missing incisor

by the metalhead maniac Fri 11 Dec 2020, 10:30 pm

So i recently happen to notice that my mouse's upper right (human perspective) incisor is out of her gum, i was looking through her cage and I think i found her missing incisor, I'll use the digital microscope i have to hopefully draw a conclusion if that is her incisor or a piece of food, and lastly what could cause such a thing to happen for a mouse to lose one of their teeth

by River Fri 11 Dec 2020, 10:46 pm

That is odd. Could you get a picture?

I'm not sure what could cause this...do they have a barred cage? If so, any bar chewing?

by the metalhead maniac Fri 11 Dec 2020, 10:55 pm

Sorry if i was holding her wrong

She lives a glass cage, but there is a glass food bowl in there so maybe she chewed on that?

by River Sat 12 Dec 2020, 12:15 am

I have never seen anything quite like this. I reckon it's possible it'll grow back, though that depends on the extent of the damage. Is she having trouble eating at the minute? You might want to offer more soft foods for a while just to be on the safe side.

I couldn't find anything about this in mice, but in rats, it seems it can be caused by any number of things. It's possible she bonked it on something (the same way a human might lose a tooth) or she could have chewed something she wasn't meant to. What's her diet like? I wonder if that could be relevant.

by the metalhead maniac Sat 12 Dec 2020, 12:41 am

Her diet is pretty much just grains, nuts, seeds, and she especially loved sunflower seeds, but she is not eating regular food like she use to, now she just primarily wants to eat cheerios and peanut butter and she'll only eat sunflower seeds now if i pre-crack them for her, so it seems like she's deliberately eating soft foods now. So what can other soft foods are viable for this situation, I could imagine its not very nutritious to just eat peanut butter and cheerios

by chiroptera Sat 12 Dec 2020, 1:04 am

I'd offer a high quality parakeet seed mix. Vitakraft Vitasmart is one I've used. Those seeds are softer and shouldn't (hopefully) be too hard for her to eat.

Cooked, unseasoned eggs are a healthy treat that can be offered. (Too much protein to be a staple diet, but might be a good choice for encouraging her to eat right now.) Baby food is also a good option, as long as the ingredients are mouse-safe. Oatmeal and applesauce can be fed as well.

If at all possible, I might suggest contacting a reputable exotics vet to see what they say. I'm worried that she might struggle to eat, which can be very dangerous for an animal like a mouse.

by Peachy Sat 12 Dec 2020, 1:30 am

Soaking her Cheerios in KMR is another good way to get good stuff into her!

This is an amazing picture. If you can tell if the root is attached to the suspected tooth you may be able to figure out if it’s likely to grow back or not. It does kind of look like it fell out rather than was fractured, which could point to something like damaged or shallow roots, maybe from disease or injury or genetics. Narrows it down. Laughing

by the metalhead maniac Sat 12 Dec 2020, 1:53 am

So when i can get a good photo of it I'll post a picture of it

by River Sat 12 Dec 2020, 5:49 pm

Baby foods, apple sauce, cooked brown rice, soaked/crushed blocks and smaller/pre-cracked seeds are all good options. Most foods she likes can probably be soaked and mashed up. Poor thing. Hopefully, it can grow back. I wonder what happened.

by the metalhead maniac Tue 22 Dec 2020, 6:28 pm

So today i took a picture of her gums in the spot where one of her teeth were missing, it grew back but crooked though.

by River Wed 23 Dec 2020, 2:10 am

Well, that's a relief! Maybe it was crooked to begin with and that somehow made it easier to break? I guess we'll never know, but it's cool how fast she grew it back. Thanks for sharing.

by Robin~ Wed 23 Dec 2020, 6:24 am

If you notice your mouse continues to have trouble eating, you may have to see a vet on a regular basis to get her teeth trimmed. In most cases the vet shouldn’t even have to anesthetize your mouse; it should be a fairly easy process provided your vet is experienced with this sort of thing. Fingers crossed this isn’t the case, though.