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[DavidKosa509]

I own two chinchillas. Sandy is about 3 years old and Gabby is about 7 years old. Gabby, the older one, seemed to be having tooth problems, as well as a cold. I brought her in to a local vet, who, after checking her out, told me it seemed like she may have a problem with her molars. He ended up putting her under, and explained to me that at least three of the four sets of molars were misaligned in one way or the other. He shaved the molars a bit to improve the problem, and explained that this would have to be done every 6 months or so to keep them under control. He gave me a painkiller to give her for a week, and some trima. sulfa for a minor cold he suspected she had. I gave her the sulfa for three weeks.

Now, the above occurred about a month and a half ago, and Gabby has been getting worse. At first, her runny nose went away, but has since been reoccurring now and then. Worse, she has been grinding her teeth almost NON-STOP. She is obviously uncomfortable, and I believe in pain. And worst, she has been drooling EXCESSIVELY. Oftentimes in the morning, when I first check her, all the fur around her mouth, her chin and all the way down the front of her body to her front legs is SOAKED with saliva. Before having her teeth trimmed, the drooling, runny nose and teeth grinding only happened infrequently at best, and now she is CONSTANTLY grinding her teeth and drooling.

I can tell Gabby is in pain and is horribly uncomfortable. Upon calling up the vet again, he explained that she may have a root infection. If this is the case, he explained, there is no end-all solution. He could give her antibiotics, painkillers and vitamin C, but there is no cure if her roots are infected. My questions are this:

1) Does this sound like a root infection?
2) Could it be that the tooth shaving may have worsened things? This seems like the case...
3) How serious of an issue does this sound?
4) Could the runny nose be related to her teeth problems?
5) Should I trust this vet? It just seems like her condition has worsened considerably since bringing her there...

If it would help to post a picture of her, I will. The area around her mouth really looks bad...

Please help with this...any advice would be helpful. I am worried about her...

~ David

[Squirrel_Butt]

  If your not sure about a diagnosis a second opinion couldn't hurt. I'm not saying to trust or not trust this vet. I'm just saying it could help clarify things.

[dianah]

hey. well.. i can't tell whether it sounds like root infection, it definitely sounds like a tooth problem but you already knew that. as for root infections, these can be treated, this is done through removal of the tooth - given that it's the molars that are problematic, these are quite easy to remove. if there is an infection, there's a possibility part of the jaw bone will need to be removed too and i'm not entirely sure how that's done on the molars. however, i do believe that the root infection would show up on an xray.

1) Does this sound like a root infection?
2) Could it be that the tooth shaving may have worsened things? This seems like the case... yes. if it's not done correctly, it can make things worse. however, sometimes it feels like there's been a lot of change in a chins mouth and it may take time for them to get used to their 'new' teeth. fluffy had to be forcefed for two weeks after her dental.
3) How serious of an issue does this sound? it depends. if her teeth are misaligned but roots are ok and she is ok with the anaesthetic and the dentals make her feel better then all is well as long as all the above is ok. obviously if it gets complicated, the issue gets complicated
4) Could the runny nose be related to her teeth problems? yes. did your vet take an xray? i would want to make sure the top arcades are clear. sometimes roots overgrow and grow into the nasal cavity or eye sockets - this is not good.
5) Should I trust this vet? It just seems like her condition has worsened considerably since bringing her there... i would take her to a different vet, your current vet may not be wrong but the other vet may have other ideas on how to help her. i would definitely be concerned with the excessive drooling and pretty much all the behaviour she's showing.

is she eating? how is her weight doing? is she chewing chews?

[DavidKosa509]

Hey, thank you for responding to my post. I have an appointment set up for Gabby on Monday at a new vet. I brought up the possibility of an x-ray and tooth extraction, and the guy said he can do an x-ray if necessary, but they prefer to not extract teeth as it can lead to more misalignment problems. I guess I'll just wait to talk to the vet in person. This clinic specializes in "exotic" pets, and it seems like they have good experience with chins.

It makes a lot of sense that her runny nose could be caused by the upper molars growing up into her nasal cavity. As for eating, she does eat, however, I can tell it's not comfortable for her. She stands over her food bowl for long periods of time working on getting food down. It seems like she's successful, but eating is a bit of a problem for her. However, I haven't seen her eat any of the hay I have in the cage, which is also a problem. It's tough to tell if she's lost weight at all, she is a small chinchilla to begin with. She does not eat chews, they're too hard for her, but she will eat the occasional cheerio, raisin or dandelion drop I feed her. As for being active, when I let her out she does run around a bit, which I see as a good sign. She's obviously not as active as her cage mate, who is four years younger, but she definitely still loves running around my apartment.

So I'm taking her in Monday, hopefully the vet will have some answers for me and know the best direction to go with her. Thank you!

~ David

[dianah]

good, hopefully you'll have a better idea when you go see the specialist vet! we don't have an exotic specialist where i live (i'd have to take them off the island for that) but there are two vets at my surgery who are really good with chinchillas. the others are more used to treating dogs and cats and you certainly can tell the difference. good call.

he's right, the tooth extraction can cause misalignment problems, if you remove a tooth, the opposing tooth may overgrow (i think this is always true when an incisor is removed, however, my rescue chin had to have one of her molars removed because it was fragmented and that was a year ago - she's not had to have the opposing one filed down so far). so this is not something they do for misaligned teeth but i think it is the treatment for some root infections.

it's very difficult to tell the weight of a chinchilla just by looking at them or handling them. you could get a scale that weighs in grams, like a kitchen scale! this would be very useful for monitoring how she's doing inbetween dentals as you'll notice that her weight is going down when she's not doing so well and then hopefully up after the dental. it's a very good indicator of how things are. even if she seems to be eating, because she's eating slowly, you may not notice she's eating less than usual. hay, it's usually the first thing they stop eating.

whereabouts are you david? in the uk (and some other european countries), there is a special nugget available called beaphar chinchilla care+ these are made in a different way and don't crumble, they are supposed to 'feel' similar to eating bark. they are great for chins with teeth problems. i would suspect they may be a little hard for her right now if she's in pain but it may be an idea to introduce them once she gets better. all mine have a bowl with these and another bowl with their standard nuggets.

[DavidKosa509]

Well, I really should have just taken her to this vet from the get go!

This vet seemed extremely knowledgeable about chinchilla teeth problems, and has plenty of experience dealing with rodent teeth trimming. He took an x-ray of her, and found an abscess in her upper right molar. Also, her incisors were pointy and in great need of trimming. I had no idea!

So, he trimmed her incisors, and put her on an antibiotic and a little bit of a painkiller to knock out the infection. I'm bringing her back in a week to see the progress. Within 24 hours, Gabby started looking visually better. No more drooling. No more nose running. And she is way more active too, and it seems like she is eating the hay again. What a great vet!

So it seems like she is getting better and the abscess was the major problem for her. I'll keep you updated on her progress. Thank you for your advice!

~ David

[dianah]

fantastic news! keep us updated!

[Debbie.nl.ca]

Yes keep us posted 

[DavidKosa509]

So it seems like Gabby is just about all better. She's to stay on the antibiotics for another week and a half and then the vet will give her another x-ray to see that the infection is gone. She looks so much better, and her mood has improved considerably. Thank you for all of your advice!

~ David

[dianah]

that is so fantastic! i'm so glad to hear it! yay!

[Debbie.nl.ca]

How's she doing now David?
She will still need trims now and then, but you seem to have a handle on it.