Drooling

[Christi]

I received this email and am posting to get opinions/suggestions from you guys.

Sorry to bother you, I found your email address on a Chinchilla site. I have a three year old chinchilla who is drooling a lot today. I am aware of the growing teeth issue, but he has never drooled before so I thought everything was alright. He has a few blocks of wood, a small wooden bench, as well as a pumice stone. I thought he was well taken care of, but I guess I am wrong.

His whole chin and neck and front paws are soaked. There is no free water where he could have gotten wet in. He did not eat any of his food yesterday or today. There is no discharge from his eyes however.

I assume this is a result of the teeth, but how do I find a vet who knows what to do with a Chinchilla? Is there any other possible cause of this since it seems to have been suddenly, or have I just missed the signs until now? Right now he is liking my arm like he is trying to get salt or something... I don't know what to do...

[ChinchillaCrzy]

Definitely sounds like a malcussion to me. Tell them to get to a vet ASAP, because if they get the chin to the vet early on then the prognosis is good, but the longer she waits the less chances of the chin surviving. The only other thing I can think of it being is a foreign object caught in it's mouth, but then the chin would probably be pawing at its mouth. I know this didn't really help, but I wish I knew what else it could be. My thoughts and prayers are with them.

[Christi]

He took him to the vet who said his teeth were straight but for some reason his bottom ones were long so she filed them. I told him to give him plenty to chew on (he'd recently changed his schedule too) and get him off that crappy PetsMart food! LOL

[Jade]

Elvis did that when I moved him temporarily to a different cage. He was SOAKED. I couldn't figure out what it was, then I caught him chewing like crazy on the wires of the cage. (his normal cage is mostly wood) Stress can make them do funny things ...

[chinkeep]

Before I switched over to glass water bottles, I had one chin who would chew on the metal spout on the water bottle and soak her front. I was worried at first too about tooth problems, but then I caught her in the act one day. They will do crazy things.

[Jade]

Actually it turns out that's what Elvis was doing! I had to move him again and he was attacking his water bottle while in a wire cage! Soaked him chin to chest!

[Becki]

Silly chins! What a relief it must've been to figure out it was just from the water bottles though!