V shaped teeth

[butters]

One of my degus has very ugly teeth and I was wondering if it is a problem or not.
She eats well and she is actually one of our most healthy degus.

It's always been like this and the vet told us there isn't any problem.

[degualot]

Hi Butters, v-shaped teeth is quite a common thing we see in the Degu world unfortunately. It's usually the result of bad genetics, or more often the result of inbreeding.

I can tell from the picture that your Degu's teeth are very orange which is a good sign and means they are healthy. However sometimes problems can occur because of the teeth being out of alignment. You might notice uneven wear on the teeth meaning teeth may grow at different lengths which can cause problems with eating and it can be quite irritating for your Degu. It's just something to watch out for.

The fact that she eats well is a good sign, but may I ask, does she chew a lot of wood toys, and does she eat plenty of hay.I know you provide these things, but I just want to know, does she chew on them. The reason i'm asking, is because often Degu's with teeth problems don't want to eat hay and don't chew enough wood which leads to overgrowing. If there is no sign of drooling, and she isn't getting white discharge in her eyes, then this is a good sign that her teeth aren't bothering her. Also is she sneezing and rubbing her nose at all? just it can be an indication that her teeth are bothering her, this is because the teeth can push up onto the nasal cavity and cause irritation. However I must tell you it can also indicate many other things including allergies and respiratory infections.

Also because her teeth are this way, her back molars could also be overgrowing and misaligned and may cause problems later on or even as we speak. Has your vet did any X-rays? because this is really the only way to tell if she has problems with her other teeth which are not at the front.

bottom line, if she's eating her, food, plenty of hay and chewing lots of wood, then most likely she'll be ok. Just watch out for the other things I mentioned.

She looks a really cute girl by the way

[butters]

Thanks for your explanation, indeed it sounds like our girl Juno might have a dental issues

I don't think she eats a lot of hay, just some when it's fresh (but all our degus are not a big fans of hay) and they also don't chew on wood anymore.

Juno sneeze sometimes and she also rubbs her nose but no white "white" eyes or drooling.

It looks like we have to make an appointment by the vet

Here a better picture of Juno (right) and her sister Luna



I wrote that they don't eat much hay but what about other food? They eat degu mix food from JRfarm and it also contain pieces of grass and hard pellets. Is that not a good enough for their teeth?

Do you have an experiance with x-ray? Do the vet need to use anaesthesia?

[degualot]

Yes I actually have quite a bit experience with x-rays and such. I recently lost one of my Degus due to problems with teeth and the nasal cavity. Here is a link to the topic:

deguworld.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=health&action=display&thread=9671&page=1

Regarding JRfarm food, it's a really good expensive Degu food and is great for their diet but it is by no means a substitute for hay. Hay is very important to a Degus health. Especially for their teeth and if they are not even chewing wood that often, i don't want to frighten you but this is quite a serious issue.

What happened to my Degu Victor, the topic discussed in the link might not be the same as what's wrong with your Degus but there might be some information in there which is useful.

I'm sorry your having problems, hopefully it's not as serious as it sounds.

[Maravilla]

Butters, as you are from Germany, there are better options than JR Farm for you... at least you should mix it with different herbs, leaves and flowers, as well as seeds. Big advantage is that for us it is easy to buy all these things online.

[19Uhr30]

The V-Shape would not worry me as much as the positioning of the teeth. It looks like the degu only chews with his lower jaw moved to the left and that is why the incissors are wearing down irregularly.
There could be a problem with the molars that cause this jaw position. Has your vet checked those?

[butters]

@ degualot:
I'm very sorry for your loss I read your topic and i'm sure you did all you could for your degu Victor.
Three of my degus are not a big fans of eatting hay (they use it only to sleep in it and hide their toy in it ;D). How can i make them to eat more? Shall i give them less JRfarm?

@ maravilla:
We don't feed them just JRfarm. They also get herbs, leaves and flowers (we buy them in Fressnapf petstore) and also dried of fresh vegetables (cherry tomatoes are their favourite). And once in a while we grow fresh catgrass and some other herbs for them.

@ 19Uhr30:
We have appointment by the vet on wednesday. We actually want to check teeth of three ladies. How should we prepare them for dental exam? We are not sure of they need to go under anesthesia but one degu (Pixi) is low on weight. She is overactive, eat not much and only want to run through the whole cage


Here one more picture of Juno's teeth:

[19Uhr30]

I guess you can't really prepare them. Keep them warm on the way.
They will not need an anestesia for checking the teeth. If the vet has to make some corrections to them it depends on how much has to be done and how much the degu resists. I guess it also depends on the vet...

[butters]

We have our first visit behind us. We took 3 degus out of 5 and it does not look very bad. Vet said that V-shaped teeth of Juno is not a problem. Actually some time ago other vet told us the same thing.

Doctor couldn't take a good look on molars so she schedule another appointment for next week and degus have to go under short anesthesia to take a better look at their dental condition (vet was not sure about molars of Luna but she said it will be fine to check all 3 degus this way).

Degus were fine during the trip, in the clinic they were scared of barking dogs but they were very brave during medical exam
After we got back home they didn't want to go into the cage and they kept returning into the transport box ;D

[deguconvert]

Glad to hear it went quite well for you. Funny that they wanted to stay in their travel box, LOL!

[butters]

Our second appointment is also behind us. Juno, Luna and Pixi went under short anesthesia. By Pixi and Juno not everything is the way it should be but the change in their molars is so tiny that they don't need any futher treatment at the moment. I just have to keep an eye on them and make sure they eat well. Luna's molars are fine. I'm happy that the degus are ok!!!

Girls were really brave again but it was so sad to see them just after they woke up from anesthesia Just after we came back home they start eating and slowly acting as usual. This time they were happy to jump into their cage and didn't want to stay in travel box anymore ;D

[deguconvert]

That is happy news!! I'm so glad they did so much better this time!! It must have made you feel good too.

[butters]

Yes, it sure made me feel better. I was worrying about them, how they will go through anesthesia (doctor said that there is always small risk) and that maybe they molars are in very bad shape etc. But i'm glad it's all over for now

[Kins]

Wonderful news, I'm so pleased to hear it all went well. Well done you and your goos!