Cleft Palate in Rats?

[SunflowerPop]

Last night I went over and found that Archie had a piece of fabric stuck on his teeth.

Between going to the vet and giving him medicine to help calm down a nasty chest tumor he's got I guess neither my vet nor I ever got a good look at this teeth. I know that as a rat owner, teeth needs to be something I pay attention too, but he was eating and drinking fine (I soften his foods anyways) and I was unfortunately too caught up in treating the tumor to think about checking.

Seeing that he had a piece of fabric caught on them I decided to help him out because I didn't want him to somehow choke on it. Trying to get it out led me to discover that his teeth had severely overgrown. At this time it turned into a big concern, and confusion, because none of his other cage mates are experiencing this problem (I make it a goal to provide them with plenty of things to chew on). I thought that maybe it was because he was already sick, so I took him to the nearest vet hospital to get their help in trimming his teeth and removing the fabric.

When looking at my teeth himself, the top teeth looked really funny, and while I try to learn as much as possible about rats so I can give them good care, I'm no vet, so I made a mental note to mention it when I got there. When the vet did get a good look at his top teeth, she confirmed that they are very odd.

The reason that his bottom teeth had overgrown so far is either because he has no top teeth or because he has a cleft palate. She seemed more set on the cleft palate diagnoses, but either way it was preventing him from bruxing/chewing properly which caused his teeth to overgrow.

My main question is- Has anyone ever seen this in your own rats before? I wanted to look it up to get more information on it just so I would know a little more about his condition, but I couldn't find anything from other rat owners on the internet.

I feel awful that I didn't catch it sooner, but I'm glad that I caught it now and he can be comfortable until the next time I have to get his teeth trimmed, which was estimated to be within the next couple of months or so.

 

[jorats]

Wow, I've never heard of that in rats. Any chance we can get a picture? Some rats have malocclusion and have trouble keeping their teeth ground down. I've had a few rats who needed a vet at every few weeks to trim them.

 

[SunflowerPop]

Wow, I've never heard of that in rats. Any chance we can get a picture? Some rats have malocclusion and have trouble keeping their teeth ground down. I've had a few rats who needed a vet at every few weeks to trim them.

I'll definitely try to get a picture when I get home from work today. He's still pretty young and small so it's hard to get him to hold still for a picture.
I've heard of malocclusion, and the vet mentioned it at the appointment, but she said it was odd because his top teeth are basically not visible/not there to grind against, which is why she came to the conclusion that he either has no teeth/a cleft palate.
Although this is new ground for me, I've never had a rat with teeth problems before (I knew it could happen, but knowing about it is different than actually dealing with it). I'll be getting his teeth trimmed every couple of weeks.

 

[SQ]

Here is some info on malocclusion from the vet approved medical site for rat owners http://ratguide.com/health/digestive/malocclusion.php

I have never heard of a rat having a cleft plate before either
but sometimes rats may not have, or may lose one or more of their front teeth
This can be a serious issue if the tooth bud is present but the teeth are growing in a different direction, such as up into their brain (as happened to one of my girls - she had to be pts after this was discovered on an xray)

According to ratguide.com cleft plate (teratogenicity) does occur in rats - unfortunately I could not find any useful info about it

I hope you can post pics and keep us informed
I also hope that your little guy does well