A Peculiar and Perplexing Puzzlement

[KarenSoCal]

The other day I was sitting in my kitchen, when my 8 month old puppy, Ruger,



came to me with something in his mouth. He was rolling it around his mouth like we do with a piece of hard candy...in fact, that's what it sounded like.

Now since I don't have hard candy anywhere he could get it, I knew I had to investigate. He's learning "drop it" and "leave it", but not well enough yet to give up his treasure.

Ruger has a big mouth! But since he is an agreeable fellow, I reached in, and no longer able to see below my wrist, began to use my fingers to explore all the caves and folds in there. It wasn't difficult to move around, since it was well lubricated with the slobber from holding his jaws open.

Finally I hit paydirt! I gripped the slippery object and slowly pulled out my hand, and gasped in disbelief! This is it...



A TOOTH!!! Imagine my astonishment when I realized what it was!

So next project was to find out where(or who) it came from.

The results of my searches:
All 3 of my dogs have all 4 canines.
There are 2 dog graves in my yard--neither is disturbed.
There are no dead bodies in my yard, at least as of last evening.
It is almost impossible that Ruger had a jaunt outside of my fence. I watch him almost constantly, and such an adventure would have been difficult and taken quite a while to pull off, even if there was something dead in close proximity.

So what are your ideas? If the tooth donor was alive when this happened, what could make an entire tooth and root come out unbroken? Wouldn't that require a huge trauma?
I've never seen it, but do puppies ever lose a canine tooth when teething?

Everybody! Help me figure this out! 🤔😃

 

[Tom]

Maybe a raven found it on a coyote carcass and dropped it in your yard while flying over?

Didn't you have Ruger's dad there for a time?

 

[Cathie G]

My little puppy did similar with two of his baby teeth when he lost them and one was a canine. I kept it. But really that looks pretty big to be a baby tooth from Ruger. And the root doesn't look like a baby tooth either. It looks like Ruger did what puppies do. Ate something he shouldn't and was playing with it.

 

[TammyJ]

Ruger looks great! No idea about the tooth really.

 

[Yvonne G]

A baby canine tooth is much sharper than that and has shallow root. I'll bet it's something like what Cathy said.

 

[zovick]

The other day I was sitting in my kitchen, when my 8 month old puppy, Ruger,

View attachment 377900

came to me with something in his mouth. He was rolling it around his mouth like we do with a piece of hard candy...in fact, that's what it sounded like.

Now since I don't have hard candy anywhere he could get it, I knew I had to investigate. He's learning "drop it" and "leave it", but not well enough yet to give up his treasure.

Ruger has a big mouth! But since he is an agreeable fellow, I reached in, and no longer able to see below my wrist, began to use my fingers to explore all the caves and folds in there. It wasn't difficult to move around, since it was well lubricated with the slobber from holding his jaws open.

Finally I hit paydirt! I gripped the slippery object and slowly pulled out my hand, and gasped in disbelief! This is it...

View attachment 377904

A TOOTH!!! Imagine my astonishment when I realized what it was!

So next project was to find out where(or who) it came from.

The results of my searches:
All 3 of my dogs have all 4 canines.
There are 2 dog graves in my yard--neither is disturbed.
There are no dead bodies in my yard, at least as of last evening.
It is almost impossible that Ruger had a jaunt outside of my fence. I watch him almost constantly, and such an adventure would have been difficult and taken quite a while to pull off, even if there was something dead in close proximity.

So what are your ideas? If the tooth donor was alive when this happened, what could make an entire tooth and root come out unbroken? Wouldn't that require a huge trauma?
I've never seen it, but do puppies ever lose a canine tooth when teething?

Everybody! Help me figure this out! 🤔😃

That looks to be a permanent canine tooth from some type of carnivore and not a baby tooth, so not from your dog teething. Also, the root doesn't have any blood or periodontal ligament on it, so it may not have been all that recently lost, although if your dog was chewing on it, the periodontal tissue may have been worn off by mechanical abrasion.

Are there any coyotes near you? Badgers, raccoons, or skunks might also have teeth like that one.

If you do figure it out, I'd be interested to know what animal lost it.

 

[zovick]

@KarenSoCal

You are correct in that a tooth like that would NOT come out of a living animal without a great deal of effort/trauma. You would need a pair of surgical forceps to extract a tooth like that. The only other way I can think of that such a tooth could be lost from a live animal would be if its jaw were broken such as if it got hit by a car or bitten very hard by a much larger animal.

Also puppies do lose canine teeth when they are teething, but they don't have big thick roots like the tooth you pictured in your hand. The roots of the baby teeth are almost always partially dissolved and quite thin from the pressure the permanent tooth exerts on them when growing into the mouth from underneath the baby tooth.

 

[jeff kushner]

There are no dead bodies in my yard, at least as of last evening.

Have you discounted the house as well?

I had to ask, you understand of course..........LOL

Good luck with that one!

 

[KarenSoCal]

Maybe a raven found it on a coyote carcass and dropped it in your yard while flying over?

Didn't you have Ruger's dad there for a time?

That is a definite possibility! We have coyotes and ravens, so maybe that's what happened.

I never had Ruger's dad here...he was rehomed the day before I brought Petra home.

 

[KarenSoCal]

Ruger looks great! No idea about the tooth really.

Thank you, Tammy! He's now taller than his mom, and almost as long. I wish I had a way to weigh him other than the vet's office.

 

[KarenSoCal]

My little puppy did similar with two of his baby teeth when he lost them and one was a canine. I kept it. But really that looks pretty big to be a baby tooth from Ruger. And the root doesn't look like a baby tooth either. It looks like Ruger did what puppies do. Ate something he shouldn't and was playing with it.

He certainly would eat something nauseating! It's just a little hard to imagine that there is nothing left over! I'd think I would find something.

 

[Chefdenoel10]

The other day I was sitting in my kitchen, when my 8 month old puppy, Ruger,

View attachment 377900

came to me with something in his mouth. He was rolling it around his mouth like we do with a piece of hard candy...in fact, that's what it sounded like.

Now since I don't have hard candy anywhere he could get it, I knew I had to investigate. He's learning "drop it" and "leave it", but not well enough yet to give up his treasure.

Ruger has a big mouth! But since he is an agreeable fellow, I reached in, and no longer able to see below my wrist, began to use my fingers to explore all the caves and folds in there. It wasn't difficult to move around, since it was well lubricated with the slobber from holding his jaws open.

Finally I hit paydirt! I gripped the slippery object and slowly pulled out my hand, and gasped in disbelief! This is it...

View attachment 377904

A TOOTH!!! Imagine my astonishment when I realized what it was!

So next project was to find out where(or who) it came from.

The results of my searches:
All 3 of my dogs have all 4 canines.
There are 2 dog graves in my yard--neither is disturbed.
There are no dead bodies in my yard, at least as of last evening.
It is almost impossible that Ruger had a jaunt outside of my fence. I watch him almost constantly, and such an adventure would have been difficult and taken quite a while to pull off, even if there was something dead in close proximity.

So what are your ideas? If the tooth donor was alive when this happened, what could make an entire tooth and root come out unbroken? Wouldn't that require a huge trauma?
I've never seen it, but do puppies ever lose a canine tooth when teething?

Everybody! Help me figure this out! 🤔😃

Never the less… Ruger should get $5 under his pillow tonight!
It’s only fair!
The tooth fairy 🧚‍♀️ doesn’t have to know that it’s not his!!! 🤭🤭🤭

 

[KarenSoCal]

That looks to be a permanent canine tooth from some type of carnivore and not a baby tooth, so not from your dog teething. Also, the root doesn't have any blood or periodontal ligament on it, so it may not have been all that recently lost, although if your dog was chewing on it, the periodontal tissue may have been worn off by mechanical abrasion.

Are there any coyotes near you? Badgers, raccoons, or skunks might also have teeth like that one.

If you do figure it out, I'd be interested to know what animal lost it.

There are coyotes here. No badgers that I've ever heard of. Raccoons and skunks are here, but rarely seen. In fact, the only skunk I've seen around here was roadkill.

By all means, I'll tell you what it was if I ever find out.

 

[KarenSoCal]

@KarenSoCal

You are correct in that a tooth like that would NOT come out of a living animal without a great deal of effort/trauma. You would need a pair of surgical forceps to extract a tooth like that. The only other way I can think of that such a tooth could be lost from a live animal would be if its jaw were broken such as if it got hit by a car or bitten very hard by a much larger animal.

Also puppies do lose canine teeth when they are teething, but they don't have big thick roots like the tooth you pictured in your hand. The roots of the baby teeth are almost always partially dissolved and quite thin from the pressure the permanent tooth exerts on them when growing into the mouth from underneath the baby tooth.

I found 2 teeth that Ruger lost...they are exactly as you described.

 

[KarenSoCal]

Never the less… Ruger should get $5 under his pillow tonight!
It’s only fair!
The tooth fairy 🧚‍♀️ doesn’t have to know that it’s not his!!! 🤭🤭🤭

$5.00!! I used to get a half dollar! Of course, that was back in the dark ages! I'll give him a doggie cookie!

 

[KarenSoCal]

Have you discounted the house as well?

I had to ask, you understand of course..........LOL

Good luck with that one!

Since you had to ask...I had to look! Nope, no bodies inside either!