Critical Care and Teeth Health

[BrisketSpud]

Hello,

I wasn't sure if I should post this in Health or Nutrition, so I went ahead and posted it in health.

First off, I have a 5 year old female chinchilla who had a surprise baby 3.5 weeks ago (my male is in a separate cage, but I must have put them together briefly when I was cleaning one of the cages (they're both in 2 story Critter Dome cages). As soon as she had the baby, I noticed she was thin and also had "slobbers." I made an appointment with the exotic animal hospital a part of the state vet school, and had her teeth filed.

After the surgery, the vet said she was underweight (she was 468 grams) and gave me a pound of Critical Care to supplement her food with. She had her dental work 3 weeks ago today, and I have been giving Critical Care in small amounts several times a day-- she eats it off a spoon, and is always waiting for me when I bring it to her cage and starts eating it immediately. Her current weight is just over 500 grams, but it varies throughout the day. The vet told me she should be in the 550-600 gram range. About a week after the filing, I weighed her and she was in the 520 range, and I decided to decrease the Critical Care to encourage her to eat her solid food, but she quickly dropped and I increased the CC again.

However, today I noticed she was slobbering again (and I have noticed it a little bit as well since she had the tooth filing). She has free choice food as well as hay, but I don't really feel like she's eating it, and is instead only eating the Critical Care. (It's kind of hard to tell because the baby is always hopping around the food dish as well as dragging the hay around.

Because she is nursing, I do not want to discontinue the Critical Care (especially since she is already underweight). I guess I need advice. I'm worried that the Critical Care is destroying her teeth if she isn't eating much other food. I'm also worried she's suffering, and that maybe I should put her down as soon as the baby is weaned.

As a disclaimer I would like to say that this was absolutely an accidental breeding, and I would have never knowingly allowed the chinchillas to breed, especially with my girl's teeth issues.

Does anyone have any thoughts? She absolutely loves the Critical Care, and like I said, eats it off a spoon. She generally seems to be perky, alert, and checks everything out when I go to her cage. Should I take her back in to the vet school?

By the way, the baby is growing very well-- I didn't weigh him when he was born, but a week in he was 65 grams, and today when I weighed him, he was 129 grams. I do not think he's eating the Critical Care, because I generally hold him while she's eating.

Thank you for your advice, I love my girl and I am worried about her; above all though, I do not want her to suffer.

 

[ticklechin]

Has she had x-rays of the teeth? If not, this needs to be done and they need to be looked at by a vet/radiologist that knows what they are looking at. Does this chin have malocclusion? It sounds like it since malo chins usually need to be filed every 4-6 weeks and its been 3 weeks which is not totally unusual. CC does not destroy teeth, handfeeding long term is detrimental to a chin who has healthy teeth since they overgrow. Also, (this is not my area but based off info from my mentor) pregnant underweight chins who give birth can develop malo fairly quick due to the body being robbed of minerals and vitamins, she sees it alot with the rescues.

 

[BrisketSpud]

Thank you for your response! The vet did not do x-rays, and said she recommended doing them next time she needs to be filed. That makes a lot of sense to me about developing malocclusion when underweight/pregnant, because I had never noticed it before.

I guess I just have to decide if it is worth it for her to get filed so frequently and if it's decreasing her quality of life. Like I said, she really does seem quite happy and perky. Is it possible that with the high quality CC and getting her weight back up to normal that she would not need to be filed so frequently and she would repair some of the damage? I guess there is probably no way of telling without the x-rays.

Thanks again for your response, when I weighed her this morning she was 517 grams.

 

[ticklechin]

It depends on what the x-rays show-if the roots are elongated then there is nothing you can do about it other than prolong the eventuality of death by elongation, if the roots are not involved, you can go ahead with the filings-if the chin bounces back right away and is perky and if you did not know there was a problem you could not tell by how they are acting the play it by ear, see how treatment goes but just know it can go wrong at any time with further complications and its not cheap and its time consuming.

 

[BrisketSpud]

Thank you Dawn, I really appreciate your responses.