P
Pae
Guest
Our six year old chinchilla, Kimchi, started drooling about 3 weeks ago. We took her to our exotics vet who removed a small spur from her teeth. When she continued to drool and stopped eating altogether after 2 days, we brought her back. The vet put her under general anaesthesia and did a thorough oral exam, took x-rays and drew blood for blood work.
The results:
Oral exam--The vet found a few more small spurs which she removed. She also noted a slightly dark circle around one of the molars which was suggestive of tooth decay/necrosis. There were no sores or inflammation in the mouth.
Blood work--The findings revealed slight elevations in ALT and a slightly reduced white blood count. She said they were so slight that she would have discounted them if Kimchi was otherwise healthy; however, under the conditions, they are suggestive of a possible infection.
X-rays--I spoke to both vets about these. They explained them to me by comparing to normal x-rays. Even to my untrained eye, I could see abnormal root growth virtually throughout the mouth, except for the incisors. However, both vets stressed that the abnormalities were subtle. One thought they were sufficient to possibly cause some pain/discomfort while the other did not.
We waited for a few days after the second visit to see if the removal of the spurs would lead to an improvement. When it did not, we started Kimchi on Metacam. Throughout this time, we have been feeding her Critical Care which she accepts readily and she is holding her weight. She has been on Metacam for almost 2 weeks now and it led to an improvement in drooling and she perked up to almost her usual energy level but she is still unwilling to eat on her pellets and hay.
Going forward, our options are:
1. Continuing on Metacam (and Critical Care) indefinitely. We haven't discussed this with our vets so we don't know if this is a viable option. Does anyone have experience with long-term use of Metacam (or any other painkiller)?
2. Doing a trial of an antibiotic. This seems a bit of a shot in the dark to me but I would like to hear your opinions.
3. Tooth extraction. We don't know if we want to go down this road as there are abnormalities throughout the mouth. One of the vets think that the tooth showing signs of decay may be the main cause of the current problems...but then again, it might not be. Does anyone have any experience with extractions?
Thanks in advance for your help.
The results:
Oral exam--The vet found a few more small spurs which she removed. She also noted a slightly dark circle around one of the molars which was suggestive of tooth decay/necrosis. There were no sores or inflammation in the mouth.
Blood work--The findings revealed slight elevations in ALT and a slightly reduced white blood count. She said they were so slight that she would have discounted them if Kimchi was otherwise healthy; however, under the conditions, they are suggestive of a possible infection.
X-rays--I spoke to both vets about these. They explained them to me by comparing to normal x-rays. Even to my untrained eye, I could see abnormal root growth virtually throughout the mouth, except for the incisors. However, both vets stressed that the abnormalities were subtle. One thought they were sufficient to possibly cause some pain/discomfort while the other did not.
We waited for a few days after the second visit to see if the removal of the spurs would lead to an improvement. When it did not, we started Kimchi on Metacam. Throughout this time, we have been feeding her Critical Care which she accepts readily and she is holding her weight. She has been on Metacam for almost 2 weeks now and it led to an improvement in drooling and she perked up to almost her usual energy level but she is still unwilling to eat on her pellets and hay.
Going forward, our options are:
1. Continuing on Metacam (and Critical Care) indefinitely. We haven't discussed this with our vets so we don't know if this is a viable option. Does anyone have experience with long-term use of Metacam (or any other painkiller)?
2. Doing a trial of an antibiotic. This seems a bit of a shot in the dark to me but I would like to hear your opinions.
3. Tooth extraction. We don't know if we want to go down this road as there are abnormalities throughout the mouth. One of the vets think that the tooth showing signs of decay may be the main cause of the current problems...but then again, it might not be. Does anyone have any experience with extractions?
Thanks in advance for your help.
With Metacam, she is almost normal. She plays and she still eats treats, both hard (e.g. vitamin C) and soft (e.g. dried cranberries). She clearly has her appetite as she eagerly takes Critical Care but she only picks through her hay (she strews it all about so it's hard to see if or how much she is actually eating) and pecks at her pellets (she has eaten 6 gm this week to date), so there is evidently some residual pain/discomfort.
