Many people, when buying a charming little puppy, do not know if their dogs have milk teeth, and are not ready for the problems that arise when they change, which usually occurs during the first four to six months of life. Like young children, puppies experience discomfort, itching, and sometimes gum pain. During this period, they gnaw everything that is bad, and can cause a lot of harm to furniture legs and other things.
What does the owner need to know?
The care of the owner in this period should not be limited only to feeding, education and concern for the safety of his property.
Small and sharp puppy teeth also require constant attention from the owner. Especially if you are planning a pet show career. Standards of breeds of cynological organizations are very demanding on having a complete set of teeth and dog bites.
To make the tooth change the most painless, the pet must have some good safe toys. Soft, flexible, easy-to-bend toys appropriate for the size of the baby and special chewing treats are preferred. Tendon bones and rawhide and cured meats are great.
It is impossible to vaccinate a puppy during the period of the change of teeth.
Puppy's milk teeth
All dogs are born toothless, with bare gums. Starting at about two weeks of age, their first teeth erupt. At the age of eight to ten weeks, most puppies complete the process, and they have twenty-eight teeth. This is a complete set of milk teeth in dogs. Are there any exceptions? Everything happens in life, including dogs with fewer teeth, but a healthy milk puppy should have twenty-eight. There is a general pattern: the larger the dog, the faster its teeth erupt.
Fangs usually appear first - long sharp teeth. This happens in the third week of the baby's life. Next, incisors begin to appear, six on each jaw. This usually happens in the fourth week. Premolars, or false-rooted teeth, erupt last, they begin to grow at the age of three to six weeks, six pieces on each side of the jaw, on the upper and lower. Puppies have no molars.
There are some non-critical deviations from this sequence when the fangs cut through almost simultaneously with the incisors, etc.
In dogs of miniature breeds, tooth growth is delayed, usually their first teeth appear at the sixth week of life.
After teething all the deciduous teeth in the puppy, it is recommended to undergo an examination at the veterinarian. An experienced veterinarian can notice abnormalities in the formation of the bite, and give recommendations for correcting it, if possible.
Do dogs have milk teeth?
Usually the first milk teeth fall out at the age of about four months. In a normally developed puppy, teeth change lasts about 60 days, and by six months there are no milk teeth. As a rule, the fangs fall out last, and the end of the loss of milk teeth is not difficult to track.
In most cases, puppies swallow loose teeth with food. Sometimes a tooth falls out when a puppy chews on something inedible. People who don’t know if the dogs have milk teeth sometimes get scared when they see a tooth falling out on the floor or a speck of blood on a soft toy.
Teeth change
Permanent teeth begin to erupt simultaneously with the loss of milk. Each falling out is replaced by a constant. But the sequence of prolapse and growth of constants differs from the order of formation of the primary bite.
Hooks are the first to change, then the middle and the edges. Following them grow the first molars located immediately after the premolars. These teeth have no predecessor milk. Then the false-root premolars change. The last, as mentioned above, will grow permanent fangs. By eight to ten months, the pet should have formed a complete set of permanent teeth: twenty on the upper and twenty two on the lower jaw.
In dogs of miniature breeds and brachycephals, due to the structural features of the muzzle, 40 permanent teeth.
A complete change of teeth in puppies of large breeds with normal development ends in eight to nine months, in small ones it should be completed by the year.
Puppy behavior during tooth change
Teething discomfort in puppies often scares the wearer too much. If the puppy is active, drinks, is interested in toys and willingly communicates with the owner, but eats less and not so willingly, there is no problem. Sometimes there is a slight fever and diarrhea. If the puppy refuses food or communication, this is an occasion to show it to the veterinarian.
There is pain when changing milk teeth in dogs. Is there any way to help the pet in this case?
Pain and discomfort in the gums can soothe the cold. The most harmless and effective way will be a frozen cube of homemade broth without spices. Another good and proven way to soothe the pain that dogs experience during this period is to gnaw a frozen carrot or apple, depending on what the pet likes.
When is help needed?
Have milk teeth in dogs, found out. And what to do with them?
If the puppy shows no signs of severe anxiety, it is best to let the baby teeth fall out on their own. But with signs of severe discomfort and soreness, gum disease, the help of a veterinarian is required. The answer to the question whether a dog needs to extract milk teeth is ambiguous. Do not try to remove the tooth yourself. Even milk teeth of dogs have very long roots. Unqualified help from the wearer can hurt if a broken root remains in the gum and infection begins.
The exception is the case when the milk tooth does not stagger, and a permanent one already appears next to it. In this situation, the only correct answer to the question of whether it is necessary to pull out milk teeth in dogs is peremptory: "Mandatory." If you leave the milk tooth in place, this subsequently leads to periodontal tissue diseases that occur very quickly with constant injury to the gums with an incorrectly positioned tooth. If the grown tooth is strongly deflected to the side, injuries to the cheeks or tongue are possible.