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Post by beardedjqb on Oct 24, 2021 4:11:09 GMT
Hello, yesterday i have noticed that my degu Ivan, has lost his bottom left tooth. Probably because of that, the top teeth unevenly grind and they are in a kind of / shape. Also because of that, the bottom tooth that is still there is slightly sideways, as to the side of the top teeth. I am planning to take him tomorrow (Monday) to the local vet that treats small animals like, degus, hamster, rats etc, but i'm still left with a question, what could have cause that?
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Post by beardedjqb on Oct 24, 2021 5:10:54 GMT
Sadly He won't let me take a picture cuz he'll either hug or just run around so all i have is my crude depiction of how it looks like in paint. imgur.com/a/5nJkmSO |
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Post by deguconvert on Oct 24, 2021 5:28:04 GMT
What are the colour of his teeth? Are they a nice deep orange? I wonder if they are weakened for some reason? May I ask what you fee him?
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Post by beardedjqb on Oct 24, 2021 8:43:08 GMT
Teeth are deep orange. He usually eats his usual food for degus/guinea pigs or rabbits with addition of hay, sticks(Not toxic ones) and really dried bread and some herb mix for degus, but he isn't the biggets fan of herbs for some reason.
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Post by teemu on Oct 24, 2021 9:33:08 GMT
How old is Ivan? It's possible that something like this occurs due to a simple birth defect, and it's possible that if Ivan is very young, it's only now becoming noticeable. But if it's a sudden change and his teeth were looking a lot more normal before, then something has obviously happened. Since one of his teeth is missing, some sort of an injury seems like a possible explanation. Maybe he hit his mouth on something and snapped off that bottom tooth, and that is now causing the teeth to grow crooked? Rodent incisors are meant to grind against each other so they'll moderate their own growth, but if they can't, then the teeth will start misaligning and growing uncontrollably.
It's of course possible that there is some less violent reason for it, like some deficient in nutrition that has caused his teeth to suffer.
One thing that I notice is that you mention that he eats rabbit food. That should never be given to degus, since it contains an ingredient that can be toxic for them (coccidiostat, which helps rabbits with a certain kind of parasite but is dangerous to degus) and lacks necessary nutrients. The basic feed for degus should be strictly chinchilla and guinea pig pellets, or a ready-made degu food.
Hay and sticks are good, but bread is also something you should not give to a degu, preferrably at all. Their digestive system cannot really handle bread, which has a lot of carbohydrates and grain in it. Eating bread will lead to health issues, for example diabetes. Degus have developed to subsists on a really sparse, fiber-rich diet, and their system just can't handle many things most rodents eat freely.
It's hard to say what's ultimately caused this tooth issue, but it's good that you're taking him to see a vet. Since his teet have started to misalign, the vet will likely need to trim them, and see why that one tooth is growing really crooked.
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Post by moletteuk on Oct 24, 2021 10:56:39 GMT
I hope you get on OK at the vets tomorrow. This could be quite a difficult issue to deal with as the incisor teeth grow so quickly.
It could be a genetic predispostion to dental problems, it could be an injury and it could be partly due to it being so easy for the nutrition and mineral content of a degu diet to become out of whack and cause a dental issue - not enoughh calcium and vitamin d and too much phosphorus can cause tooth growth abnormalities. It's likely to be a combination.
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Post by beardedjqb on Oct 24, 2021 22:31:29 GMT
I don't remember the exactly but he's very young.
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Post by deguconvert on Oct 25, 2021 21:30:34 GMT
Thank you for your answers, Beardedjqb! They are helpful . . . and really . . . what I might have said has been said by Teemu and Moletteuk. I'm glad you are having him looked at.
Perhaps you could tell us the names of the foods you feed to him? A lot of pellet foods contain added sugars of many different kinds, as well as cereal grains, and dried fruits. These are things to avoid. When I had degus and was supplementing their diet with some pellets (I tried to do 1/3 pellets,1/3 hays, and 1/3 dried veg and forage) I had to examine the ingredients lists every time I purchased. Manufacturers frequently change their ingredients list without notification, so you have to be vigilant to read them. As far as that goes . . . so to manufacturers of human food stuffs.
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