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[Annemarie]

Hello everyone, I'm new here because I have a problem with my Chinchilla and I'm afraid the dutch forum I usually go to takes to long to respond.
A few weeks ago my chinchilla had saliva around it's mouth and therefore we took her to the vet immediately. It turned out that some of her molars had grown wrong and where making wounds in her mouth. The vet took really good care of the molars and gave us some pain killers/antibiotics and liquid food to force feed her.
At home, the force feeding quickly turned to giving her the liquid food which she ate enthusiastically. Sadly after giving her less she didn't start eating her normal food and even raisins take a long time to eat. She only seems able to make her pallets in little piles of powder and doesn't seen able to swallow.
Yesterday we took her back to the vet and he looked again. The wounds are healed and all teeth and molars look fine. The only weird thing he can find is a uvula like piece of soft tissue coming from the top of the soft tissue in her mouth.
My vet isn't sure if this is normal tissue or it might be a tumor or some other kind of tissue that should be removed. Does anybody know if this should be in her mouth?
I don't remember seeing it the first time when he took care of her molars. Our vet is going to look in his books and see if he can fine the answer. I'm really hoping you guys have some experience with this. Otherwise we might have to use our other chinchilla as comparison but then he has to be sedated asswell.

[GrayRodent]

If you look online (I googled chinchilla oral endoscope) you can see images of what the inside of their mouth looks like. I'm certainly no expert on this but you can see there isn't supposed to be anything back there. I recommend finding a veterinarian who specializes in exotics and get a second opinion.
I will say from my experience and others collective experiences that malocclusion in chinchillas is typically genetic and results directly from improper breeding practices. The skull itself is deformed which causes the teeth (which in rodents constantly grow) to not grind down on each other so the part that that is not occluded by the opposite tooth "malocclusion" extrudes outward into the mouth. In some forms the roots of the teeth can also grow out of control into the skull. You may want to have an x-ray done to check this out. When my first chinchilla had this occur I opted to have him euthanized. Some pet owners opt to have the teeth floated periodically and that can by you a few more years. This is going to depend on what kind of complications you may be experiencing from the roots.
I wish I had better news for you but these tend to be difficult cases to manage.

[Annemarie]

Thank you for the response GrayRodent. I used your query and found some informative pictures. I think I will show them to my vet as well. He actually called a dutch university that specializes in exotic animals to confirm that this normally shouldn't be in my chinchilla's mouth. Sadly we do not have any pets that specialize in exotic pets in my area. My vet specializes in rodents and takes care of a lot of teeth problems with rabbits. I know it's not the same but it's the best I could find. I will ask him if he thinks we could do an x-ray.
For the malocclusion in chinchillas, can this occur when they are already older? I would think this would become a problem in early life. She is about 9 years old, I've had her for 7 years and she's never had any problems before.

[BLS Chins]

Xrays should be done. If the roots are over grown there is nothing that can be done for your chin. Is it possible the area your vet is unsure of, could be an abscess that hasn't ruptured yet? Chins with dental problems are more prone to abscesses than a normal chin

[Annemarie]

I asked the vet to take some x-ray images before the operation to be sure there was no malocclusion or other problems and he said the x-ray looks good, see pictures.
Therefore he has operated and removed the growth. Faithfully she woke up and is now recovering. Today she tried to eat the liquid food herself (without the syringe). Hopefully she will be eating her normal food soon, otherwise we don't know what the problem is at all.

[GrayRodent]

I'm not an expert but that x-ray does not look normal to me. I recommend getting a second opinion. Looks like you have a very nice lateral image. Do you have any information about what exactly was removed and what kinds of tissues were discovered in it?