Wet?

[LillyChu]

Hello everyone,

My chinchilla has a tumor next to his lungs, which makes it hard for him to eat normal food, thus I need to hand feed him with a syringe..
Currently I am feeding him Critical Care from Oxbow and Recovery from Science Selective.
I have been doing that for a month now and it's going pretty well, this is basically his only chance at survival and I do not want to take his life away, because he is still very active and is so far enjoying his time.

Now something that I have noticed, is that whenever he yawns I can see a lot of wetness in his mouth, but since a few days I have also noticed that his hammock is wet at the edges where he is laying with his head and earlier today I also noticed wetness under his chin and 1 of his front arms..
He is currently housed together with another chinchilla, but considering the places I don't think it's from the other one..
Any ideas of what it might be? [It doesn't seem like it's bothering him, but it's not normal either..]

I give him dust baths more often now aswell, because sometime some of the liquid food gets in his fur, and now also this happening..

Much love.

 

[Amethyst]

It sounds like he is drooling, which would indicate a tooth or mouth problem, has his teeth been checked recently, including x-rays? Does he eat anything on his own and does he chew on toys at all still? If he isn't chewing on hay his molars could be becoming over grown, and if he is still eating hay he could have gotten something stuck in his teeth or scraped his cheek (though normally that is accompanied by pawing at his mouth). If he isn't chewing on toys his insisors could be getting too long, but you would normally see that while hand feeding. Another possiblity is he bit his cheek, not uncommon during hand feeding since they sometimes try to chew and with just mush they can accidentally bite their cheek and cause a sore.

 

[LillyChu]

It sounds like he is drooling, which would indicate a tooth or mouth problem, has his teeth been checked recently, including x-rays? Does he eat anything on his own and does he chew on toys at all still? If he isn't chewing on hay his molars could be becoming over grown, and if he is still eating hay he could have gotten something stuck in his teeth or scraped his cheek (though normally that is accompanied by pawing at his mouth). If he isn't chewing on toys his insisors could be getting too long, but you would normally see that while hand feeding. Another possiblity is he bit his cheek, not uncommon during hand feeding since they sometimes try to chew and with just mush they can accidentally bite their cheek and cause a sore.

Thank you so much for the reply! The time I found out about his tumor he got an x-ray and they also checked his teeth on top of that, so everything was fine.
He indeed does not eat on his own, maybe a kibble or 1 strand of hay once in a while, but that's about it..

Also noticed today that it isn't as bad as it was the past few days, he also has been way more 'aggressive' towards the syringe, so I think it's for sure a possibility that he bit his cheek.