Dental Disease - What can be done? Teeth Removal Possible? (Xray pictures enclosed)

[rodneyc8063]

My chin for the past 6 months or so has been battling issues with her right eye. It went from an abcess (that we drained for a month) on the top of the eye, to a bulging eye (that got better for a short time), to a corneal ulcer that is also bulging her eye currently. Her ulcer now after about 1.5 weeks finally seems to be a tiny bit better, but her eye still looks inflamed and red.

Initially our first vet advised us that after all this, it was time to consider removing the eye. The vet up to this point had done no xrays even though I had suggested it earlier, and I was a bit dissatisfied so decided to seek out a second opinion.

Our second vet consulted with us and advised that he fears that there may be some dental issues lingering, even though we are just seeing issues with the eye. My chin just went in to do Xrays and oral endoscopy this past Thursday. Blood was also attempted, but apparently there was some difficulty, and given the results of the xrays my vet didnt feel doing blood work would add much more value.

Yesterday, I got an email from the vet tech with the xrays and test results.......The vet informed us of the following (removed extra text)

A specialist on my Vet chat line confirmed that the right upper cheek tooth 4 (the back tooth) caused the periapical (retrobulbar) abscess. They also mentioned that all of her teeth have elongated clinical crowns. This means that she has acquired dental disease. Unfortunately this cannot be permanently fixed. We just have to manage when clinical flare ups occur.

We could try another antibiotic that maybe is a little better with anaerobic bacteria (frequently present with these types of abscesses). But as we have talked about penetration into the abscess by the bacteria is difficult.

Let me know if you would like to try a different antibiotic.

I will need to get in touch with my vet to discuss further, but a few things of course are alarming to me and I was really hoping for insight and help - Please pardon the jumble of thoughts

-If this was an isolated eye/abscess issue then I would be prepared to remove the eye, so they can go in and fix whats going on behind the eye and remove the abscess - Then life would be all good again.

-But after getting the results of the xrays and as per the vet tech - if the back tooth was the cause of the abscess - Would this mean we would have to remove BOTH the eye (to clean things out and the abscess) AND also that back tooth?

As I would think if that back tooth is the real issue, even if we remove the eye and clean it out that back tooth is just going to cause another abscess in the empty eye socket down the road and more pain.

-Going with this train of thought of removing teeth, is removing teeth in a chinchilla even possible?

I have been doing research and was able to find a few loose articles that says tooth removal is possible. There was even two articles that mention that some chinchillas can have ALL their cheek teeth removed and still do perfectly fine

Dental Problems | Arizona Exotics | -Chinchillas Resources
Cheek Tooth Abnormalities in Chinchillas - Symptoms, Causes, Diagnosis, Treatment, Recovery, Management, Cost
Dental Disease in Rabbits, Guinea Pigs, and Chinchillas - Animal House of Chicago

So one of my main concerns with removing teeth is, given the fact that a chinchillas teeth is constantly growing - I would assume that if you remove a tooth, you would also need to remove a SECOND tooth - The opposing one on the opposite side of the jaw - In order to prevent the opposing tooth to grow and not have anything to grind against.

Also, Im supremely worried that if we remove a tooth the rest of the teeth may become mis-aligned and cause a domino effect of teeth issues.

I have been doing a lot of research on malocclusion in a chinchilla and have a rough idea of it. From what I understand it sounds like if there is ROOT elongation, then the outcome is usually fatal and the path is clear.

So the saving grace in our xray results is that it does not mention root elongation, but it mentions elongated clinical CROWNS.

Every article that I have read says the prognosis ranges from "manageable" for the life of the chin to potentially being fatal.

My chin is still eating her pellets, hay and also drinking water on her own. Her weight has dropped a tiny bit (30 days ago it was at 590, now its about 583 ish), but otherwise she seems to be holding on for her weight. Her poops also are a bit here and there but generally ok.

She does seem a bit "down" and doesnt really want to play much, but I can understand why. But other then her bulging eye/corneal ulcer she appears physically perfectly normal. No slobbers, drools, no apparent difficulty eating though she is a bit pickier.

So having said all this.....and I am quite sad to have to ask this question......but is there anything else we can do to help our chin? Or does this mean no matter what we do, its just going to cause more suffering?

I dont think its her time yet, given shes still eating/drinking etc just fine. But I am just trying to prepare myself if her time is coming near, or is there something we can do to fix all this - Or more accurately, can we at least manage all this?

I dont want to spend the time, effort and suffering to remove an eye, or a tooth or teeth and it would just cause her more suffering.

If you read this far, I TRUELY appreciate it and would value all feedback and insight.

Attaching xrays below for reference - Are her roots ok?

 

[Amethyst]

The only personal experience on the tooth removal I have is, it went very badly for one of my chins. This was almost 20 years ago so they may have figured something better out since, but he had one tooth removed, it got badly infected even with antibiotics and they had to put a drain in, he never recovered and had to be put down 2 weeks later. I know, not the info you want to hear, but I do know others have had better luck with having teeth removed but it does require care for the rest of the chin's life and you are only buying a bit more time. As you figured you would either need to remove the opposite tooth as well, or more commonly, have the tooth trimmed regularly since it wont have the ability to wear down anymore. Chins teeth are not set in sockets like they are in humans and other animals, so if you remove any of the teeth the rest do shift around to try to fill the gap, making the teeth more misaligned. There have been cases of the vet removing all the chins teeth, but the risk of infection and/or breaking the jaw is very high, the jaw bone is very thin, and if they break the jaw that's normally it for the chin. It's more of a last ditch effort for a chin that would otherwise need to be put down, if it survives great, if it doesn't it would have had to be put down anyway. I think chins that survive the full tooth extraction and recovery can live an ok life. I doubt they could chew pellets or hay anymore though and would likely need soft food for the rest of their life.

I'm no good at reading x-rays so hopefully someone else can, but if it is just the crowns they can be trimmed regularly to manage the growth. How long it will give you depends on a lot of factors (how fast your chin's teeth grow, if they are able to go back to chewing hay, stuff like that), some people have gotten years out of doing regular trimmings, others only a few weeks. If you are only having to go 2-3 times a year and the chin is back to normal fairly quickly in between trimmings I think you have time. If however once the time between trimming is down to just weeks and/or the chin is not going back to normal quickly it's time to think about quality of life. Once you have root elongation though, it's time to get ready to say goodbye, you can't trim the roots so the chin will likely be in constant pain.