need advice about trimming teeth

[roscos.crazygirl]

Hello, I have rosco who is a 6 yeard old fox squirrel, and he's never had teeth issues until recently. I reached into his nest about a month ago and was giving him loving and noticed he was holding his bottom jaw a little bit funny so I started feeling around and noticed his bottom teeth are to long. They aren't into his upper gum or anything but they are way too long. We started getting him more variety of sticks and sizes of them and he don't chew on them, just to kinda mark terriorty and move on. We are in indiana so I don't know of any vets that will see him around here and I have never trimmed teeth before. So does anyone have any advice on what we need, and how to go about doing this because I'm worried it will turn into a bigger problem in a few months. Thanks

[farrelli]

I've never done it, and I'm sure people who have will be on tonight or tomorrow, but the basics will be that you have to use high quality, hardened steel snips, you may have to "burrito" your squirrel if he won't allow you to do it easily, and that you have to be really careful when doing it because squirrel teeth aren't rooted like ours and that you can, fairly easily, rip them out instead of just trimming them (this is part of why you have to use the hardened steel snips).

[roscos.crazygirl]

Thanks :) what kind of snips?? I want to get the best. if someone happens to know a vet or rehabber in indiana please pm me and maybe I can take rosco to them to get it done...if not ill be doing it. It makes me nervous as I've read that if you hold the angle of the snips wrong, or do it wrong it can cause way more damage then anything. Which makes me super nervous because rosco is mommies baby. He will let me hold him and snuggle and do whatever needs done. I was also thinking burrito him just to be able to do this. Also I've tried the bachs rescue remedy on him a couple years ago when he was way younger,but it only seem to make him hyper......at this point I would let him chew holes through my walls if it would avoid me doing this lol but its seriously needs done, or its going to become bad. I noticed tonight again he was holding his jaw funny when he slept. Its just the bottom teeth that need to be trimmed and not sure what to do. I give him so many things to chew on and he doesn't really care to do it

[farrelli]

Any chance you could get a picture of his teeth?

I think we have members in Indiana, so perhaps they know of a rehabber or vet. Hopefully we're get some action on that. If not, you should start a new thread, something like, "Vet or rehabber in IN???"

If no one answers about the kind of tools, I'll look for it tomorrow. I know that people have posted about that before. You might do a search for it.

[farrelli]

Btw, how did the red urine thing work out?

[Anne]

PM Jackie in Tampa, she is the tooth trimming expect on the board. She also has an excellent source for high quality snips.

[roscos.crazygirl]

The red pee went away thank goodness :) I found a stash of cranberries he had hidden behind the tv lol. Thanks for asking. I have pm and emailed jackie about a month ago and haven't heard anything. Ill try again. And I will try to get some picutres of his teeth today, or tomorrow. Not sure how good they will be, but I will try. I'm not too good with uploading them, or anything but hopefully I can figure it out