Hit by car adult with 1/16 inch gap in top teeth

[Duckman]

Hello my dear TSB friends. I have an adult female Eastern Grey who was hit by a car. She has recovered from her injuries to her snout, for the most part, but she has a large gap between her top teeth that is about 1/16 of an inch apart. I am trying to figure out if she will be able to have any quality of life. Has anyone ever had experience with this? Need advice.

[island rehabber]

Hey, Michael. My concerns would be, first, that her lower teeth no longer grind those teeth down precisely, so she will need regular clippings of both top and bottom. Talk about stress. My other concern would be similar to what many squees with cleft palates experience: food going where it shouldn't go, getting impacted, and then infection. I wonder if Dr E in Florida would be willing to look at some pix and advise you by phone or Facetime?

[CritterMom]

How long have you had her, Michael? Their teeth do a lot of moving around naturally; I wonder if time will show them self-correcting?

[Duckman]

I am sorry I wasn't able to get a picture yesterday. I have 3 adult hit by car squirrels and 1 hit by car adult possums, as well as a baby with a blocked urethra who's bladder is the size of a golf ball that I had to deal with yesterday and through the night last night. I hope to have pictures of her today.

[Mel1959]

From experience, Dr. E is very liberal with teeth issues. I had a squirrel that was injured and broke a top incisor. In the 2 months I had her inside the lower teeth did not seem to overgrow. I took her to Dr. E for an evaluation before release and she determined that the broken tooth was damaged and would not regrow, she recommended pulling it. She assured me that the lower teeth would not overgrow and that she was releasable. I followed her advise and released her. She was not one I had raised and she was absolutely MISERABLE in captivity, so I made a decision based on her recommendation.

I’m just sharing my experience with a tooth issue.

[Duckman]

Here is the picture. Hopefully it is resized enough.