Jon and I made the decision to take on a new girl yesterday.

This girl had been in the adoption centre of a local pet shop for a while, with the message posted beside her that she had bad teeth and needed specialist care. I walked on by for a few weeks; I didn't really intend to take on any more rats.
For those who don't have an adoption centre system in their pet shops, its basically a little corner of the shop where animals that either haven't sold in time, or have been brought in by members of the public, are put and offered for 'adoption' rather than sale. You don't buy them, you give a small donation which goes to charity.

But we went in yesterday and I said to Jon 'its a shame we can't take her'.
And he said 'do you think anyone else in this town is going to be prepared to deal with a rat that has such a major health problem?'
I said no.
He said 'well thats your answer: get her'.
So we asked staff what exactly was wrong with her. They claimed she'd come in with some other rats, but was failing to gain weight and ended up very thin.
They took her to the vet who took one look at her teeth and noticed they were misaligned. He apparently clipped them, and the top set fell out. This can sometimes happen.
So the shop were adopting her out telling everyone she had only one set of teeth and would need regular dental work and soft foods.

I took her on, and the shop told me they'd had her since June, and were worried no-one else would want her and that if she hadn't gone soon, she'd have to go to 'a rescue centre'. As Im the only rescue centre around here who would take on a rat like that, I kinda knew that meant 'put to sleep'.

We got her home and I checked her teeth. Well, she did have both sets, but they were both fucked up to the max. A rat's teeth should meet nicely together, evenly. Her top teeth grow off to one side, and the bottom grow to the other, like the bill of a cross bill bird.
Its a myth that rats have to eat hard food to keep their teeth down. Rats should be able to keep their teeth down well enough just by grinding them against one another....IF they meet properly.
When they don't, over-growing occurs.

Her bottom teeth were so long they were digging into her upper cheek.
Obviously, the shop had been unaware that rat's teeth GROW BACK. They'd seen them fall out and assumed that was that, and obviously hadn't checked since or they'd have seen they'd grown back.
Rats can knock sets of teeth back and have them return within days. You have to actually remove or damage the root for them to stop growing. Even tooth removals at the vet's sometimes fail because the teeth grow back.

So, she was less than a day off having her cheek pierced by these teeth.
I rushed her to my vet, and had them clipped.
At the time, I knew burring to be the preferred method, but clipping is also done often so I just went with that, for the sake of making her comfortable quickly (burring usually requires gas).

My vet gave me options: I can either continue clipping/burring them every 1-2 weeks, or have both sets of incisors removed.
Incisor removal in rats is not a routine op, nor is it simple. Its long, painful and risky.
Rats teeth go so far into their jaw that they risk broken jaws from the op. There is also the risk of blood loss as the teeth bleed a lot, and if every single piece of root isn't removed properly, the teeth will grow back.
And they can grow back even worse if the root is simply damaged and not properly removed.

My vet has done this op many times on rabbits, but they are obviously a lot bigger and you have less margin for error.

At the moment, Im not keen on that op for her. I think it is an op that should only be attempted if the clipping/burring is not an option. As it is, she is a fair weight now, in good condition and seems to be able to eat well enough now she's been clipped.

I probably won't go for the op unless things change.

Im glad I got her though, since another day would have seen her teeth puncture her cheek and that opens it up for infection and abscess.

So, this is Shadowrat Silk Spectre:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/.....p;l=932618042e

She is a lovely little girl and Im glad I could give her a chance at life.
Teeth problems are very off putting, and most people want nothing to do with them, because they're on-going. Spectre will need treatment probably every 2 weeks, perhaps more, depending on how quickly her teeth grow. The average is about 1mm a day.
A clip of her teeth costs me £13, but burring will probably cost more as it involves gas.

She will be a life-long commitment. But Im happy to be the one to take it on.