Mac has stinky breath...why?

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Linzizzlejo

Linzizzlejo

i love my chinzillas
Joined
Aug 4, 2011
Messages
42
Location
Minnesota
Hey my chinchie has stinky breath... I know this because he is mean and barks alot at me, and when he does that a whooole cloud of bad breath comes out. I took him to the vet Monday for a checkup, the vet saw some sort of mass in the cheek, so today I took him back and got him anesthetized (poor little guy :( ) and the xrays show that he has perfect teeth, no masses in cheeks, and she even looked into the stomach and saw nothing wrong there. The gas bubbles were evenly distributed.

Any ideas on why he has bad breath?
 
Periodontal disease can cause bad breath, if the vet is not well versed in chinchilla dentistry they will not do a perio probing looking for pus pockets and food debris under the gums. Perio in its early to moderate stages will not show up on a x-ray yet, as the disease progresses bone loss around the teeth will show up along with loose teeth and abscesses.
 
She took a camera into his mouth and we looked up and down his mouth and behind teeth and everything looked okay
 
What exactly did it smell like? When a chin is very ill, there is sometimes an odor given off from burning ketones (ketosis). Basically it is the result of a chin not eating for a while for whatever physical reason and the body starts to burn fat instead of sugar. It smells like acetone (sort of sickly sweet) and very strong.
 
If it was a smell like that then I would suspect a blockage in the intestine - that should have shown up on x-ray. He would have had decreased appetite and little or no droppings as well.
 
Linzizzlejo said:
She took a camera into his mouth and we looked up and down his mouth and behind teeth and everything looked okay
Click to expand...

Periodontal disease is diagnosed while the chinchilla is put under and a perio probe is used to probe under the gum-front, back, inside and outside-the vet looks for pus or blood, food or wood impaction. The only way on a chinchilla a good oral exam is done is while put under-the otoscope which you describe is not great, it only gives the vet the bare bones info such as if the chin has sever malo or caries.
 
i've read that liver issues can cause bad breath in chins.

i would suggest going and getting a second opinion at a more chin competent vet.
 
Oh, he was put completely under today at the vet while she used the camera to look around. The first day on monday she used just an othoscope.

She did a full body xray and looked at all the organs and didn't see anything bad.
 
If she only used the camera and did not do a perio exam then the chin was not fully checked over to diagnose the bad breath. Bad breath is serious, it means infection or metabolic disorder in most cases and should have not been fluffed off, I would have also asked for a blood panel to check for infection and liver operation.
 
Oh they wanted me to do a blood test but I couldnt' afford it..not right now. The total vet visits for two days this week was like $300.
 
I hope your chin is ok :(

And I agree, $300 was cheap for 2 visits to the vets for an exotic animal.
 
Are you sure the smell is coming from your chinchilla's mouth?
Is the smell like burnt almonds or beef crisps/chips? Chinchillas release a pungent smell from their anal glands when scared or really annoyed - could it be this that your chinchilla is doing since you describe him as being 'mean & barks a lot'?
 
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