Removing dogs' baby teeth?

[JazzysMom]

I have a friend whose vet removes baby teeth at the time of spay/neuter in puppies. I've never heard of that. Is that a new norm? What is the rationale?

[snorky998]

Never heard of it. What explanation did the vet give to justify this?

[JazzysMom]

To prevent problems later if the teeth don't fall out. It's better to remove them while they are under anesthesia for the surgery than to risk anesthesia again later just to remove the teeth.

[renaultf1]

OMG…would that vet like to remove my pup, Liyah's baby teeth?! ;)
(I'm kidding of course). Ha ha!

[tanza]

Typically the spay/neuter is done around 6 months and by then the baby teeth are out? What age are they being spayed/neutered? And with the exception of the toy breeds, usually problems with the baby teeth not coming out is pretty small…

[agilebasenji]

I've heard of it in toy dogs, but not in larger breeds

[dash]

The vet I worked for did the same thing. The spay/neuter was around 6 mos so if the teeth were still there they would need to be pulled.

[ComicDom1]

Many years ago, in 1992, I was a member of the Chicago Miniature Schnauzer Club. At that time I had a show quality dog. It was common to keep an eye on the dogs teeth as their bite was developing. The claim was that sometimes the baby teeth do not fall out by themselves as the adult teeth are coming in and it can affect the dogs bite. So breeders and people with show dogs and their vets paid close attention to this because the bite is looked at in the ring.

I suppose that is it possible that this has now become a common practice for Vets to prevent or head off bite issues that may occur. I would think the easiest way to find out why a vet would do this is to ask them.

Although we knew that Roo would not be shown we keep an eye on this because we did not want him to develop any bite issues. I probably kept on eye on his teeth out of habit.

If I remember correctly Roo's teeth were not completely in until 8 months. Of course this may vary from dog to dog.

Jason

[tanza]

The teeth that usually cause the problems with bites are the K-9's if they don't come out.. but rarely in our breed. Toy breeds, lots of times there are problems with the teeth and the bite.

[Kona]

Kona (well over a year) still has one baby tooth and the vet said if/when she goes under anesthesia they want to take it out to prevent problems. Another note kind of related to this topic (and wondering if her extra baby tooth causes this)…but do your basenjis chew with their front teeth? Kona only chews with her back teeth. She will take a treat with her front teeth, but immediately drop it so she can readjust it so she doesn't have to use them. Is this normal?

[RedVelvetLynx]

@Kona:

Kona (well over a year) still has one baby tooth and the vet said if/when she goes under anesthesia they want to take it out to prevent problems. Another note kind of related to this topic (and wondering if her extra baby tooth causes this)…but do your basenjis chew with their front teeth? Kona only chews with her back teeth. She will take a treat with her front teeth, but immediately drop it so she can readjust it so she doesn't have to use them. Is this normal?

Hi Kona -
My basenjis do the same thing & they bite & "grab" things with their front teeth - sometimes I think they don't bother to chew at all! ;)

[MacPack]

I believe the sharper front teeth are the pinchers and rippers, the back molars are for really chewing, with big surfaces for grinding. We humans don't usually chew with our front teeth either, we bite and move the food to the rear of our mouths for chewing.