Q: Do all dogs have the same number of teeth? When I look in our
Pomeranian’s mouth, it looks as though he has a few extras. Can
this be a problem?
Q: Do all dogs have the same number of teeth? When I look in our Pomeranian’s mouth, it looks as though he has a few extras. Can this be a problem?
A: Extra teeth can result from two different medical conditions. First, if your little guy still has a few of his baby teeth (that is, they never fell out when his permanent teeth came in), then his mouth will look a little more “crowded” than normal.
Smaller dogs seem to have more problems with this, and usually it’s the baby canine teeth that refuse to make way for the permanents. Occasionally a few baby incisors might also remain.
In either situation, extraction of these teeth is easy, and it’s a good idea to have this done. Extra teeth crowd the permanents and cause food to become trapped in the tight spaces. Dental and gum disease is common in dogs with retained baby teeth.
In a more unusual scenario, some dogs have extra permanent teeth, called supernumery teeth. In these cases, there may be anywhere from one to a dozen extra permanent teeth in the mouth.
Pomeranians and other toy breeds seem to suffer from this problem far more than other dogs. Some have a complete second row of incisors, right behind the regular teeth.
Whatever the case, all those extra teeth mean that your little Pom has a dental problem that needs attention. No matter what the cause, extra teeth require removal. Supernumery teeth and retained baby teeth both cause problems that can’t be ignored.
So schedule a visit to the vet for evaluation, and remind your little friend that after all of this is corrected, he can look forward to a nice visit from the tooth fairy.
Q: Morticia, our 7-year-old labrador, has several lumps under her skin near her shoulders and chest. The vet looked at these and called them lipomas. She wants to schedule surgery to remove them. Is there a way to test these and confirm they are just fat tumors? Is surgery really necessary?
A: Lipomas are tumors of fat cells that are fairly common in middle-age and older dogs. Some breeds, labs included, are more prone to these tumors. The good news is that lipomas are usually benign (malignant lipomas are very uncommon).
There’s a certain texture or characteristic to these tumors. Many are located in the subcutaneous tissue (under the skin), and have a very smooth surface.
Nonetheless, most veterinarians like to confirm their diagnosis by one of two methods.
The first is a simple fine-needle aspirate, where a sample of the tumor is extracted using a very small needle. This procedure is relatively painless and usually can be done without any local anesthesia.
The aspirated sample is transferred to a microscope slide and examined under magnification to identify the cells that are in the lump. Fat cells are easy to differentiate and their presence confirms the diagnosis of lipoma.
The other method is tissue biopsy, but this requires an excision into the mass. I like to avoid this invasive procedure unless I’m suspicious of a serious problem such as a malignancy. And remember, lipomas are almost all benign.
If Morticia’s vet didn’t perform a fine-needle aspirate, ask her to do so, just so you can be sure of the diagnosis. Even though most lipomas can be diagnosed by routine examination, there are other, less-common tumors that can look and feel similar.
Removal of lipomas is relatively simple and recovery from surgery is usually easy and quick. By the way, liposuction doesn’t work to remove these tumors.
Many pet owners choose to have their pets undergo surgery. But you should remember that this is a benign tumor, and while it may grow larger, it presents little threat to Morticia. If you leave it as is, and it doesn’t cause her any discomfort when she lays down, her life will go on unchanged. Slow-growing lipomas don’t necessarily require surgical removal unless they make the patient uncomfortable.
Q: I heard that male calico cats are rare and worth a lot of money. After looking everywhere, I’m not sure they even exist. Is the male calico just a made-up story or are they for real?
A: Male calico cats are uncommon, indeed, but they do exist. Their rarity makes them desirable to some people, but before you go out looking for one, here are a few facts you should know.
The gene that produces the calico coat is a sex-linked gene and with rare exceptions, only female kitties are calico. In 29 years in this profession, I’ve only seen three of these felines. And they seemed like any other cat to me.
Male calicos look and act like other cats except for one important attribute … they are sterile. That’s right, male calicos are infertile because of their genetic makeup.
They can’t reproduce because instead of the usual male genetics of an X and Y chromosome, they have an extra X chromosome tagged on. This XXY genetic configuration makes them unable to produce viable sperm.
I once knew a fellow that paid a large sum of money for a male calico named Flip. He thought it was a good investment, figuring he could breed this cat to produce more of the same. His profits would be grrrrreat (to quote Tony the Tiger).
Well, Flip was infertile and never blessed this guy with any offspring, and when this fellow found out the truth about calicos, he had him neutered.
Flip was a flop when it came to breeding, but he made a priceless house pet and lived a good long life.
A note about calico cats
Calico cats are tri-colored, usually orange, black and white. Tortoise shell calicos are those that have very little white. They almost look brindle. But have you ever seen a calico that was grey, white and apricot or cream colored? These are the colors of dilute calicos, and they truly are beautiful. Next time you see a calico cat, see if you can determine whether it is a true calico or a tortoise shell, or maybe a dilute.
