Monday, April 20, 2009

My puppy broke a canine tooth?

She is 4 months old and I looked at her mouth to day and I noticed that one of her canines were broken off and there is still part of the tooth left in her mouth. Do they lose their canines anyway. She has her check up on Mon., But I was just wondering if it is a serious thing, I have noticed that she doesn%26#039;t eat all of her food at one sitting anymore and hasn%26#039;t for a few days. Her and our older dog (5yrs old) play rough a lot. I am worried she may be in pain.

My puppy broke a canine tooth?
If it is a baby tooth, don%26#039;t worry. I assume it is a baby tooth at four months, but even if it was an adult tooth, it is not a major problem. The vet could just pull out the remaining snaggled tooth.
Reply:Dogs do lose baby teeth like children. Hopefully that canine was a baby tooth. But she still might be in pain. Probably fine to wait til Monday, but definitely mention it then. Depending on your puppy%26#039;s cooperation, your vet can check the tooth to see if there is any root or nerve exposure.
Reply:i%26#039;m having the same problem with not eating in one sitting with my 3 month old puppy, i have no idea about the teeth though. ask the vet for help, it shouldnt be too urgent if the puppy isnt acting like it hurts.
Reply:Sounds like she is still young enough that this is a baby tooth...so she should loose this one and grow in a new, unbroken adult tooth. There may be some sensitivity if the root is exposed or if the tooth is broken below the gum line. The nerve will die in a few days and pull back into the tooth, so the sensitivity should go away in a week or two and she should start eating normally again. You can try Ora-Jel or one of those over the counter mouth pain med from the store (benzocaine ingredient or other %26quot;-caine%26quot; anesthetics will work) if you really think she is in pain...use it just like the directions describe for people. The tooth should still look healthy compared to those around it until it falls out and gets replaced by the adult tooth. If the pain does not go away within a week or so, go have a vet look at it as it%26#039;s probably fractured down below the gumline.





If this were/is an adult tooth...the same thing would happen and little treatment would be needed unless it is a REALLY bad break. In that case, you can have the vet either remove the tooth, or do a root canal if the sensitivity doesn%26#039;t go away. I work with Military Working Dogs who chip their canines A LOT on the bite-wraps during training! They usually eat a little slower and hesitate to attack so hard during training for a few days...and then get over it...but I have had to do several root canals also! Most vets will just take the tooth out...it%26#039;s a lot easier and the root canal involves a good deal of equipment like dental drills and special dog drill bits that most vets don%26#039;t have and are very expensive. Your average vet may not have the training do to the root canal either. I%26#039;m just lucky in that I get old equipment from the military dentists when they get new stuff for the people and the dentists think it%26#039;s cool to come help out on the dogs, so I learn from them! Pulling the tooth isn%26#039;t going to cause a big problem for a pet dog and the extraction will be cheaper than the root canal for sure! Pets can still eat just fine without one canine tooth...but for our dogs%26#039; jobs we prefer the root canal since it is important for guard dogs to have teeth!
Reply:Well I am not sure if this is the norm but my pup recently went through the puppy teeth phase and the weird thing was, before he lost his canines they all appeared to have the ends broken off right before they fell out. He hadnt actually broken them but it was like they just did that right before they fell out. All 4 of his front canines did the exact same thing before they fell out and were replaced by the adult teeth... I have never seen this in any other dog I have ever had but it was really noticable in my pup... if its any connection I dont know what breed/s your dog is but my pup is 1/2 Rottweiler, 1/2 Siberian Husky.


At first I thought he had broken his tooth too and kept an eye on it cause I knew it was just a baby tooth, then it fell out and all three of the other ones looked broken at the tip right before they fell out. I have concluded that either it is a normal process that happens before the teeth fall out, or the teeth get brittle when they begin to get pushed out by the adult teeth and get easily broken before falling out.



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