The Medical Thread

[RaggedyAnn]

Originally Posted by cheerfulgreek

I've known a friend of the family's since I was a kid. She's my mom's friend. She's had these two prairie dogs since I was a kid and I used to go over to her house to play with them all the time. Well, recently, one of them died, so she got three more. Well, anyway my mom called me this past weekend and told me that one of the prairie dogs she had gotten hadn't been eating properly. She had taken him to the vet for the 1st time about 3 months ago.

Anyway, their teeth grow throughout the life of the prairie dog similar to the way they do in rabbits. Well, the growth is normally kept in check by normal wearing action by chewing and grinding of opposing teeth. Well, to make a long story short, like I was saying, she took her pet to her local vet to have his teeth trimmed down a bit. The vet was supposed to anesthetize the prairie dog, but for some odd reason he didn't. After the procedure, he brought the pet back out to her, and told her that anesthesia wasn't needed. What also made it look bad, was his little nose was bleeding too. I don't know what would have caused that though. Anyway, that's not the big problem. That was over a month ago, and now his teeth are growing in a different direction causing major problems in his eating habits. The vet charged her $30.00. She didn't want to go back to that vet, so she'd been calling around to different vets to see if they could fix the problem, but none of them like dealing with prairie dogs. (they're illegal) not to have but to transport or purchase. Anyway, she did end up finding one. The vet she found charges $120.00. She had the procedure done again, properly this time. The problem is the teeth are still growing in the wrong direction. I told my mom that she's either going to have to pay $120.00/month to continue the trimming because I doubt they're going to grow back the right way now. They're eventually going to grow to the point where he won't be able to eat or drink properly. She's probably going to have to put him down. Some vet.

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OK, I know nothing about prarie dogs-but can she just have those teeth pulled instead of putting it down? The reason I ask is one of my cats has maybe 12 teeth left because of dental disease. I just had the vet remove the teeth and it's been 6 years. He's a very happy, spoiled cat.