Fur chewing - not eating hay

[Lolabear]

Hi all,

I hope everyone is well today! I have a few concerns that I just wanted to get advice on how to handle. Our chinchilla, Lola, needed to be taken in for her yearly teeth filing. Lola has always been extremely sensitive to mouth pain (needed to be taken in for one very small tooth point in the past). We returned from the doctor (three weeks ago) with met cam, critical care, the usual. We realized the day before we brought her in she began chewing the fur on her arm. I assume this is due to stress of the situation. However now she has pulled all the fur out of her left arm and is completely bald there. To stop this I have increased her out of cage time to try to get her mind off of it. Most of the time she puts herself back in the cage (she never used to do this).

Since her return she is eating her hard oxbow pellets happily after a week of syringe feeding (she loves syringe feeding), but refuses to chew hay (have bought her three different flavors of approved oxbow for her) as well as any toy we bring her. I am worried that at this point her teeth will get pointy sooner than later since she isn't wearing them down.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I half want to take her back in for a mouth inspection. But would hate to put her through the stress as she is pooping fine, very spry, drinking water and eating pellets.

Thank you so much! :grouphug:

 

[Amethyst]

It sounds like the roots are getting too long, assuming they checked to make sure there was no sores, tooth spurs, cracks or anything stuck in the teeth when they filed the teeth. As I hope you know both the roots and teeth grow, filing the crowns doesn't help the root growth, it may slow it but that's it. Basically once you get to the point of needing regular filing you are just prolongs the inevitable, eventually the chin will have to be put down. The chin will stop chewing and will need more frequent filings, and eventually even eating will be too painful. You didn't mention, when was the last x-rays taken? It may be time for new ones to see how much root involvement there is. Or if you haven't had x-rays done I strongly advise you to do so.

Generally chins don't chew the fur off their arms it's that the fur gets wet and falls out due to the chin drooling and using the front paws to wipe it's mouth. Chins drool when they have mouth pain. The pellets may seem hard to us, but remember that chins can chew rocks, so they are actually pretty soft, they do nothing to wear down teeth. Hay and chew toys on the other hand are hard, and with hay, require grinding and chewing more, which can hurt of the roots are poking through the jaw or into the skull.

 

[Lolabear]

Thank you so much for your response. I will probably take her to get an xray then it has been a while. She has only needed one filing a year so I am not to the point that you are talking about where I am constantly taking her in to have this taken care of, Thankfully!

As for the drool she is most definitely pulling the fur out. I watch as she tugs and pull the fur until it comes out. she has a very specific bare patch on one arm.