Question About Teeth

[Catherine and Widget]

I am new to showing and this question is regarding the pup I intend/ed on showing. She is a Pomeranian.

She had very bad teething pain on the weekend and once she let me near her mouth I was able to see she actually had two rows of front teeth. Obviously they will need to be removed but other than that, will this affect showing? Will it interfere with her bite? Might they come in crooked?

If it will affect showing, we will get her desexed at the same time.

I asked the vet her opinion but as they don't get many show dogs through, she didn't know if it would be an issue or not.

[GoldenWei]

Hi Catherine, welcome to DOL. How old is your pup? I haven't had much experience in growing mouths, I have large breeds and my pups mouths have always come good... ie, sometimes they will have two teeth in the one spot/area while the adults are coming through but the baby teeth have always come out on their own, but this doesn't always happen. I have no idea about poms, but I would expect that their mouths/bite should be a normal scissor bite with no remaining baby teeth once the adults have come through. Hopefully someone with more experience will come in and answer your question.

[Dogsfevr]

Your baby has retained puppy teeth which can be very common.

What do you give pup to chew on to help remove those teeth???

If your not giving pup anything to really chew on & don't plan to then you may need to get them out & sooner the better as yes it can affect how the adult teeth grow as there all fighting for space.

[Catherine and Widget]

Thanks guys.

She's five months old. I've given her chews, frozen rags, chew toys designed for teething, pieces of frozen vegetables etc. The vet says they will not come out on their own as there is no pressure coming down on them. I'm just wondering if after having them out she will still have issues.

[GoldenWei]

I guess it depends on how long you leave them, if they won't come out on their own I'd get them pulled sooner rather than later, I don't think anyone can say whether she will or won't have issues without seeing them, and even then it would be a guess and no guarantees. Where-abouts in NSW are you? Maybe take her to a vet who deals a lot with breeders and ask there opinions. What does pups breeder think?

[rebelsquest]

I second speaking with your puppy's breeder, if you haven't already.

[Alyosha]

I do know a pom breeder that watches for this like a hawk and at the first sign has the baby teeth pulled. Yes retained baby teeth can affect the placement of adult teeth.

I have a bitch (bit of a size difference, she's a Borzoi) that has a misplaced canine. As the baby tooth didn't budge so the adult canine was pushed as it came through. So it sits further back in her mouth than it should. My fault for missing it when she was teething - the baby tooth should have been pulled. It hasn't affected her in the show ring as it doesn't affect the alignment of her bite.

But with incisors it is a different story. If the adult teeth gets pushed into the wrong position by retained baby teeth it can ceratnly affect her bite alignment. This not only will cause issues in the ring but can affect how the teeth wear as she ages.

[Catherine and Widget]

I'm in Albury, NSW. There aren't many breeders around of toy breeds so I'm not sure how I'd find one who'd know.

I will get in touch with the breeder if I can get onto him. He's in Sydney though so he won't be able to have a look or anything.

I will be booking in for the surgery for next week, it's just a matter of whether she's desexed at the same time.

[dancinbcs]

I'm in Albury, NSW. There aren't many breeders around of toy breeds so I'm not sure how I'd find one who'd know.

I will get in touch with the breeder if I can get onto him. He's in Sydney though so he won't be able to have a look or anything.

I will be booking in for the surgery for next week, it's just a matter of whether she's desexed at the same time.

Why would you desex her? If you get the teeth fixed she can still be shown.

[becks]

i would hold off on the desexing - you could end up regretting it

[Catherine and Widget]

That's why I'm asking if it will affect showing. If it won't affect showing I won't get her desexed, obviously.

[Jed]

Whether it will affect her show chances depends on the placement of the teeth. You wont know until the baby teeth are pulled out. Also, pups' mouths change regularly.

I intended taking my 5 month old pup to see the breeder, and noticed she was undershot (wrong), so left the visit. A week later two more adult teeth had erupted, and she had a perfect scissor bite again.

If this was my pup, I would have spoken to the breeder first, and I don't know whether I would pull the baby teeth or not ..... depends on the placement of the adult teeth, and whether they were correctly placed or not.

Teething in pups is problematical, specially for new owners, and I certainly would not desex at this time. You could end up with a desexed show pup.