Common Dental Disorders of the Degu (Octodon Degus)

Abstract

Dental disease is prevalent in the captive degu (Octodon degus), yet little has been documented on the variety of disorders in this species. In this internet-based study, dental cases presented over a 7-year period were collated, analyzed, and grouped. Of the 137 total cases, the most common dental disorder of the degu was found to be molar malocclusion (42.3 %). Other disorders documented included enamel decoloration (13.1%), molar elodontoma (8.0%), enamel hypoplasia (6.6%), incisor tooth fracture (6.6%), incisor malocclusion (3.6%), oral abscess (2.2%), and impacted molar teeth (0.7%). Details of each condition, pathogenesis, and clinical signs are described. Age was found not to be a significant predictor of dental disease in the degu.

Prevalence of dental disorders in degus and evaluation of diagnostic methods to determine dental disease and its prognosis

“…This supports the theory that cheek teeth malocclusion can lead to incisor malocclusion and vice versa. 2 Cheek teeth malocclusion was also related to apical cheek teeth elongation. In rabbits, it was observed that elongated apices were always the irst sign, and sometimes the only sign, of acquired dental disorders.…”

“…This necessity for recurrent dental treatment was much higher than found in another study (24.1%, n=58). 2 In the current study, degus with known dental disorders were monitored at regular intervals. Of degus with dental disorders, 37.6 per cent was euthanased because of returning dental abnormalities and deteriorating health and body condition.…”

“…1 2 5 6 The most common clinical findings of dental disease include poor body condition, palpable nodules on ventral border of the mandible, abnormal occlusal surface and overgrowth of incisors, epiphora and salivation. 2 Apical elongation of cheek teeth can result in pain due to apical tooth pressure onto intra-alveolar nerves, pressure on periosteum and growth through the maxillary or mandibular periosteum. This may lead to reduced chewing and refusal of fibrous material, which further impedes tooth wear.…”

Spontaneous Tumors and Non-Neoplastic Proliferative Lesions in Pet Degus (Octodon degus)

“…Perhaps these data could be related to the older age of the examined animals (mean age 6 ± 1.9 years) vs. 2.3 ± 1.86 years in previous studies on pet degus [5], or because some of the animals of our study were referred to the university clinic for surgery. To date, different neoplastic lesions have been described in this species (cutaneous lipoma, melanoma, myxosarcoma, malignant histiocytoma, fibrosarcoma, cervical lymphosarcoma, hepatoma, hepatocellular carcinoma, splenic hemangioma, bronchioalveolar carcinoma, renal transitional cell carcinoma, renal choristoma, elodontoma, uterine angioleiomyoma, vaginal leiomyosarcoma, parathyroid adenocarcinoma, pulmonary adenocarcinoma and coccygeal chordoma) [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14].…”

“…Descriptions of degus diseases are rare and the incidence of neoplasia appears to be low [5]. Other than single case reports [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13], seven neoplasms were detected in 189 animals [14] and six tumours were described in another study performed in 300 degus [5]. To date, no reports about non-neoplastic proliferative lesions in degus have been reported.…”