My chin gets tooth spurs every few months

[Vyse]

Hello.

Ever since march this year my chin has been having tooth spur problems. Each time I take him to the vet and get the tooth trimmed down. He is fine for 2-3 months then he starts drooling again. From what my vet told me one of his molars keeps growing into his cheek.

A bit of history on the chinchilla. I got given him 8 years ago and from my knowledge the chin wasnt fed much hay. Ive tried getting him to eat it with no luck, he just turns his noes up at it.

It is costing me a bomb each time I take him to the vet and its becoming far too frequent. Is there any procedure the vet can do to at least lengthen the time in between trims? Do you think getting the chin to final eat hay might fix his teeth?

 

[ticklechin]

If the tooth is actually tipped towards the cheek, there is not much that can be done besides trimming it when it grows-the angle prevents the chin from grinding it itself. A talented vet dentist can maximize distance between filings with certain angle cuts that with finding a hay the chin likes can help. You can try some loose alfalfa hay and see if the chin will at least try it, its what I gave my malo chins.

 

[AZChins]

Yes, all you can do is try to get the chin to eat hay. Sometimes just any hay helps.

Older chins can get some strange angles on their teeth if they haven't been grinding them enough. Definitely try the alfalfa hay, sometimes that can get a chin started eating hay so they can slowly be switched to timothy or oat hay or something else that can help with grinding molars.

You will probably have to take him back every few months for trimmings still, but as Dawn said maybe you can get some extra time in between filings if the vet compensates for the way the teeth are growing and with the chin grinding hay.

 

[Vyse]

Is there any reason why the angle of the molar would change all of a sudden?

 

[Dreamlite]

Possibly injury. If they fall off a shelf they can hurt them selves enough sometimes to do things like this. If the tooth is growing into his cheek there isnt aything you cn do to change that. This will be a life long problem.

 

[ticklechin]

Chinchilla teeth are not anchored in the jaw like humans, because of this things can change very quickly in the mouth.

 

[AZChins]

Vyse,

Chinchillas live a very long time with us. They CAN live to be 15 to 20 years old. However, they aren't really supposed to live that long since they are prey animals. Things go wrong as chins get older. A very slight misalignment can slowly become a major problem with the teeth...the teeth can end up growing in very strangely. Sometimes they can end up with really weird mutant looking teeth that need to be reshaped drastically. It isn't necessarily genetic or that anyone did anything wrong, it's just the nature of the teeth of a rodent....a very long lived rodent. Those teeth are growing at around a centimeter (or more with some chins) each month so that makes things worse.

They definitely don't have a more static condition of their teeth like dogs or cats or people. This makes it difficult to keep the teeth in good condition when something goes wrong with spurs or a tooth twists and grows in wrong or if there is a mouth injury.

 

[Vyse]

After searching through some past threads, it seems my chin may be a "lazy chewer". Every time my chin has been back from a filling he was ready scoffing his mouth within an hour of getting back up. So it seems that he has a good quality of life when the dam spurs arent popping up. Like I said, he wasnt feed hay when young and hasnt been used to eating it as he just plan refuses it.

So I am now absolutely determined to turn his diet from being roughly 100% pellets to into the direction of hay.

 

[6Dusters]

Oxbow has orchard grass that is soft and smells great. Might try that. Just a thought.