Dental Care

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While birds don’t have teeth, other species of exotic pets do, and just as we require regular dental care, so do these animals. Ferrets, rabbits, rodents, and even sugar gliders and hedgehogs can suffer from dental disease.

Since most ferret owners do not brush their ferrets’ teeth, as they should, many ferrets develop gingivitis (inflamed gums) and tartar buildup, potentially leading to dental discomfort and tooth root infection. As rabbits’ teeth grow continuously, rabbits often get tooth malocclusion (lack of alignment of the upper and lower jaws and teeth), overgrowth, and abscessed teeth that can cause large swellings on their jaws.

Rodents such as guinea pigs and chinchillas also have continuously growing teeth and frequently suffer from painful tooth root impaction. Even small sugar gliders and hedgehogs can develop dental disease requiring teeth extraction.

The Veterinary Center provides complete dental care, using instruments specially designed for all of these unique exotic species, to clean and trim teeth to try to prevent disease and to surgically treat impacted, infected, and abscessed teeth.

Digital x-rays, available at the Veterinary Center, can be invaluable in aiding our veterinarians and technicians to plan a dental surgery. To help ensure the safety of all of patients undergoing anesthesia for a dental procedure, our staff performs pre-anesthetic blood work. Pets undergoing dental surgery receive the safest isoflurane gas anesthesia.

Our staff follows these anesthetized animals carefully with cardiac, blood pressure, respiratory, and temperature monitors throughout the procedure.

Our veterinarians provide exotic pet owners with detailed financial estimates for dental procedures that the owner must approve before any procedure is undertaken.

All patients undergoing dental surgery are treated gently; they receive medication for pain relief and are fed as soon as they wake up from surgery so that they can return home as quickly as possible.