Snowy

Teeth

Since sharing information helps with chinchilla health problems, I'm providing this update regarding my chin Snowy who refused to eat.

Snowy had lost a significant amount of weight, had surgery to remove a tooth spur, and still did not improve. I figured it was tooth problems, maybe problems with a tooth root.

When my vet could not identify the problem, I took Snowy to a veterinary dentist who anaesthetised her, took a second set of x-rays, and did an exam. His opinion was that the problem was not tooth related. Well, after several weeks of force feeding Snowy, which she resisted mightily, and having her continue to lose large amounts of weight, I was at a loss. Because of the continued force feeding, her quality of life was poor, so I finally decided to have her euthanised. I knew she was having tooth problems, but could not find a vet who could diagnose what the exact problem was so we could figure out the appropriate treatment.

My vet autopsied Snowy, and it turns out it was a very simple but hard to diagnose tooth problem. Although I suspected something inoperable like problems with tooth roots, Snowy had something much simpler -- a very sharp spur on the very back of her back molar, which apparently made it too painful for her to eat anything. The vet tells me that the spur did not show up on x-rays and could not be visualized even under anaesthesia because it was just too far back in the chin's mouth to be seen or identified with any of her instruments.

A chinchilla's mouth does not open very wide. So, sadly, it was a very simple problem that I just could not get diagnosed and, even if diagnosed, may not have found a way to have it treated before Snowy died of malnutrition.

Just thought I'd let everyone know that tooth problems that lead to refusals to eat can actually be very simple ones.

This story was originally sent as an update to the chinmail email group http://www.chinnet.net/chinmail.html Snowy's owner has given us permission to include her story in the hope it will help others experiencing problems. She has added

If we had known what the problem was, we probably could have treated it by surgery, but it probably would have required cutting through the chin's cheek to access the tooth so it could be filed down. My vet was very glad she learned about the problem through autopsy. Now she's trying to figure out if there is any way to diagnose it and deal with it

By the way, I wondered why x-rays didn't reveal the problem. It's because the x-rays taken of chins are 2 dimensional -- not 3 dimensional x-rays such as those used on people.

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