i have a 3 and a half month old chocolate lab. As of 3 days ago I noticed that his lower left canine tooth wasn't there. I didn't think anything of it because of his age I thought he had lost the tooth, but something told me today to just look in his mouth and check, so I did and there I saw a fractured canine tooth. It's fractured basically to the gym. He has about 1/3 of it left. He's eating and playing with his toys just fine and showing no signs of pain what so ever. When I called his vet today she recommended I come in for him to go under anesthesia to get the tooth out. I really don't want to put him under this young for a tooth that he is just going to lose in a month or two. Does anyone have any insite on this ? Has anyone had a puppy fracture a tooth and just left it alone? Thanks so much!
Well done on checking closely to see what was going on. I would definitely take your vet's advice on this. The tooth will be very painful (don't be fooled by his behaviour - dogs are incredibly stoic about pain) and there is also a risk of infection. Removing a baby tooth isn't a big deal and it will mean that his adult tooth can come through with no problems. General anaesthetics are very safe these days
Ask about sedation vs general anaesthetic if you are worried about GA. I had an op earlier this year and I was offered three types of anaesthetic: local and awake, conscious sedation, and GA. I opted for conscious sedation altho I was knocked out and wasn't aware of anything. (I would've preferred just a local, but surgeon convinced me otherwise - guess they prefer their patients quiet!) When Snowie had his eye worked on, he was only sedated, no GA - seemed to work like the anaesthetic I had, cos he was knocked out, too (I was allowed in the operating room with him).
I would take the vets advice. The baby tooth could affect the adult tooth coming through. My vets advice in a very similar scenario was to take the wait and see approach. I now wish I hadn't , as there is a mark and stain on her adult tooth that may give rise to problems later.
Hello. My pup fractured a baby canine tooth a while ago however it was only the tip. I took her to the vet to get it checked twice but they were happy to leave it and let it come out by itself. It eventually came out and her adult canine thankfully came through ok. I did a lot of reading about fractured teeth at the time and I think your vet is being very sensible. If the tooth is fractured at the gum line the pulp will be exposed which will be painful and you cannot avoid it getting infected which I believe can cause problems for the developing adult canines as well. The broken tooth might not come out naturally for another 2-3 months. My pup was spayed yesterday and 24 hours later is recovering well and back to her usual self so though having a general anaesthetic is a worry they seem to bounce back quickly. I would definitely get the tooth removed otherwise you could have months of worry and problems with this.
