Life Threatening Injury?

[lucasDOG]

Hello. I'm new to this forum and fairly ignorant about hamsters. I'm here seeking health care advice for Coco, a young hamster, who's been in our family for about 6 months.

About two weeks ago, we noticed Coco's labored breathing. We took him to a local vet who said our baby was suffering from an upper-respiratory infection. Coco was prescribed Enrofloxacin 0.03 cc twice daily for two weeks. (The labored breathing subsided within a day or two. The treatment with antibiotics ended today.)

The vet also noted a damaged and displaced upper tooth. (We don't know whether Coco suffered trauma or damaged his tooth in some other way.) We were told that the displaced upper tooth is making it painful for Coco to chew because his bottom tooth is piercing the upper palate of his mouth, and this likely caused the upper respiratory infection.

On two occasions, the vet reduced the length of the lower teeth by shaving them down. According to the vet, this treatment must be repeated indefinitely to keep Coco alive (at ~$90 per visit).

Coco is lethargic. He is not eating hard food, so we're serving him soft foods and he eats it.

What do you suggest as a course of action? Can Coco be saved?

[souffle]

Because his teeth are malloccluded they will always cause this problem and need constant trimming top and bottom. The bottom jaw appears to be pushed slightly sideways so the teeth will never meet to rub against each other and keep them from overgrowing sadly. You could ask the vet to teach you to trim the teeth yourself but it is not easy and a bit risky as you can crack the teeth. You could have the teeth removed totally and feed him soft foods only. Only you can decide if you think he is not happy with life and if you can afford the vet costs every few weeks to trim the teeth. It is a hard choice but made with Coco's welfare in mind then it will be the right choice. A big part of a hamster's enjoyment in life comes from nibbling food and chewing and shelling which he cannot do now and we cannot know if the teeth are causing him pain really. I'm sorry he is going through this

[cypher]

It's not that uncommon for hamsters to have problems with the teeth like this, I had one & opted for having the teeth clipped regularly & he did just fine.
None of the options are risk free, the teeth can be clipped without anaesthetic once your ham is used to being handled but that does run a risk of teeth splitting or roots being damaged, burring is safer but the anaesthetic carries a risk when needed that frequently. As souffle said the teeth can be removed but that also carries risks so not the easiest choice to have to make.
If the teeth are removed they can still manage some hard food as they can break it down with their molars so shouldn't need a totally soft diet.
Teeth grow a bit slower in winter so clipping or burring usually only needs to be done about every three weeks & about every two in summer.
If the teeth have pierced the palate that will take time to heal so your ham will probably need soft food for a little while but with regular trimming or clipping they can manage a normal diet.

[lucasDOG]

Thank you.

[Fluffagrams]

My oldest Chinese lost his bottom teeth after he had a run in with his first wife, causing trauma too his mouth and without those bottom teeth he has nothing to grid against which means his top teeth grow very quickly. They require weekly trimming and after discussing the options, my vet and I agreed that I could be taught how to clip them with the correct tools as the risks of a weekly anaesthetic were too great for James. The risk of clipping them is as others have explained, that you may break or chip the teeth and this can be painful for your hamster so you will need to ensure that you still have access to a good vet in case something does go wrong.

Just after James’s injury he wouldn’t eat his hard food and lost weight but I used a soft food to help build him up whilst his mouth recovered. He is able to eat most foods other than the hardest things but I still offer him a small amount of softer foods now that he’s older (he’s well over 3) to help keep his strength up.

James has been without his bottom teeth for 18 months now and he’s managing fine so I just wanted to reassure you that it isn’t necessarily a life threatening problem.

[Pebbles82]

Poor little guy! He is lucky you are so caring of him. How old is he? You said you'd had him about 6 months but am assuming he is older than that?

I haven't had this issue myself with teeth - although our last Syrian did start to need them trimming when he got very old - because he wasnt chewing enough to wear them down (they can get toothache in their back teeth in old age or arthritis in the jaw even).

It didn't need doing as regularly as in your case though. However he did find it very stressful each time. Some of that depends on the temperament of the hamster.

It would help to know how old Coco is. Either way I personally would probably think about having the teeth removed rather than the ongoing trimming - unless the vet can show you how to do it yourself, as mentioned above - for some time to delay the need for them being removed.

I suspect though that they won't do that. My vet (in the Uk) said they are no longer allowed to clip teeth due to the damage it can cause, so they are required to burr them with a whiff of anaesthetic - and that is what our hamster found stressful.

If Coco is over 18 months I would think about having them removed and continuing with soft food. If he is only 6 months you could get into a routine of having them maintained/trimmed (although it is expensive).

He is lucky you got him treated so quickly and the cause of the respiratory infection was found, as the teeth puncturing the palate could have been life threatening. Some hamsters can even get to the point where they did of starvation because their teeth are too long and they can't open their mouths properly to eat.

They tend to be older when their teeth get too long - but in your case they are mallocluded.

He can live out his life perfectly well either way and have lots of love and care from you. I wouldn't rush to decide on which course to take though. Maybe ring round some other vets and see if one can do a special rate for the tooth trimming if it needs to be a regular thing. Also exotic vets tend to know more about hamsters than general vets and be more experienced at these things.

[Pebbles82]

Apart from the malloclusion, the bottom teeth continually grow and are only kept in trim by hamsters having regular hard things to chew. You probably know that already though. But it's why it's important for them to have a good hamster mix which is usually dry hard food - and to have chew sticks etc to gnaw on. But this sounds like a specific dental issue.

The pallate injury should heal