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[sharon44]

Hi there,
I have a single female chinchilla, named Hannah. About 5 days or so ago I noticed the front upper mouth on her right side was red and puffy (not crazy, but certainly noticable). It was strange, because it was at the front of her mouth- less common for abcesses.
Of course, I took her to the vet immediately and they gave me antiolbiotics and pain killer for her, which seemed to help. The inflammation/redness is gone now, but I noticed that she was also barely eating. She's on liquid food from the vet now and is ok for the time being. While I can afford to take her for another visit for a tooth checkup/potential surgery under anesthesia ($400-700) I'm a new graduate who doesn't have much right now. So if anyone had any ideas or suggestions as to what's going on it would be greatly appreciated! I have no clue what the cause is, and the vet seemed skeptical of abcess as well but offered no other suggestions. Anyone have a similar experience?

[GrayRodent]

It probably is an abscess, which is common in chinchillas with malocclusion. My recommendation is getting a dental x-ray. Unfortunately the x-ray is the best diagnostic tool at your disposal and it does require anesthesia.

If malocclusion is found I recommend euthanasia as surgery to correct it almost always provides only temporary results. It's kind of gruesome to mention this but I had this happen once to a pet and they charged extra for disposal. To save money you can opt to take care of that yourself.

Until you can make the appointment to do that I also recommend feeding a recovery diet and getting materials and instructions for your vet. Anorexia wreaks havoc on chinchillas.

Very sorry to hear this.