Dental chin, 11 days and still hand feeding. Normal?

dianamator · Jan 25, 2013

I have a 9 year old female that had some dental work done on the 14th, 11 days ago. The vet gave her 5 days worth of Metacam and 7 days of antibiotics. I'm still hand feeding critical care. She won't take a raisin yet, but she is starting to try to chew on rubber things and whatever she can get to when she struggles out of her burrito while hand feeding.

How long is it before they get back to normal? I'm supposed to go on a week-long trip in 7 days and I'm hoping she will be well enough for me to leave her.

Any suggestions on how to get her back on her feed?

obcsed · Jan 26, 2013

Mine usually starts to get back to normal soon after the antibiotics are stopped. I start weaning him off the hand feedings by making them fewer and further apart or by reducing the amount I give each time. He has to get hungry before he will start eating on his own. There might be some weight loss but keep an eye on it.

Cuddlebug · Jan 26, 2013

Stop offering the raisins. They are not good for chinchillas and can add digestive issues to what is already going on.

Encantadora · Jan 26, 2013

I agree to stop raisins. Offer a Cheerio instead. And have hay out for her. It sounds like he may prefer the CC to the pellets. You should be able to reduce feeding a by now and wean him off.

ticklechin · Jan 28, 2013

Depends on what was done, how experienced the vet is and the chins psychology-some chins can be drama queens and the smallest thing can be blown up in their minds and you hand feed for weeks, some vets are butchers and did NOT get the memo that chin teeth are innervated and that grinding them to the gum line is SO not right and some vets have problems with dexterity and the soft tissue gets damaged. Every chin is different and will eat again or not on its own schedule, some need to be rechecked because things are missed.

dianamator · Jan 29, 2013

Thanks everyone for your input. I stretched out her feeding and she got hungry. She has been eating progressively more each day with her weight holding steady even though I'm feeding less and less by hand.