12 year old chin losing weight consistently. Need advice!

Hi all,

I desperately need advice on what might be wrong with my gal - Faith.

Faith started drooling in late Nov 2014 and was sent to a very experience vet for teeth filing. Vet commented that the teeth aren't that bad, just 2 spurs to remove. After the visit till now, she still drools badly on certain days and is ok on some days. She has since been eating minimal hay and doesn't appear to eat much pellets.

I have been handfeeding her critical care mixed with grounded AK pellets (more than 1 tablespoon of AK pellets) each day. However, she is still losing weight, nothing seems to stay on her.. I weigh her everyday, she is consistently dropping a couple of grams each day, and within a day, she can be 490g at 6am and drop to 470g at 10pm. She was about 560g last Nov and about 470g now.

Other than the consistent drop in weight, she is otherwise totally normal, very enthusiastic during her feed (finishing about 20g of thick paste-like pellets/critical care when being fed), poo size is normal, runs around, play as usual, asked to be scratch, willing to take Vitakraft Nibble Rings (which is definitely harder than the AK pellets) etc.

My vet has been closely monitoring her teeth using this 'scope' that she puts into Faith's mouth. There is no bleeding or cuts on Faith's tongue or side of mouth, nothing to suggest that there is a teeth issue. So we are uncomfortable about putting her through a GA to examine her teeth. My vet and I are totally clueless of what might be wrong.

Any advice is greatly appreciate. If anyone has similar experience, pls kindly share if you had a diagnosis of what was wrong with your chin.

Thank you.


best regards,
Juan

Have any radiographs been taken to check the condition of the roots of the teeth? No amount of filing will help if the roots are elongated. Anytime teeth issues are present a chin should undergo dental x-rays to check the status of the roots.

Has she ever been put under to examine the entire mouth or were the teeth just clipped while she was awake?

No radiograph was taken. I understand that if the roots are elongated, there is nothing much we can do and the only help we can offer is in pain management. :/

She was put under to examine the entire mouth by a vet experienced in chinchilla.

Yeah, but an x-ray could help you either confirm elongation, or rule it out so you could further investigate the problem....

it's possible the weight loss could be due to something else. Does she have any other symptoms?