chinchilla health issue

Question
QUESTION: I noticed our chinchilla having a wet spot under his chin.  After observing for a couple of days, I realized he had been drooling.  He also is not eating, only drinking water.  I took him to the vet yesterday and they checked his teeth and mouth. The vet did trim his front teeth, but commented they were not really very bad, just a little longer than she liked. His back teeth are fine.  They basically could not find anything wrong with him.  I have tried hand feeding him trying every piece of food individually from the bag, but he refuses to eat anything. He wants to eat and I noticed him trying to eat a small piece of papaya (his favorite). He looks like he is having problems swallowing and stretches his neck out as he is trying to swallow.  He is still drinking his water, just not eating and beginning to lose weight.

ANSWER: It is impossible to properly check the back teeth without an anaesthetic so unless your vet gave your chinchilla a general anaesthetic and used special tools to look at the back teeth theres no way they can know if his back teeth are ok. He may have a spur on one of his molars which is digging into his cheek and causing him extreme pain. It also causes painful ulcers on the tongue. There is no way he would be able to eat with a spur on his molar as it would be too painful. The fact that he wants to eat but cant also suggests that its his back teeth. The vet should not have trimmed the front teeth, burring them is better as trimming them can cause them to break. Is your vet a small animal expert? Sounds like this chinchilla needs to have an anaesthetic and have his molars looked at and maybe some x-rays as theres something serious going on. In the mean time you need to syringe feed him with a liquid diet, theres one called critical care for herbivores. If he is not constantly syringe fed, his gut will stop working causing gut stasis and he will become very ill. The main problem is that chinchillas being herbivores need to eat constantly for about 20 hours a day. Not being able to eat is very serious and eventually he will become so weak that it may become fatal. Good luck and I hope he gets better

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you for your reply. Shortly after my first inquiry I took our chinchilla back to the vet. This time they did anesthetize him and reconfirmed his molars were fine.  They did see that his throat was swollen and a little red.  Any idea what would cause his throat to swell? I want to make sure it is not something we are doing. The air in his room does not blow directly on him or is not drafty.  The room temp is usually around 72 degrees. I did buy him a new treat that i hung on the side of his cage a couple of weeks ago.  I don't think I will purchase it again just to be on the safe side. The vet did place him on an antibiotic, yogurt to treat for the redness.  They also gave him the critical care like you suggested and said to continue giving him the critical care until he is back to eating for a couple of days.

Answer
Its a bit of a mystery then. Maybe there is something small stuck in his throat? If it doesnt respond to antibiotics then maybe they could try x-rays or using an endoscope to look at his throat, but they are the vets and shoulc be able to advise what to do next. I hope he gets better soon