Dental caries (cavities) in herbivores

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I honestly believe this is what happened to Richie. Before I knew any better, Richie had a diet of good pellet, hay & filtered water PLUS a daily dose of raisins & peanuts.....and not just one a day. Thank God I found this forum. When he first displayed signs of malo, and he was xray'd and had a tooth filing, his one tooth just feel out. sad :(
 
Christoph Mans Showed some great photo's of dental decay and teeth problems along with many other chin ailments at the Shindig a few weeks ago. I believe he is giving the same presentation at the ECBC Annual meeting coming up in Colorado. If you get the chance to go his presentations are well worth the trip.
 
I honestly believe this is what happened to Richie. Before I knew any better, Richie had a diet of good pellet, hay & filtered water PLUS a daily dose of raisins & peanuts.....and not just one a day. Thank God I found this forum. When he first displayed signs of malo, and he was xray'd and had a tooth filing, his one tooth just feel out. sad :(

This sounds like my Herby too..she was pretty much getting the same things and when she went in for one of her filings and one of her teeth just fell out. I wonder now if she had other dental problems that led up to the malo diagnoses. :hmm:
 
:thumbs: Excellent find, Dawn.

I think dental caries in chinchillas often goes undiagnosed & is lumped under the general term "malocclusion" - it's a bugbear of mine. I find it frustrating that the word is used to cover everything instead of being more specific.
It's great so see David Crossley writing more stuff - his work sometimes gets discounted by those who are determined to see "malocclusion" as purely genetic but that negates the other issues which are undiagnosed & are the result of more than just genetics.
 
do you think that in the chins that it is not genetic, that the poor diet and tooth decay leads to the mis alignment of the jaw? i believe that. the lack of hay to wear down the molars and the high sugar content of the treats has got to lead to issues.

interesting article.
 
Great article. I don't believe malo is 100% genetic either - there are definitely environmental factors that can cause malo and other dental problems also.
 
do you think that in the chins that it is not genetic, that the poor diet and tooth decay leads to the mis alignment of the jaw?
Not really, no - true malocclusion (i.e. misalignment of the jaw) is not that common in chinchillas. What gets termed as malocclusion more often than not are root and/or coronal elongation - those are not true malocclusion.
What gets thrown about as malocclusion are a whole heap of issues which are not properly diagnosed - I believe that tooth problems in chinchillas are multifactoral - lots of little things can add up to tooth problems & some are easier to define/detect than others. Trauma, for instance is a fairly easy to define problem - if a chin smacks it's face into the cage/floor & the incisors are broken/chipped/loosened ......... lots of tooth problems can occur from that including misalignment of the teeth.
I think that lack of fibrous foods, demineralisation, sugary diets etc etc etc can cause problems. It's not just down to genetics but I also don't think anyone can discount genetics either - some chins certainly display genetic problems.
 
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guess this goes to prove that if wild chins don't get dental decay, but domesticated chins do, then we are introducing foreign foods into their diets that aren't beneficial for them on many different levels. Treats don't create a happy pet, lots of love and a healthy environment does. Just one more reason to make sure we aren't killing or hurting our pets with too much love.
 
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