# Tooth fell out!



## HickuptheHedgie (May 14, 2013)

Hello. My hedgie is three now (Snowflake) and when I take her out to relax with me on the bed I put a pee pad down because she has peed a couple times before. When I unfolded the pee pad today to put it back down, a tooth fell out. It looks fairly big for a hedgie and it must be hers. There's no blood anywhere or on the tooth and she doesn't seem to be in pain or acting different. I've tried looking in her mouth to see but she doesn't want me to.

I'm just not sure if it's normal for teeth to fall out and if it's something to be worried about, or if sometimes it happens?


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## Kalandra (Aug 25, 2008)

Is a cause for concern. Schedule a veterinary visit to have his mouth examined. If he has other teeth that are loose they may need to be pulled.

Their teeth do look absolutely massive for their size. I have some macro images of teeth I took years ago when one of mine lost all of his teeth. He spit a couple of them out in my hand.


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## Beloved Doll (Nov 21, 2013)

Kalandra, could you share those images? I'm interested in seeing them.


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## HickuptheHedgie (May 14, 2013)

My mom asked if it could be the cats or even a rats.. haha. It's too small for a cat and I'm 99.9% sure I don't have rats at my apartment, plus I found it in the pee pad on top of the cage after opening it, so it's definitely hers.

I can't bring her to the vets currently, that's my issue. The main reason is money. I brought my other hedgie to the vets just a few months ago and that took any extra money I had. Prior to that, I spent close to $700 on my first hedgie who had cancer and that one took a long time to come back from.
I'd use my credit card, but that's maxed as well (I'm a student living in an apartment for school currently).
I might be able to afford a check up at the end of December, but that's the soonest. I'm just not sure what could cause teeth to fall out? She hasn't changed at all in habits or behaviour, so she seems fine. But I get paranoid when anything happens because my experience with hedgehogs is that they get sick a lot and most 'small' things are usually issues of a bigger illness.

I was wondering if anyone knows the causes for this and whether or not it's potentially really serious?


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## Beloved Doll (Nov 21, 2013)

Is she using a water bottle? I have heard those can break teeth if the hedgehog decides to sit there and try to chew on the spout.


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## HickuptheHedgie (May 14, 2013)

Beloved Doll said:


> Is she using a water bottle? I have heard those can break teeth if the hedgehog decides to sit there and try to chew on the spout.


No, she uses a ceramic bowl to drink water from.


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## Kalandra (Aug 25, 2008)

These aren't as high res as I would like (tried to keep the size down for posting) but here are 4.

Cause can be wide, which is why I recommended a vet visit. It could be nothing and it could be serious. Anything from bad genetics, a bad diet early in life, infection/abscess, gum/tooth disease or as bad as a tumor pushing them out. 

In the very least I would try to get a look in her mouth. Continue to monitor her weight and for any change in her eating. And get her in if you start to see more changes. If the tooth loss continues, you will need to explore soft diets. 

The teeth I am attaching came out just as they were imaged. These have not been cleaned. The teeth were pearly white with a little tartar build up. You'll also notice the roots on a couple of them were hollow. Based on what I was told about the hedgehog's diet prior to his arrival here, we suspect his tooth loss was caused by poor nutrition early in life.

I have one currently who is nearly toothless (she still has her 2 front teeth). With her, we have no idea why. Her previous owner fed her a good diet, and she's been well cared for. We are assuming its genetic with her. She turned 4 recently and started losing her before she turned 3.


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## Beloved Doll (Nov 21, 2013)

Thanks, Kalandra! That's amazing. Always was curious about what hedge-teeth were like.

How come one of the teeth on the penny has stringy bits attached to it?


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## HickuptheHedgie (May 14, 2013)

Holy cow! Those are so much bigger than the one I found!

I have been making sure she's eating, I had a bit of a scare a few months back when she stopped (it ended up being because I changed the flavor of her food and she refused to eat). I also feel her every day as I get paranoid about tumors, since my first hedgie had cancer and it was pretty much one day the tumor wasn't there and the next it was!

She still seems fine, she has been eating and being active, her same usual self. I'll try to get a look again in her mouth tonight. I saw her front and it seemed fine, it's tricky trying to see in the back with her though. 

I got her from a breeder who has good reviews, so I'm not sure about bad genetics, although anythings possible. I also feed her high quality cat food. She has experience with soft food since I fed it to her when she stopped eating that one time, and will do it again if need be but prefer her eating hard food (she prefers it also), but obviously if it needs to be done, I'll do it.

Thanks for the response, I'll keep an eye out, especially for more teeth. Hopefully it's just a one time thing and won't happen again!


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## HickuptheHedgie (May 14, 2013)

Also, not sure if you know anything about this, but someone once said pet insurance covers hedgies, and it's something I'd like to look into. Paying a flat rate every month if it's affordable is better for me so that if something happens and I don't have the couple hundred it's going to cost, I'll know she's covered and can bring her in. Do either of you know anything about it/the cost?


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## Beloved Doll (Nov 21, 2013)

I don't have any experience with pet insurance so I can't verify anything but I have heard from my mom where she told me she read stories about pet insurance being not worth it. 

Then again, she also was afraid to use methods to stop smoking because ONE person had an incident.

The last time I heard what pets the pet insurance covered was cats and dogs only but that was about 7 years ago. If they do cover other critters now, including hedgehogs, that'd be awesome.


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## Annie&Tibbers (Apr 16, 2013)

Here's the list I recently wrote of funding sources for hedgehog healthcare when things are dire -- it includes the one insurance company that covers pets. My vet-friends are all about pet insurance if it covers preventative care & check-ups, but not if it's emergency-only. I really wish any of the Canadian companies covered it, because it'd make life a lot more predictable. Do read the fine print & ask lots of questions about hedgehogs. Note that it does NOT cover pre-exiting conditions, so you want to get it before something happens.

A tip I saw about trying to examine teeth: use a Qtip (possibly with something exciting to on it) to encourage biting it so you can eyeball back-teeth.


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## peace.love.meeko (Aug 21, 2012)

When I rescued my boy, he ended up losing both his incisors within the first year that I had him (he was likely around 2-3 years then as he is estimated to be 3-4 now). When my vet checked it she said that sometimes it just happens. It's not like they make tiny toothbrushes for us to monitor their dental hygiene. His cause seemed to be from the fact that he had trouble chewing the particular cat food that his prior owners had him on and since they never really monitored his eating habits, they didn't realize that he would even occasionally nearly choke because it was so difficult for him. He still eats fine now as I switched him to a soft diet (it's still the hard cat food he likes as he was too picky to have me switch it and I wanted him to be happy so I gave in - I just soak it in warm water for about 15 minutes, strain it, and add in some apricot gerber baby food [also his preferred choice] and it's soft enough to not give him any problems except for a dirty face sometimes). Just to give you my account of the situation that is. I know every situation is different though. Either way, try not to panic as I know I did and it didn't do any good.


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