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Chubi32

Chubi32

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 26, 2009
Messages
173
Location
New Jersey
Alright- so for the last 8 months my female chinchilla Claudia has had a pretty much constant eye infection in her right eye. I've taken her to two different vets and altogether had 3 or 4 different medicines. The medicines would clear the infection but it would come back within a few days of stopping the medicine. I've had drops, gel/cream, and oral medication. So finally today I took her in to get X rays. The vet said that she thinks that there is a root elongation but she is not positive so she is sending the X Rays out to a Veterinary Dentist in California and I think a couple other vets to get other opinions. She burned me a disc with the X Rays and I'm going to try and upload them on here to get your guys opinions as well. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Also, if it is a root elongation what can be done from here?

Thank You
 

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hmmm. those roots do look a tad long to me. I am only going by the x rays i had of tilly versus a healthy chin. What vet did you go to? I am also in your area.
 
From my not-yet-a-vet opinion, it doesn't look good. I definitely would say there is root elongation and on top of that it looks like some of her molars are longer than the others. There should be a pretty straight line where she grinds her food.

With root elongation, there isn't much you can do - we've lost a few ourselves from that.
With just uneven molars you could go the dentistry route, but it can be a long, tiring, stressful ordeal, and it will never be 'cured'.
 
Oh man :(

Tillygizmo I go to Dr. Goode in Marlton, NJ.

Sycamore Chins: Thank you for the link to the normal chin X Ray and you said that there should be an even line where she grinds her teeth- does that mean like inside her mouth where she chews or up inside her mouth where her roots are? Dr. Goode said she looked inside her mouth and it didn't look like she was having any problems from that angle- no food stuck in her teeth or any points or anything like that.

Does anyone have any idea how far along this is? Like do you think she's in pain yet? I have seen Claudia paw at her mouth a couple times and she's not too interested in chew toys. She does eat her food and has seemed to stay at the 580s weight range though she was dropping weight a while back but I was linking that with the birth of Rascal.
 
Here I drew some lines. She isn't completely on her side so it's not perfect, but you can get the idea. The inside of her mouth (the crowns) should be a straight line. It doesn't look completely awful on the inside, but if you look closely the molars don't look entirely straight - the second one from the front especially looks like the crown is curved forward.

I couldn't tell you whether she is in pain or not, it doesn't look too advanced, you can find some really awful pictures out there. But root elongation is probably the most difficult type of dental disease to handle because there isn't much you can do.
 

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I would say its mild lower, moderate upper. How old is she? 30% statistically of all pet chinchillas according to Dr. Crossley, a well known vet who is a expert on chin teeth, have elongation. In your chins case, the upper tooth could have blocked the lacrimal drain (tear duct drain) hense the constant infection. In her case to keep her happy treat the eye infection again with the oral and occular antibiotics until cleared up and she will need occular eye drops "forever" daily. You will need to keep track of her weight, do it almost daily, at least weekly. She should have a oral exam under gas now to get a "lay of the land" inside-the teeth are dynamic especially if they are elongating so malo if its not present now can show up within months, if not weeks.


She needs to grind teeth-find a hay she really likes even if its alfalfa. They extra calcium in alfalfa along with supplementing Vit C has showed inprovment in anecdotal evidence, AKA seen with my own eyes and that information has also been given to me by CAchins rescue.


If she does malocclude also then quality of life will need to be discussed, since malo and elongation is fatal.
 
Ahh I see. Thank You Sycamore Chins. I believe Claudia is about 7 or 8 years old but am not positive. And Ticklechin I understood everything you said except this statement: "She should have a oral exam under gas now to get a "lay of the land" inside-the teeth are dynamic especially if they are elongating so malo if its not present now can show up within months, if not weeks." I went today and got some Orchard Grass Hay and I have Vitamin C tablets.. should I start giving her them? If so how often and a half or a whole tablet?
 
To be honest, if she is that old I would not worry too much with that degree of elongation. What I mean is when a chin is diagnosed with elongation there is a good chance of malocclusion happening when the "teeth are on the move", meaning growing up and down, a vet can look at a chins mouth one month and find a completely different situation a couple of months later. I bet your vet is sending your x-rays to my vet dentist Dr. Beers, she is our chin teeth expert in CA.

I prefer chins to be supplemented with Rose Hips for Vit C rather than tabs. You cannot overdose Vit C like you can other vitamins, what is not used is passed out of the body with the urine. A rose hip is approx 500-1000 mg so one a day as a treat is good. Give her hay she will eat, try to find chew things she really likes and keep a eye on the weight.
 
Ticklechin - I believe you are right. Janice (Dr Goode) knows about Dr. Beers so I bet that is where she will be sending the x-rays. I use chewable vit c all the time with my chins - seems to work pretty well - Knock on wood. I would go with all of what Ticklechin said
 
I am so grateful that I can take my chins to Dr. Beers, she is the best vet ever. She will come out after every appointment, go over every single thing she found, tells you how you are doing as far as caring for dental chin, she will also tell you when its "time" and takes as much time as you need when asking questions.
 
I have heard from several sources that Dr. Beers is the best. I also heard she will help any vet she can with chin teeth problems (talking for hours on the phone to them) It warms the heart to know that there are such dedicated vets around. Dr. Goode is another very dedicated vet.
 
Alright- thanks for all your help guys. I'm going to get some more rosehips to give to her and hopefully she likes the new hay. So you don't think I'll have to put her down? Not yet atleast? I don't know about Dr. Beers but I know Dr. Goode is great vet- she seems to really care about the animals she sees. Hopefully Dr. Beers is the one looking at the X Rays as well.
 
IMO, no. Until you start seeing other symptoms such as drooling, when she stops being a chin and doing all the chinnie things she likes to do, when you see lethargy, hunching, hiding in her hidey house, refuses to eat or be hand fed, stops drinking, or if she does malocclude. If she is diagnosed with the moderate elongation, you can try long term pain managment with something like metecam or tramadol along with famotidine, discuss it with the vet, it would give her a better quality of life without too much trouble.
 
:(
Lisa--dr Goode is familiar with the tramadol & famotidine treatment as that is what she has richie on. I also give richie alfalfa hay & it's the only kind he will eat, lifeline, & sometimes he nibbles on willow wood, which is softer than apple. I also use ground rosehip powder or I just grind up the crushed ones. Maybe you can mix a little with water & syringe it when she gets her other meds. I hope she will be ok for a while, she needs to take care of her crazy little baby!
 
Okay whew- I was getting worried there for a little bit. And okay thanks- next time I'll try alfalfa hay. One of the girls in there really liked the Orchard Grass last night (it's almost all gone this morning)- it was probably Rascal though because when I watched them for a minute after I fed them it was her who went for it. I gave Claudia a whole rosehip last night and she ate it happily although I kept having to hand her the pieces of it when she dropped it (she's missing almost all her fingers on one foot) otherwise though everything is same as normal. I will post when I hear from Dr. Goode and what she has recommended.
 
Okay so it's been two months since we've taken Claudia to the vet and gotten the X Rays. She's maintained a weight anywhere between the 570s and 580s and seems to be acting fine. The problem is though that I have yet to get an answer from Dr. Goode as to what to do.. I've texted her a couple time asking if she's heard anything from the other vets and she's responded saying no not yet and she's going to try and get ahold of them, etc. I'm not doubting her or saying that she's not doing her job but what do you guys think I should do in the meantime about Claudias eye? I have some left over eye gel (Vetrachloracin) that I give her on occasion but she absolutely hates it and I'm not really sure if it's a good thing to give long term or what? Anyways any advice would be appreciated.
 
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