What should I ask the vet?

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Siylvat

Siylvat

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 1, 2009
Messages
445
Location
Utica, NY
Bok Choy one of our new chins (we got him about 6 months ago), just began having drool all around his face and down his front. We tried cleaning him up best we can, and giving him a dust bath to help. Other than this he seems normal. He is eating, drining, and seems peppy.

We made an appointment with the vet for tomorrow afternoon. I take it a head ex-ray would probably be a good thing to request? Is there anything else I should know about/do?
 
Exam under gas and a x-ray, I would not let the vet just do a exam with a otoscope with a first vet visit for drool.
 
i also recommend the gas, as they can get a good look and see if there are any spurs or anything stuck in his teeth. while they have him under a full body xray would be helpful to see if he has any gi issues and a good view of his mouth to see if any roots are elongated.
 
Back from the vets, and extreemly mad. We just moved back to the area and I thought our vet saw chins. I called them. They said they did. They didn't say that they were an amazing expert or anything, but they didn't tell me to take them somewhere else instead.

Well. She had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. When I asked for X-rays she said she used to do them, but was discouraged with chins and doesn't like to anymore. She refered me to another vet, didn't even bother filling out the referal saying we "probably wouldn't need it". (which we do. I called the place).

All she said was put him on some sulfatrim and critical care. Oh but she had no idea if I should give the two together or hours apart because of probiotics. I asked.

Then we brought our other chin because his poo has still being a little soft despite testing negative on a fecal. So I asked if maybe the sample was not fresh enough, if maybe it was something like giardia because it has been coming in a cyclical pattern. She opened her book in front of me and told me that giardia was not common in chinchillas and that if it was in our water or something everyone would know about it, so it couldn't be that. She was a little dumbstruck when I told her that we had a chin about a year ago that came down with it.

She said they could do a smear if we wanted her to.

I asked if there was anything else she could think of with everyone having soft poo. She told me we could give the sulfatrim to the ones with soft poo, and "see if it helped".

And the kicker. She charged us 100 bucks. She did nothing. Gave up on us. and still charged us. When she should have just refered us in the first place. I am so angry.

Oh and the place she refered us to is an animal dental specialist. He doesn't know a ton about chinchillas, last one he had with dental problems he pulled teeth, filed, put caps on teeth, and the poor thing still died 4 months later. He charges 150 just to see them, and then x-ray and everything else is on top of that.

Sorry this is so long. I'm very upset. I thought I had looked around and found a good vet for my chins, and they were terrible.

Does anyone know a good vet in the Central NY area that is good with chins?
Also, how much should an x-ray cost in NY?
 
I would not use a vet dentist that does not do alot of chins, I have found in the past the vet will butcher the teeth and make matters worse. I hope someone here can refer you to a good vet. Until then, handfeed if he stops eating and watch the weight.
 
ticklechin said:
I would not use a vet dentist that does not do alot of chins, I have found in the past the vet will butcher the teeth and make matters worse. I hope someone here can refer you to a good vet. Until then, handfeed if he stops eating and watch the weight.
Click to expand...

Yeah. I was already thinking this. She mentioned that the last chin he pulled some teeth on. Has anyone ever heard of this? I never heard people pulling chin teeth before.
 
Oh, and why do they give chins sulfatrim? She basically at us when I asked if the drool could be caused by any other type of dental disease. She was like, "oh yeah it could be a bacterial infection, we could give metacam, or baytril. Here try this sulfatrim and see if it helps, Give it to the chins with soft poo too"
 
I have had chin teeth removed but that was on a chin who basically the teeth came out when the dentist touched them. To remove "healthy" teeth the vet runs the risk of fracture of the bone and/or opening a path up for infection. Also the opposing tooth will grow into the removed tooth spot and the next door teeth can tilt into that spot. Not a great outcome.

As far as the antibiotic, I find that vets who don't know the answer to the chins problem throw antibiotics at it, just to shut the owner up, now that is my own opinion and others may not have had that happen to them. It seems us owners need to be "up" on how to treat chins ourselves and guide the vets on our chins care.
 
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ticklechin said:
As far as the antibiotic, I find that vets who don't know the answer to the chins problem throw antibiotics at it, just to shut the owner up.
Click to expand...

That is exactly how I felt.

I just spent the last half hour calling places. Specifically asking if they have had any experience with chins with teeth problems. One vet I actually got to talk to. I told him I wanted X-rays so we could see what the roots were doing. He said. "what do you mean? they are roots. They don't do anything."
 
ticklechin said:
That is scarey, he most likely did not know the teeth are open rooted and grow continuously.
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yeah. I have no idea. He said that he saw chins, and had done x-rays on them. He had filed rabbit teeth all the time, but not chin teeth. But when I asked about roots growing up into the eye, or into the jaw, he acted like I was stupid and he had never hear of that before. Only of teeth curling.

Now I don't know much about the medical side of chins either, but I hear all the time that you should x-ray to check the roots, and if the roots are bad there is not much you can do.
 
My old Vet for my girls did a lot of the general dental work, but she had a preference for working with pocket pets and exotics. One of my girls has malo and she felt that the roots did elongate a little, but did a wonderful job filing them down and she thankfully hasn't had any problems for 9 months. So some roots yes can be fine, but I think if yours is malo it might be a little worse than my girl who never got to the drooling point, she slowed down her eating though as it was the molars.

My Vet sadly since has moved and I am not sure if I trust chin teeth issues to anyone else in the practice so I am hunting a vet down too.

Good luck finding a vet...that has a brain when it comes to chins.
 
You may have to travel a bit to find a good vet. My one chin did have a tooth pulled, it pretty much just fell out! I still have it. So it does happen, but usually in chins with malo or other dental issues. my one boy has malo and was drooling excessively, since his last filing in august he has not drooled at all and he is now eating on his own (although i still supplement with some handfeeding). he is doing very well and is a good example of how a great vet can make a difference.
I think she probably gave you the sulfatrim because it is a low level safe antibiotic that treats many minor infections. your chin could have a tooth spur or had something stuck in his teeth that may have irritated another area in his mouth that she was hoping the sulfa would help.
a hundred dollars is pretty high for just an office visit, especially one that was not satisfying to you.
I really hope you find a qualified vet. Utica is so close to syracuse, I cant believe there isnt anyone there that can help you. Did you check the data base on the forum?
you sound like you know more than the vets you have been calling! i wish you luck.
 
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Yeah. I am still checking aroud. I will have to call some more places tomorrow morning. My fiance might have to make the trip himself though if it is far away, because I just started a new job and can't really take the time off.

One of the places I called was kind enough to tell me that they did not know much about chinchillas but I could check out a vet in Mexic NY. They thought the name was Animal Ark but that is in Baldwinsville. Though I checked them out online and it says they have a small animal and exotic specialist, so I will call them up tomorrow.
 
We found a place around here that said they have experience with x-raying chins and filing teeth, so we are going to try them. My fiance is going to bring our little guy tomorrow morning. I have to work :(

It is going to be 165 for exam + x-ray a little high. But we NEED to know what to do.

I have not given him any of the sulfatrim the last vet gave us. Is this even something I sould use? She also gave us critical care. I could give him that, but he is still eating (he is munching away right now). Would I want to give them at separate times because of probiotics (the vet couldn't even tell me that when I asked her.)
 
I don't like to use antibiotics unless there is a diagnosis that confirms the chin needs it. I personally do not use a probiotic when using a sulfa drug, only when using the big guns like baytril or ciprofloxacin, that is just me, you can give them a 3-4 hours after the antibiotic dose. I would try out the CC tonight on him and see how he likes to eat it and see if you have to doctor it up to get it in him, better to try now and see if he will eat it than wait until he is in pain after the filing.
 
ticklechin said:
I don't like to use antibiotics unless there is a diagnosis that confirms the chin needs it. I personally do not use a probiotic when using a sulfa drug, only when using the big guns like baytril or ciprofloxacin, that is just me, you can give them a 3-4 hours after the antibiotic dose. I would try out the CC tonight on him and see how he likes to eat it and see if you have to doctor it up to get it in him, better to try now and see if he will eat it than wait until he is in pain after the filing.
Click to expand...

I meant the probiotics in the CC. The vet said it had some. Yeah, we will see if he likes it tonight. The chins we had to give CC to before did not to like it, so hopefully he is better.

I am hoping it isn't too bad tomorrow. We are still not even sure what it is. The vet yesterday didn't see any points on his teeth at all...but she wasn't right about anything else either so...who knows.

wish us luck.
 
CC does have the probiotics in them, those that supplement probiotics like to give it extra rather than just depending on the CC probiotics. Sending positice thoughts your way!
 
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