Issues following teeth burring

[alexjarvis]

Dexter went to the vet last Friday to have his teeth burred for the first time, we took him to an exotic vet that is very familiar with chinchillas. He is currently on .02 ml Baytril twice a day, ofloxacin eye drops 3 times a day, and was on .07 of metacam every 24 hours but we just lowered it down to .05 ml after calling the vet today. He is also being force fed critical care to get his weight up, he was 462 grams at the vet appointment. I'm a little worried because he doesn't seem to be drinking much water and we are having a very hard time giving him the critical care. He also seems to be sleeping a lot and cuddling, which is very rare for him. His poops seem to be pretty small and less frequent. We changed his bedding about 6 or so hours ago to see if he has peed and so far he hasn't. Also his penis is slightly out and the tip (about one cm) is purple, we haven't seen this happen before, we looked for hair rings, and didn't see any since we haven't had to do it before we weren't exactly sure what to look for. He also seems to be grinding his teeth. We have read that metacam can cause lack of appetite, and that the engorged penis can be a sign of pain. Can anyone confirm this or present any other alternative causes? Dexter isn't due for his follow up appointment for.another 10 days. Thank you!

 

[Newt]

It is more likely the baytril that is affecting his appetite. What is he on the antibiotic for? Why the eye drops....does he have an eye infection too?

Also, I know syringe feeding is hard, but you have to keep trying. Try smaller amounts more often. If the Critical Care is nice and watery then that would explain why he's not drinking as much as usual. You could also add extra probiotics to the CC to help counteract the effect of the baytril on his gut.

 

[ticklechin]

If the vet got really frisky with the filing or the tooth crowns were really long there is going to be alot of pain, chin teeth are innervated and when alot of structure is removed those nerves are exposed and will stay that way until they remineralize. It can take a couple of weeks if not longer. Call the vet back and ask for tramadol along with the metecam or just buprenex, both are stronger pain meds. I like tramadol and metecam together for pain relief, if the pain is extreme then the buprenex, but buprenex causes nausea in some chins. This chin is in alot of pain and metecam won't cut it on its own. If the chin has a active dental infection baytril on its own in my experience won't do squat on its own, it needs to be used with flagyl. Most dental infections are anerobic bacteria-baytril does not do well on anerobic bacterial, flagyl does. Reason you use both together is flagyl takes care of the primary infection (as long as the issue is not a tooth abscess) and baytril takes care of secondary infections such as URIs. If the antibiotic is just being used as a premed-post med due to some tissue damage and not infection, a sulfa based antibiotic is usually uses such as TMS, easy on the tummy. Chin needs to be fed as least 60ml of the CC a day broke up into a few feedings, if this does not happen you could end up with massive weight loss, stasis, gas, liver issues, so no matter how hard it is the chin needs to be fed.

 

[Newt]

Are you using the burrito technique for feeding? You could do a forum search for tips on this....