Tooth/Gum Injury

[einstein]

I have 18 years of experience with malo chins, I agree with the vets, the x-rays do not look bad. I do not see any reference to a chest x-ray? Reason I ask is in the earlier posts you state he was agitated and acting out of his mind, stasis of the gut produces that symptom along with not eating/no appetite. You also do not mention drool, is he drooling?

Thanks for weighing in on the xrays.

My 2nd vet said she will want a full body x-ray but the first one did not do one.

The agitation was due to the sedative (Versed) and that wore off after about 6 hours. He was sedated again and did really well.

No drooling at all. No eye or nose discharge.

The lack of appetite continues two weeks for hard foods but this week also for CC. I've had to wrap him up 95% of the time this week whereas last week he ate CC willingly (mostly).

The vet tech said the fecal gram stain test came back high for bacteria. 20% rods or something. I am going to get an antibiotic right now. I haven't spoke to the vet yet but it seems this test result might be borderline and not the smoking gun. The blood tests came back ok.

 

[einstein]

On SMZ-TMP for .36ml 2x day for 10 days to deal with the GI infection.

 

[einstein]

My vet prescribed Gabapentin to help with the pain. Going to get back in at the end of the week assuming he's not eating on his own by then.

 

[mercynursie]

I hope something works for you soon! Just an idea but I give my chins a little liquid B-!2 in their CC or give by syringe. It takes good so they usually love it and I found that it stimulates their appetite a bit. Watching your posts and praying for ya'll.

 

[einstein]

I hope something works for you soon! Just an idea but I give my chins a little liquid B-!2 in their CC or give by syringe. It takes good so they usually love it and I found that it stimulates their appetite a bit. Watching your posts and praying for ya'll.

Thanks! You get B12 from a drug store for humans?

 

[mercynursie]

Yes. It's the liquid drops that you put under your tongue if you're human. LOL!

 

[einstein]

Just an update in case anyone out there has had a chinchilla with an unidentifiable tooth/mouth problem that prevented the eating of hard foods.

We're 31 days in and although he seems "normal" he's only eating CC and EFL. He'll take a shredded wheat but only if it's crushed up and mixed with water. There's still some other behavior that indicates some mouth pain while he's on two different pain medications. His weight is holding well.

So far we've had him sedated 3 times for a visual exam and 2 sets of x-rays by different small animal vets. The recommendation is to get a CT scan but we haven't been able to arrange it yet.

 

[einstein]

Does anyone know if a sudden jump up in weight could be a sign of a problem? He's been hovering around 590-610g throughout this whole ordeal. That's down from 625g on day 1. Today he is almost 650g and I am certain the change is basically overnight.

He started acting lethargic overnight - not wanting to get out of his cage and laying on his side more than normal. However, he's still eating. The poop has gotten smaller overnight.

I've been feeding him mostly EFL with some CC several times throughout the week.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Amethyst]

Does anyone know if a sudden jump up in weight could be a sign of a problem? He's been hovering around 590-610g throughout this whole ordeal. That's down from 625g on day 1. Today he is almost 650g and I am certain the change is basically overnight.

He started acting lethargic overnight - not wanting to get out of his cage and laying on his side more than normal. However, he's still eating. The poop has gotten smaller overnight.

I've been feeding him mostly EFL with some CC several times throughout the week.

Thanks in advance.

A sudden increase in weight, combined with small poops makes me think possible constipation and/or blockage. Not a complete blockage though, since some poop is getting through. However I would weigh him a few more times, at different times to be sure, a full belly or a full bladder can also increase his weight temporarily.

 

[einstein]

A sudden increase in weight, combined with small poops makes me think possible constipation and/or blockage. Not a complete blockage though, since some poop is getting through. However I would weigh him a few more times, at different times to be sure, a full belly or a full bladder can also increase his weight temporarily.

Thanks. I cleaned every piece of poop up so I have a good baseline. I am going to hold off on the new RX for buprenex until I know his GI system is good or unless he's just clearly in a massive amount of pain.

 

[einstein]

So it's day 40. Last week we got a CT scan of his whole body from the zoological practice of a nearby university. The doctor didn't think what she saw on the scan was serious enough to cause him to stop eating hard foods. This matches with the 2 sets of x-rays we recently took.

There was some moderate malocclusion and she did some trimming to make more room for his tongue. The incisors were also slightly too long but that could be because he hasn't eaten hard foods in over a month. They were trimmed as well. No root issues, FWIW.

It's four days later and there some minor signs of hope but it's not a recovery yet. The doctor didn't think he would have much pain from what she did. Is that realistic? Tooth trimming with recovery after only a few days?

I don't know how I will know if his teeth are still bad or if he just prefers CC/EFL.