Please help me figure out what is going on merged with Runny Nose thread

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S

SCchin

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 31, 2010
Messages
164
Location
SE South Carolina
The ongoing saga of Quito.

He is now 616 g. He was leveled out at 650 g but was 683 g last October when he got the major teeth filing. He was so happy the day we took him to get the abscess cut out at the end of December. Full coat, happy with the car ride, big blob under his eye...

We has nats all over his chest. We changed from the Care Fresh bedding to aspen, but my daughter is complaining that the nats may be from him laying in his pee, and that the aspen doesn't absorb as well as the Care Fresh does. I am wondering if it is drool, but not sure how to tell the difference... The Care Fresh allowed longer periods between cage changes, and she is a teen, and probably doesn't change his cage as much as she needs to.

He is also chewing his fur a lot. It has been warmer, and he used to chew, maybe since his teeth are better he is just going to have a strange haircut? Or is chewing a sign of something not being right?

So, the plan is a complete cage clean today. Rinse/trim/pull the nats. Keep the wet chips changed out. Watch him. I really don't want to do CC because he gets so many nats from that, and then he quits eating. He is eating fine, tons of poos in the cage. I am also going to start watching water intake. Can sloppy water drinking be a cause of the nats? Just thinking out loud.

Could the nats be the complete cause of this? He paws his face a lot, are they pulling? His teeth checked out fine a few weeks ago, but no xrays were taken. I may be able to get the latest xrays from the vet to show here.

How do you spell nat anyway?? Is it the same as the bug? :hmm:
 
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I can't offer any advice on the teeth issue, but has he had a dustbath? I'd also consider changing over to fleece liners with a litterbox, instead of shavings. They would need to be changed every few days as well, though but they are not as messy.
 
I'm hoping you mean "mats" - like fur that's all stuck/knotted together.

You say they're on his chest... how far up the chest? The drooling chins I've seen, the drool starts pretty much right under the mouth, and can go so far down as to be on the chest... but the few chins I've ever seen mats from pee are much lower, like around their urinary area... not so far up I'd say on the chest. I've had chins that lay on wet shavings, and I've personally never had them get mats from that, but then, we clean the cages often enough that they're never that wet...

When you say chewing, you mean fur chewing? Fur chewing can be a sign of stress.

Maybe it is time for another teeth filing? That can be hard/impossible to tell without an x-ray.
 
He gets a dust bath every night, we use Blue Cloud or Sparkle, I ordered it in bulk so we have enough for forever!

So, mats, LOL, I have always called them nats. No wonder it didn't come up on the speller. Oh my. They are above his front paws, so upper chest to under his chin. That makes sense that pee would be lower where they sit, I was just going by what my daughter thought. My daughter just probed around his jaw, and he winced when she got to the back of one side. I wonder if the vet missed a problem, we were just there, but he only did a visual. He is turning his food into powder, strange. A bowl full of pellet powder. I guess that is teeth?

Can you really litter train chins? That would be great! Ideas, or links to past threads please! And, I am open to a fleece bed, who sells them here (hint, hint).

And, it is fur chewing. He has a really bad haircut...

Looks like we need another trip to the exotic vet (a two hour drive). The vet here is good, but he just said he was fine. So, he is good for abscesses, minor things, but I don't know if he can file a back tooth, I am thinking this is maybe what we are dealing with.
 
I believe you mean Mat, with a M.

The two things that concern me the most about your post is the fur chewing, which can be a sign of stress or pain, and more so the pawing at his mouth. This is not normal and it means there is something wrong with his mouth, if your knee was sore you'd rub it, his mouth is sore, he's rubbing it. He needs a vet. If you're not sure if your daughter is cleaning his cage often enough, just walk in the room and check it. Usually once a week for a single chin is often enough.

Sorry, I don't know enough background here. Has he had mouth xrays? What was the abscess under the eye caused by?
 
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The abscess was caused by the last teeth problems, major filing, ulcer in mouth. There are other threads about it, in summary, we weren't told we needed to feed our chin hay, then fast forward five years. We thought he was better, then the abscess started growing. It didn't respond to antibiotics, so I asked to have it cut out (same price as culture). An xray was taken in December for the abscess and that is when it was cut out.

I'm trying to figure if I should pursue more with our local vet (we drove two hours for the surgery, this vet told us to). I guess since he told us to drive last time, he will if this is beyond his expertise. He did just purchase the tools. He worked on chins years ago when he lived in Florida. So, trying to figure out where to go early next week!
 
I would imagine the x-rays could be done even by your closer-vet, could always be sent to the exotic vet, and if more work was needed, then you could drive to the exotic vet.
 
The exotic vet did email the xrays taken in October BEFORE the teeth filing. Are those too old?

I don't know how to get an email attachment from the email to here.....

Either someone show me how, or PM me your email address to forward the email if October isn't too long ago and I can show the xrays.
 
A lot could have changed since October. If he appears to be drooling, I would personally get new x-rays.
 
I am trying to upload the October xrays.... I'll do one at a time because it didn't work just now, files may be too large.
 

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How on earth do you see on these if there is a point? Wouldn't you need to visually look with the chin "sleeping?"

Again, these are before the major teeth filing he had in October.
 
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