Vet clipped teeth too short!!!

[beige chin]

i took my chin (Glory) to the vet today because when i got her i was told that she had spurs in her molars but he (the vet) said that her front teeth needed to be clipped & she will be better so he did it & now she cant touch her teeth together in the front :cry3: Im very worried that she wont be able to eat or drink. we have been home for about a 1/2 hour now and she is still sitting on top of her hidey house not moving. What should i do? is there anything for me to do? please help!
I have clipped rabbit teeth many times before & i know that its not a very big deal but i cant believe the vet took this much!!! if i would have known she would have so much space between her teeth then i would have never let him do it :tantrum:
& how do i get her back to acting normal? she is usually the first one out of her cage when i open the door but she wont budge, not even her "sister" can get her to move, she has to bounce around glory...

 

[mercynursie]

First off I would question if your vet is a true exotic vet who specializes in chinchillas.I don't think that many folks/vets recommend clipping incisors anymore in chinchillas.Folks please feel free to correct me if I am wrong on this,but I think it is not used to treat tooth problems in chins anymore.Second she is probably sore and stressed from all the messing around in her mouth.Did the vet give you pain med for her? I also know most chins will require syringe feeding of Critical Care formula (vet should have it if you don't have it on hand already.Menagerie on this site can get it pretty quickly if you can't get it from vet)You can get by with crushed pellets moistened with a little water in the syringe until you actually get the Critical Care but it is vital to make sure she is eating so her gut flora/motility isn't slowed down.Call the person you adopted the girls from and maybe they can give you more guidance esp if she has had tooth work in the past.

 

[beige chin]

no he didn't give me pain meds for her, i was thinking the same thing (that it defiantly hurts) and how is she to drink out of her water bottle with hurting teeth? I have had major dental work done and it is never fun, i cant imagine drinking out of a water bottle like that after i have had work done...
The vet couldn't have been very savvy with chins. i don't know about other animals that he says he sees but he couldn't even figure out how to get a look at the molars. he tried to pry her mouth open & then to pull her cheek out of the way...
i contacted the person that i got them from right after i walked out of the vets office. She said that glory should be fine & learn to eat with her molars rather then her front teeth but she also told me to come here & see what you people say.
so do you think that she will defiantly require syringe feeding of Critical care? I will do that if i need to but i just do not know what to do! these are my first chins & i have had them for lass then a month.

 

[Chinmama]

Her mouth will be very sore, so she will probably not voluntarily eat on her own for a short time. Offer her hay and pellets, but also syringe feed her as much as you can until you see that she is eating well on her own.

If she stops eating it can cause her to go into stasis, which can be deadly. That's why you have to hand feed her until she can eat on her own. Until you can get Critical Care, pour water over a bit of pellets. Mash that up to a consistency that you can either feed her off of a spoon or stick, or add more water to syringe feed. You don't want it to be too watery that it squirts out like a spray. It needs to be thick but able to pass through the syringe.

 

[beige chin]

ok, i will do that! how many times each day should i feed her? where can i get the critical care???

 

[Godofgods]

im not sure if she still has it or not, but this thread was selling some. Posted in April :/

 

[Anna35]

I thought with chinchillas their teeth are suppose to be filed not clipped or am I mistaken and they are the same thing?

 

[tunes]

My chins like the Essentials for Life that Tanya sells more than they like the CC. I have both on hand and they like the EFL better. You need to feed it several times a day, generally 15 mL at a time, 4 times a day would be best to start.

As far as clipping, no, they should not be clipping the teeth they should be using a type of dental dremel on them. I also question this vets experience as he didn't bother to give any pain meds when most vets know that this procedure is fairly painful.

 

[Brittany]

when i got her i was told that she had spurs in her molars but he (the vet) said that her front teeth needed to be clipped & she will be better so he did it & now she cant touch her teeth together in the front

Once she is back on her feet I would find a vet who is knowledgeable on working with chinchilla teeth (they're not the same as rabbits). If this chin does have dental disease you should have x-rays and an thorough oral exam so that you'll know exactly what you're dealing with.

 

[beige chin]

I started feeding her pellet mush yesterday. She dosnt like it She will eat the liquid but anything that would get caught in a strainer she wont eat... I watered it down a little more but now i feel like she is getting too much water & not enough pellet nutrients. :Sigh: I don't know. Is there anything like baby formula or baby food that I can get for her? I will look into the critical care & essentials for life but im worried about how long it will take to get here...

 

[StevieP]

Call around to some vets offices in the morning to see if they carry Oxbow Critical Care.

 

[beige chin]

Call around to some vets offices in the morning to see if they carry Oxbow Critical Care.

Ok, i will do that

update: I fed glory some watered down pellet mush again and She ate a good amount!! :hug2: by the time she was done i could feel her tummy. Im very happy! but i do think that she is eating her normal pellets... She is sitting by her feeder and chewing on something. I have notesed her doing this several times. Is it possible that she is just chewing with her molars?

 

[melbur10]

weigh her, it's the only way you'll know if she's maintaining her weight and eating on her own.

 

[Chinmama]

Keep up with her weight, keep an eye on her poops, keep offering hay and pellets and keep hand feeding as much as she will take.

It's important for her to eat the mush and not just the liquid. You can try mixing in a wee bit of canned pumpkin (100% pumpkin, not the pie mix) or some blackstrap molasses. You can get the pumpkin at the grocery store. If you can't find the molasses at the grocery, I know they have it at Abbott Farms (intersection of Reidville Road and I-26 near Denny's). That's where I get mine.

I don't have any Critical Care in yet, but I hope to carry it soon. In the meantime, you can contact the forum member mentioned in a previous post (Menagerie) and she may be able to overnight it to you. You can also look into the Essentials for Life from Fuzzy's Kingdom. http://www.fuzzieskingdom.com/herbs/remedies/syringe-feeding.html She also has some good hand feeding tips on that page. She may be able to overnight to you too.

 

[beige chin]

Keep up with her weight, keep an eye on her poops, keep offering hay and pellets and keep hand feeding as much as she will take.

It's important for her to eat the mush and not just the liquid. You can try mixing in a wee bit of canned pumpkin (100% pumpkin, not the pie mix) or some blackstrap molasses. You can get the pumpkin at the grocery store. If you can't find the molasses at the grocery, I know they have it at Abbott Farms (intersection of Reidville Road and I-26 near Denny's). That's where I get mine.

I don't have any Critical Care in yet, but I hope to carry it soon. In the meantime, you can contact the forum member mentioned in a previous post (Menagerie) and she may be able to overnight it to you. You can also look into the Essentials for Life from Fuzzy's Kingdom. http://www.fuzzieskingdom.com/herbs/remedies/syringe-feeding.html She also has some good hand feeding tips on that page. She may be able to overnight to you too.

I have contacted menagerie but i haven't herd back :hmm:
I will go and get some pumpkin or molasses tonight and try that! I was thinking about mixing some sugar in with the mush but this is a much better idea!
She gets free access to hay and pellets all the time. She is in with her "sister" so that's not going to change but it does make it hard to monitor her poops. What are their poops suppose to look like? I have only had my chins for like 2 weeks so i don't really know. When i first got them they had very small dry poops but recently they have started producing poops that look like miniature cavy poop...
If i get her to eat the mush then is that ok or is the critical care better for her then mush?

 

[beige chin]

Ok i went to the store and got a can of just pumpkin. How much should i add to the mush & water mixture? I also got a jar of Sweet Potato baby food (we made sure it was just sweet potato & water. nothing else) to try her on also.
:update:
I just fed her about an hour ago (before i went to the store) and she ate about 14 ml (5 3ml syringe fulls minus about 1ml because of the solids that she didn't eat).

 

[beige chin]

for anybody that cares
:update:
She didn't want to be fed yesterday so she must be eating on her own! yay, The Pumpkin must have encouraged her to eat

 

[smhluvsmh]

Awesome news! Eating on her own is great. Keep up with her weight and an eye on the poop,

 

[Cuddlebug]

Keep track of her weight. If she is loosing weight, she is not eating enough and needs to be forced to eat.

 

[Godofgods]

Hope your chinnies doing better!