# black tooth



## erose (Dec 31, 2015)

my rat's upper tooth (one half) has a black outline. she is probably about 5 months old and she is otherwise healthy. her mouth doesn't seem to be bothering her and there doesn't seem to be any physical signs of infection. 

anyone have any ideas as to what this is? she seems totally fine.


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## Gribouilli (Dec 25, 2015)

Does the tooth seem broken or cracked? If you smell your rat's mouth, does it smell bad? How long has she had it?


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## erose (Dec 31, 2015)

her tooth has been like this for a few weeks now. her mouth doesn't smell at all and when i am able to get a hold of her and actually look at the tooth it doesn't seem to be cracked. when i touch her mouth she does not appear to be in pain. could this be some kind of vitamin deficiency or should she go back on antibiotics? i would post a picture but getting a clear photo of her is really difficult.


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## lilspaz68 (Feb 24, 2007)

Usually a black tooth means that its rotting inside. There's not much you can do once it gets to this stage. Check it every few days to make sure its still there, and if/when it finally comes out you may need to have her opposing incisors trimmed as she won't have the tooth to grind it down against.

Beans upper incisors before they fell out










And my current tooth-wonky girl whose upper incisors fell out...here's one of the teeth










her bottom teeth have to be trimmed every 3 weeks. It would be sooner but the bottom incisors actually grow outside of her mouth otherwise it would be weekly


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