinchilla weigh now compared to when you took it to the vet this week? This is going to tell you how much you need to supplement its diet if anything.
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his tooth isn't snapped off so its shorter it has snapped vertically (in half but downwards) does that make sense? he is hardly touching his pellets and hay.. I tried only giving him cc in the morning and leaving him be to eat his food through the night and he dropped 20 grams.. he is definitely not eating enough to maintain weight and grind down the tooth.. so I have a dilemma.. do I stop the CC totally and see if I can get him to eat by himself through hunger.. or get the tooth clipped down to the gum? as the break is down to the gum.
I really don't know what to do. I can go and see the exotics vet again but I like to get peoples opinions before hand if they have ever experienced this before.
The break is due to him jumping out of my hands and hitting the floor which makes me feel even worse :( first time I have ever dropped him in 9 years
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I'm sorry to hear that you've accidentally injured your pet. I know from experience that accidents do happen even with the best of us and chinchillas can be very unpredictable. The good news is you have a mechanical explanation for the problem so it should be curable as long as you keep your pet at a healthy weight. I have not experienced this particular problem but my understanding of chinchilla physiology is that weight is extremely important and you're going to have to set safe limits if you're going to try anything. The bowels must stay flowing and fecal output must be monitored carefully as well because there is a point of no return on both of these metrics. I do recommend consulting with an expert veterinarian who knows chinchillas. This is an unusual problem. More commonly teeth are either knocked out completely or dislocated resulting in malocclusion over time.
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He is under exotic veterinarian care at the moment but the vet just wants to let his tooth grow out and said that will take a few months.. it has been over a month now and it doesn't show any signs of improvement yet.I don't believe he is eating enough pellets and hay to grind it down so now I can either remove it or clip it right down?? both which is going to be painful to him.. although it is painful already as its broken. He has 0.25ml of metacam everyday to help manage it but now I am at a loss at what to do?? waiting for a call back from the vet.
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How is his weight compared to his last known healthy weight? That is going to give you the information you need for managing his diet.
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his weight goes up and down compared to how much I feed him but he is about 50 grams lighter than I want him to be.
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50g for a normally 500g male isn't terrible. That is a 10% difference and not out of line for what you're going through. Ask your vet what the acceptable limits are for your particular pet.
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you can get the teeth trimmed back to a certain length without it hurting him. It depends on how far down the tooth is broke. Can you get a pic of it?
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its broken to the gum so would need it taken down to the gum I guess.. I will try and take a picture but he is very wriggly when I open his mouth. Think I am going to need his top tooth trimmed anyway due to only being half a tooth at bottom to rub against so a small nobble in forming .
I am going to try and stop feeding him the CC for one day and see if I can get him interested in his normal food again
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it won't let me send the picture as file too big
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You can send it to me (admin@chinchillaclub.com) and I'll format it to work or just make it 800x600px and use jpg and it should work. (Also requires some compression)
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Here are the photographs that were sent (cropped and formatted). I hope this will shed some more light on this.
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vet has called in sick :( so have made another appointment for tmw morning, hopefully she will be back by then. I feed him some extra CC and his weight has started to go back up again so I am presuming that the pain for him to chew hard food is too much and he either needs stronger painkillers or to clip/remove tooth. Think I am going to ask for him to be knocked out so they can check his whole mouth thoroughly for sores, spikes etc and deal with the tooth if there are no other issues.
I seem to the only person to have dealt with this kind of break :(
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Yeah I can understand that. Just think you're pet is pioneering in veterinary medicine!
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So today we saw a different exotics vet and she said she feels the tooth will never grow back as the break is so low.. he has been prescribed Tramadol tablets for a week to see if stronger pain medication will get him eating his own food.. else he is being referred to a zoo specialist to have his incisors taken out :( and a cost of 300 pounds?! ouch!
I asked about a filling as they are starting to do them on dogs and cats now but she said that she feels that we are a few years away from doing chinchillas which sucks as that could fix it without a serious operation! I am going to put him forward as the first chinchilla to have a filling and see what they say.
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I have seen teeth broken that low that have grown back. i am always hesitant to follow advise of a vet who suggests pulling teeth. It's extremely hard to do without breaking their jaw. Have repeat x rays been done to check growth? Trimming inscissors is not a big deal for a knowledgeable vet and you can get in a routine of trimmings if the tooth didn't come back. In rare cases when a tooth breaks off that low it can lead to malo (due to damage if the root) in which case pulling the tooth is the only option to save the chin
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The issue is that he isn't eating much hard food at all now only his kale and CC so they think that if they pull the bad tooth then he won't be in pain once that is healed. I am so scared about him having an operation but it will be a zoo/exotic specialist that would be doing it and he has done it alot of times before.
I am also worried about the tablets he is on as I've had to take them before and they made me feel very horrible and sick!
The vet has said that it hasn't broken down to the pulp but very close hence that it hurts so much.
She also said he is on the skinny side of healthy so they aren't worried about his weight at the moment.
He hasn't had any xrays.. just the pain medication so far and watching to see how he deals with it.
It's all so stressful at the moment :(
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I'm sorry about your stress. I think you have a really good chance of this working out and you're starting out with a healthy pet at a decent weight. If they do the bad tooth they'll have to pull the opposite tooth otherwise it will grow down into where the old tooth was and cause a major problem. Sounds like you've found a good experienced vet.
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today he has had CC this morning, metacam and a tiny bit of CC just to get his tramadol into him.. they appear to make him abit sleepy so I have put various food around his cage nearer to him to encourage him to eat.. so far he has picked at his small pellets and some of his dried treats (twigs, dry grass type stuff) and a little kale, no hay yet but this seems encouraging.
Fingers crossed the tablets help him to start eating again as I am very reluctant to operate on him to remove teeth.
I am hoping that his tooth will grow back.. even though one vet thinks otherwise.
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You really need to get xrays done before you consider removing the tooth. If you cant see the pulp according to your vet then the tooth is not your main issue. Metacam is very good at handling pain so he should be eating if it is just his tooth. Your chin needs lab work and xrays done asap to decide what is really the problem. Feeding kale is also not a good idea. It can cause GI upset which would only complicate things at this point.
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you can see the pulp the whole way down the tooth from top to bottom.. it just hasn't gone right through to it yet as she said its still hard and pulp is soft.
The exotic specialist vet told me to feed him kale?? that's the only reason I started.
His weight is sat at 600 grams at the moment so they said that they are happy with that weight and to see if they can get him comfortable enough eating only hard food and hay
I am 99.9% sure his roots are ok currently as he is showing no other symptoms of malo plus he is 9 years old so think it would have shown up way before now.
He is a very happy bouncy chin with no dribbling, eye issues, and no rapid weight loss so think it's currently being managed.. have vets again wednesday to discuss further treatments.
I had a malo chin put to sleep a few months ago so wouldn't hesitate if I thought that this wasn't fixable and can't be managed until a cure has been found.
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Kale wouldn't grow in a desert. Even died it can cause gi problems cause as it ferments in the gut it releases gas which can lead to bloat. Malo can be caused by injury which is why I suggested xrays. You don't know how he broke off the tooth so if he still isn't eating well that's something to check into. Genetic male normally shows up by 5 years old (which you are correct, would have shown up by now) but there are other causes. Chewing pellets and hay dies not use the front teeth. That's why I'm concerned with him not eating still.
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I do know how he broke it.. he jumped out of my arms and hit the floor.
He is having a CT scan on the 8th june and then going for an op to remove teeth if CT scan doesn't show up anything else. every time he picks up food and goes to nibble on it he wipes his mouth so obviously still in pain. I have tried everything the vets have suggested so looks like its down the the specialist now.
I can't stop crying as it's all my fault for not holding him tight enough ::cry222:::
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had our CT scan done today and discovered that he had really bad mallo in his molars that couldn't be seen without the scan, ive had to let my beautiful boy go to the rainbow bridge. I will never forget my gorgeous cuddly little man , he was my 1st chinchilla and made me fall in love with them.
rest in peace Bubble, I love you xx
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I am very sorry about that. It sounds like your pet had a good life for a chinchilla.