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Post by garfieldette on Jul 20, 2015 0:08:04 GMT
Hi
I have had my girls for a week. The one girl I have been calling cheeks as she always has black marks on her cheeks. During the week I saw that she also had black patches on her rear hips (she is a standard agouti). I thought I might have disturbed her half way through grooming herself and the black patch was just where she was wet from grooming.
I went to feed them tonight and she was right at the front by the bars. Having a good look at her I saw that her chin is completely bald. The skin is not red or flaky but the surrounding fur does seem to look wet.
She is eating with vigour, in fact she gets quite aggressive with the others if they come near her when she is eating. She is still very active and shows no other signs of illness.
They have had quite a disruptive week, changing home, changing food, being introduced to lots of different dried forage and oil seeds, change of bedding etc. They had their first fresh food this week with beech leaves, apple leaves and today they got a fresh mallow flower each.
Im mentioning all this in case it might be a reaction to any of the above.
My first thought was dental issues, but she is showing no signs of problems eating.
Ive only had them a week!
Should I be worried?
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Post by jamiee on Jul 20, 2015 7:06:27 GMT
There may be other causes, but it could be that Cheeks is fur pulling. Degus usually do this due to stress. Considering that they have just moved cages, been introduced to new people, and a new home, and had their food changed, Cheeks may be under a bit of stress. When introducing them to foods, always try to do it slowly, with little bits at a time, then slowly mix it with old foods or diets. Hope this helps and that they calm down once they have settled in.
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Post by yasmin on Jul 20, 2015 16:59:26 GMT
Welcome to the forum, garfieldette.  Do you have any idea how old your degus are? If they are 3 years or more, then I would definitely recommend that she be brought to a vet to have her teeth checked because the wetness in indicative of drooling and the baldness could be caused by her pawing at her mouth. (My degu Sean had a spur that had completely grown over his tongue, trapping it, but he continued to eat.) Not sure what the wetness on her hips might be. What is her name? How many degus do you have? Are you sure they are all female? |
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Post by moletteuk on Jul 20, 2015 17:02:29 GMT
How old is she and where did you get them from? It's the wetness around the mouth that is concerning as this implies she is drooling. If they are very young it is unlikely to be a dental problem unless it is something she has been born with (if she is full grown then a dental issue is likely). We did have a case very recently of a young degu coming from Pets @ Home with some kind of moulth ulcers, I think, so if this seems possible to you then get her to a vet. If you are new to degus, check out our vet list deguworld.proboards.com/thread/15521/vet-guide?page=1 it's worth trying to find an experienced vet so ring round if you need to. |
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Post by garfieldette on Jul 20, 2015 18:16:22 GMT
Welcome to the forum, garfieldette. Do you have any idea how old your degus are? If they are 3 years or more, then I would definitely recommend that she be brought to a vet to have her teeth checked because the wetness in indicative of drooling and the baldness could be caused by her pawing at her mouth. (My degu Sean had a spur that had completely grown over his tongue, trapping it, but he continued to eat.) Not sure what the wetness on her hips might be. What is her name? How many degus do you have? Are you sure they are all female? Hi Yasmin, thank you for the reply. I got them from Pets at Home last weekend. They are roughly 16-20 weeks old. I haven't had a chance to register them with my vet yet, but the guy working at that store kept degus himself and I got him to check them for me before I took them home to confirm they were girls. |
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Post by moletteuk on Jul 20, 2015 18:23:43 GMT
Pets at home should cover the cost of a vet visit and treatment for degus purchased so recently. Try to get them to agree you see your usual vet rather than a PAH vet.
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Post by garfieldette on Jul 20, 2015 18:30:51 GMT
How old is she and where did you get them from? It's the wetness around the mouth that is concerning as this implies she is drooling. If they are very young it is unlikely to be a dental problem unless it is something she has been born with (if she is full grown then a dental issue is likely). We did have a case very recently of a young degu coming from Pets @ Home with some kind of moulth ulcers, I think, so if this seems possible to you then get her to a vet. If you are new to degus, check out our vet list deguworld.proboards.com/thread/15521/vet-guide?page=1 it's worth trying to find an experienced vet so ring round if you need to. Hi Molette Thank you for your reply.
I knew getting them from Pets at Home was going to bite me in the ass! I usually always rescue but after a bad experience last year with two rescue rabbits I wanted to get young degus and couldn't find any locally from rescue.
I got them last weekend, from Pets at Home, they are roughly 16-20 weeks old. I haven't had a chance to register them with my vet yet. She specialises in guinea pigs and rabbits and has looked after my dental guinea pig for the last 18 months, but will call in the morning to see if she can recommend a vet who knows about degus. I was hoping to give her time to read up before we needed her!
Questions:
Regarding the dark patches Ive seen on cheeks, do degus wet groom? (ie lick themselves to clean like a cat does). The dark patch I have seen on her hip seems to come and go like its wet then dries.
When taking her to the vet, do I need to take all of them together, will they fall out if I only take her like rabbits do?
If its hurting her to eat, is there anything soft I can give her tonight to eat instead? All there food is hard and crunchy.
If mouth ulcers, do you know what the recommended treatment was so I can tell the vet that?
Sorry for all the questions, wasn't expecting to have to deal with this so soon.
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Post by moletteuk on Jul 20, 2015 19:21:08 GMT
Degus don't wet groom, there shouldn't be any wet patches on the fur at all. I can't think of any explanation for the wet patches on the hips...you don't have a dodgy water bottle or anything like that, have they been sitting on a patch of wee? When you say wet patches on the cheeks, is it above the mouth or below? If it's above the mouth it could be coming from the eyes, do her eyes look ok?
You can give veg based baby food, or moisten some of her ordinary food, but she may prefer to crunch away as normal.
It's a judgement call as to whether to take her alone or as a group. It depends how difficult the journey is, how good your carrier is, how stable the group is. If you do take her alone, you can sandbath everyone before you put them back together to help make her smell right again.
I can't find the thread I mentioned, but I think the ulcers cleared up with antibiotics, it was some kind of infection. I'll post the link if I can turn it up, it was definitely in the last 6 months.
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Post by moletteuk on Jul 20, 2015 19:27:20 GMT
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Post by garfieldette on Jul 20, 2015 20:30:02 GMT
Degus don't wet groom, there shouldn't be any wet patches on the fur at all. I can't think of any explanation for the wet patches on the hips...you don't have a dodgy water bottle or anything like that, have they been sitting on a patch of wee? When you say wet patches on the cheeks, is it above the mouth or below? If it's above the mouth it could be coming from the eyes, do her eyes look ok? You can give veg based baby food, or moisten some of her ordinary food, but she may prefer to crunch away as normal. It's a judgement call as to whether to take her alone or as a group. It depends how difficult the journey is, how good your carrier is, how stable the group is. If you do take her alone, you can sandbath everyone before you put them back together to help make her smell right again. I can't find the thread I mentioned, but I think the ulcers cleared up with antibiotics, it was some kind of infection. I'll post the link if I can turn it up, it was definitely in the last 6 months. Hi
Sorry for the basic questions but if they don't wet groom, do they groom themselves with their teeth still? If the answer is no then I may have a different problem as I have just watched her stood on her back legs using her teeth to groom her belly.
Her cheeks have been dark since I brought them home, that's how I recognise her from her sisters. The best way to describe placement is its like a bad 80's sculpted blusher job, dark from level with her mouth up to the cheekbone and up to the ear in a triangle. Her eyes look fine.
I was thinking of soft food as if her mouth is sore it might hurt to have hard scratchy food and I don't want her losing weight if she is struggling to eat. She has just had a fresh mallow flower and ate it all up.
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Post by moletteuk on Jul 21, 2015 13:27:51 GMT
Oh yes, they groom with their teeth, they normally spend a reasonable amount of time grooming themselves and each other, normally before they settle down for a rest. In particular they groom each other around the face because they obviously can't reach to do their own face. They do groom with their feet too. Post a photo if you like, but I would just go ahead with the vet trip anyway since it shouldn't cost anything. Do be aware that it can be tricky to get a proper look in a degu's mouth and gas sedation is often needed to do a full examination and sometimes you need to push the vet to do this. Don't worry about asking questions here, there are no silly questions about degus |
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Post by garfieldette on Jul 21, 2015 15:45:46 GMT
Oh yes, they groom with their teeth, they normally spend a reasonable amount of time grooming themselves and each other, normally before they settle down for a rest. In particular they groom each other around the face because they obviously can't reach to do their own face. They do groom with their feet too. Post a photo if you like, but I would just go ahead with the vet trip anyway since it shouldn't cost anything. Do be aware that it can be tricky to get a proper look in a degu's mouth and gas sedation is often needed to do a full examination and sometimes you need to push the vet to do this. Don't worry about asking questions here, there are no silly questions about degus Thank you mollete.
Ive just taken them to see my vet. It was fun trying to get them all in the travel case but managed it in the end.
My vet has had a look and wants to sedate her to have a proper look in her mouth. She cant do that till 5pm so I have had to leave them there for now and she will call me when they are done.
Heres hoping its something simple to fix. Will update you when I know more.
Thank you for all your help.
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Post by garfieldette on Jul 21, 2015 17:42:10 GMT
So I am back from the vets.
Once sedated, they could get a good look in her mouth. She has a severely ulcerated tongue. My vets opinion is that this has been caused by damage rather than a viral infection. She suggested it looked like she had licked up disinfectant or a chemical maybe used to clean. She feels that since Cheeks has had black cheeks since I had her that this occurred at Pets at Home rather than since I have had them. She is happy to put this in writing if I have any issues with Pets at Home.
I have been sent home with a weeks worth of metacam and Sceptrin and Cheeks has already had a metacam injection and it looking so much happier already.
I read a post on here about a member putting the medicine on an oat so they could then hand feed the right degu so I am going to try that method.
Tomorrow I will be making sure Pets at Home pay for this and any treatment going forward.
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Post by moletteuk on Jul 21, 2015 18:23:03 GMT
Poor Cheeks, that sounds sore  At least she has found a good home now and should respond well to treatment and hopefully should not have any long term issues. You can try various foods to get the medication into her, a piece of mini shredded wheat, a few oats, or a slice of nut or pea flake, or mixed with a little peanut butter, any favourite or strong smelling item can work. If you can, as part of your claim with PAH, I think it would be good to try to make sure that head office know about this, particularly as you are the second ulcerated mouth case we have had and they acknowledged other cases to our other forum member. |
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Post by deguconvert on Jul 28, 2015 20:47:06 GMT
What the heck did she get access to at the pet store? That sounds so awful for her! Poor little love!
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bald chin
Aug 20, 2015 20:50:43 GMT
via mobile
Post by animalmadchloe on Aug 20, 2015 20:50:43 GMT
Omg juat had a read through this post how awful at least she is I. Safe hands now poor little mite xx
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At least she has found a good home now and should respond well to treatment and hopefully should not have any long term issues.
