Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Toothless Wonder

This is Nutmeg. He lost most of his teeth and had to have the remaining ones removed this month. They were only able to save his four canine teeth. It is a mystery why all his teeth went rotten at only three years of age. The vet said that his jawbone is perfectly sound. His sister Cloves also had all her teeth go rotten at the same time and likewise had to have them removed except for the four canines. The other two dogs from that litter are okay so far. Interestingly, both Nutmeg and Cloves are piebalds (white with black or brown patches) while the other two littermates are solid colored.

Nutmeg and Cloves can still eat just fine since kibble is not normally chewed anyway. It is rather amusing to watch Nutmeg tackle a biscuit, though. He basically gums it until it turns soft enough to break into pieces that he can swallow.

2 Comments:

At 5:18 AM, Blogger SusanE said...

Can you see that they have almost no teeth?

 
At 1:54 PM, Blogger Janet Whitesell said...

You know, I have been looking at all my dogs now, to see if any are missing teeth, and I find you have to pull the lips pretty far to see their teeth. The canines are the only really obvious ones. So no, the toothless dogs look normal to the casual glance. I did notice that Cloves's muzzle looks narrower without the teeth holding the lips out.

 

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