My poor, poor Ella Bean. Rescued at 4 months, who knows what happened before…My Bean has the worst case of retained baby (or deciduous, as the DVMs would put it) teeth. She literally has two rows of top and bottom front teeth. The newbies just aren’t pushing the deciduous guys out. Her lower canine teeth have started the same path.

I actually yanked a loose one out from the back myself. Pull and twist. Fast. I saw a vet do it to Louis back when he was a pup, so clearly, I am qualified.It was my first canine surgical procedure. It was bloody, but successful and she seems much more comfortable. Her gums are inflamed and as I discussed in the first chapter of this tale, her breath is so rancid I can’t bear to have my face to close to hers - and I am a pretty hands on mom. Not too much will gross me out with my dogs.

Wait, I just got another. Seriously. I stopped typing to check out her mouth, found another loose one, yanked and put it straight into her baby teeth box. Bloody. Louis has a box too, for the ones we found, anyway. Sick, right? But would you have your dog-blogger be any less of a parent?

Not to worry, I am only doing the serious, hanging on by a thread, loose teeth. I am poking around for wigglies at obsessively frequent intervals. I should really find a more valuable way to spend time.

Apparently this is incredibly common in toy breeds. I didn’t experience it with Louis and the family and I were /are surprised by her breath and the double teeth. She is like a little shark, two sets a razor teeth ready to kill. Its actually her breath that could do the killing. As previously mentioned, this happens because crud gets stuck between, behind and underneath these retained teeth. I am brushing hers twice a day and it is not helping.

She is about 6 months old now, old enough for her spay. We are trying to hold off for a few reasons, a) she might weigh 3 pounds after a lot of treats, so in hopes she gets a little bigger and b) to give her teeth more time to work themselves out.

On the other hand, more time means a higher possibility of gum disease and displaced adult teeth. These are the choices we make and hope we are doing whats right. After speaking with her vet, he feels another few weeks won’t do any damage, so we are going to give it a try.

Whatever isn’t out by spay time, comes out when she is under anesthesia. Imagine. You go to sleep and wakeup without your uterus (which you didn’t even know you had) and your mouth is killing you. I have had my appendix out and teeth pulled and of all of the health procedures I have had, I can, with some authority say the belly and mouth are two of the worst places to get messed with by a doctor. I want to try and lighten her load. Life hasn’t been so easy for my Bean thus far.On the upside, her heinous haircut is starting to grow out.

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