Face paralyzed during dental filing?

[Pixie]

Has anyone had experience or have heard anything of a chinchilla's face becoming paralyzed due to dental work? My chin had her back molars on one side of her face trimmed while she was under anesthesia and now half of her face is paralyzed and her lips are swollen. Any idea what caused this?

 

[Caroline]

How long has it been that way? My mother had that happen to her once when I was a kid. The dentist had hit a nerve when he was numbing her mouth. She recovered in a few hours. Hope your chinny does as well.

 

[Riven]

The different is that for people they do a nerve block by injection, with chins they do gas anesthesia...

I've never heard of such a thing, to do that a nerve would have to have been damaged, or there is so much swelling that there is pressure on the nerve causing it. I would almost guess it would have been more of an anesthesia issue than a dental work issue.

Hopefully someone else might have more insight.

 

[Pixie]

I think you might be right because I realized its on the other side of the face that they did the dental work on. I'm thinking it was the anesthesia, pain meds, or maybe a stroke? It's been like this the past 3 days. I noticed something weird going on with her eye when I brought her home from the vet Thursday night. Her eye kept rolling back and when I tried to syringe feed her, her mouth wouldn't move. She wouldnt even swallow. Then her eye on Friday wouldn't blink. This morning her eye was developing goop so i took het to the vet and found out that side of her face is paralyzed and now that eye has developed an ulcer because she can't blink. Could she have had a stroke? Do chinchillas have strokes? I'm trying to figure out what would cause half of her face to be paralyzed. So strange!

 

[Riven]

Stroke is possible. Is the vet a chin vet that deals with them often? I'd say it's most likely due to the anesthesia, lack of oxygen to the brain that caused it.

What did the vet have to say about it?

 

[Pixie]

They don't really know what happened. They said it might of happened because of the anesthesia and that she is a sensitive chin. This vet mostly deals with ferrets, rabbits, and rats. But they also work with chinchillas, but they see a smaller percentage of them. Has anesthesia ever caused paralysis in chinchillas before?

 

[Encantadora]

Wow. I've never heard of this but obviously something went wrong. Maybe call a chin specialist for their advice even if you can't take the animal to them. Many are very willing to help.

 

[Pixie]

Do you know of any chin specialists?