# Vet wants to pull teeth?



## Syrina (Jul 9, 2009)

At our last vet appointment for Mudkipz' shots, when we were arranging for his neuter, the vet mentioned pulling his puppy teeth if he hadn't lost them all by that time.

Is this normal or is my vet trying to make money off of me? My friends, when they heard about it, seemed to think the latter. I've never heard of it being done, but then I've never been the primary care-taker of a dog, either.

He'll be around 6 months when he gets neutered. He's already lost several teeth but I'm not sure how many.


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## Keechak (Aug 10, 2008)

It's a fairly common procedure. I've known a few dogs that had to get thier canine teeth pulled. My cousin's Labrador still had her baby canines WITH her adult canines until she got them pulled during her spay at 15 months.


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## CoverTune (Mar 11, 2007)

I think it's more common in some breeds. Corona had to have her two canines pulled when she was spayed (at approx 8 months). Aria was spayed earlier (6 months) and so they left her teeth.. she had her adult canines come in in front of the baby ones, but thankfully now both baby teeth have fallen out on their own.


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## Inga (Jun 16, 2007)

I have never had teeth pulled on a large breed dog. I have heard of it in Yorkies and other small breed dogs. Don't know what kind of dog you have.


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## Syrina (Jul 9, 2009)

Inga said:


> I have never had teeth pulled on a large breed dog. I have heard of it in Yorkies and other small breed dogs. Don't know what kind of dog you have.


He's a rat terrier, about 10-12lbs, approximately. He was 8.1 at the last vet appointment in November and he's growing like a weed.


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## Dakota Spirit (Jul 31, 2007)

I have a Rattie as well and we never had to have any of her baby teeth pulled. 

That said, I know it DOES happen with some smaller dogs. I would talk to your vet about it some more and then decide. You could also make the choice to wait and see if the teeth will come out on their own.


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## animalcraker (Nov 9, 2006)

Typicaly if the teeth haven't fallen out by 8 months then they will need to be pulled out. Since your pup will only be 6 months old at that time it's somewhat on the fence about whether his teeth should be pulled or not. It the adult teeth are already coming in behind the puppy teeth then it's recomended to remove them and allow the adult teeth room to grow. But if the adult teeth aren't in yet then it should be recomened to allow the puppy teeth to stay and allow the teeth more time to develop. If you pull out a puppy tooth too soon you risk posibly damaging the developing adult tooth.


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## RedyreRottweilers (Dec 17, 2006)

Normal dogs have lost all puppy teeth BEFORE 6 months of age. This is one reason why the AKC will not allow puppies to be exhibited until they are 6 mos.

If he has puppy teeth remaining at 6 months of age and you are putting him under for a neuter, I would absolutely have any of them that are still there removed.


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## trump44 (Jan 12, 2010)

I have never heard of that problem before...do they need to be put under for teeth pulling?


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## Inga (Jun 16, 2007)

I guess all my playing with a tug -a-rope with my puppies paid off. All the puppy teeth come flying out when I played like that. Oliver actually lost like 4 teeth by knawing on my sweater when he was a pup. It was like everytime he would come by me, he would sort of grab my arm (sweater) and by the time I got his mouth off and told him "no, no" there would be another puppy tooth hanging there. lol

Does your puppy chew on things? A big cotten rope maybe?


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## Dakota Spirit (Jul 31, 2007)

trump44 said:


> I have never heard of that problem before...do they need to be put under for teeth pulling?


Yes. If for no other reason then it would be near impossible to try and pull teeth from a continuous (and probably scared) dog. It also keeps their pain level to a minimum.


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## Syrina (Jul 9, 2009)

Inga said:


> I guess all my playing with a tug -a-rope with my puppies paid off. All the puppy teeth come flying out when I played like that. Oliver actually lost like 4 teeth by knawing on my sweater when he was a pup. It was like everytime he would come by me, he would sort of grab my arm (sweater) and by the time I got his mouth off and told him "no, no" there would be another puppy tooth hanging there. lol
> 
> Does your puppy chew on things? A big cotten rope maybe?


Oh, yes. Constantly. He always has something safe to chew on, because if he doesn't, he finds something!

Like I said, we've found several teeth, and I'm sure there are more. We've found the spaces in his mouth where the adult teeth haven't grown in.

I was a little worried about this, but since it sounds like it's not an uncommon procedure, we'll just wait and see if it is even necessary.


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## lucidity (Nov 10, 2009)

I'd suggest waiting till he's 6 months or right before the procedure to check if he still has any baby teeth left. Cadence was neutered at 5.5 months and the vet wanted to pull his last remaining canine and was going to charge me an extra $40-50 for it! (Ripoff, I tell you) I told her I'd monitor the tooth and if it didn't fall out on its own, I'd go in and see her... but it fell out on its own the next week anyways so it was a non-issue. You should check with your vet first on how much they charge for tooth extraction... sometimes they'll suggest you do ABC XYZ just to charge you more for it. Most pups still have one or two baby teeth left at 5+ months, so wait till your pup is at least 6 months before you bring him in if you're worried about them having to extract any of his teeth.


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