Malocclusion or "slobbers" in Chinchillas

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Chin with front teeth Maloccluding

This is an excellent malocclusion photo, courtesy of Brenda at CTChins. This lovely violet girl was 2 years old when this was taken.

Most ranchers feel malocclusion is largely genetic, with some cases of trauma, extreme malnutrition and poor care becoming more frequent with pet owners. Crystal Chinchillas has an excellent page going into much more detail behind the ‘why’ and some great photos of skulls with root eruptions. (Click on the English flag, then "health articles" and Malocclusion).

My reason for believing it is largely genetic is that of two chins with the same poor care, one may malocclude due to the poor care, but the other survives. Maybe it wouldn't have done so with better care... but overall it was a genetically weaker animal.

Chins can also malocclude from trauma to the jaw, like being dropped. This will often cause the front teeth to have problems, not the molars like you would normally see in a maloccluding chin. With the violet above, the owner detected bumps in the jaw line earlier. The front teeth splitting is an odd occurrence in addition to the molars protruding from the bottom of the jaw line.



This chin was so far advanced that there is a hole in its lower jaw where the root has caused an abcess, ruptured, and left the jaw bone and root exposed. A chin's teeth grow so fast that this can happen in less than a month.



Side shot of above chin, the old term "slobbers" came from the wetness of the lower jaw.