MC Kitten with Retained Baby Teeth / Dental issues?

[KitteeMomma]

I rescued a sweet Maine Coon kitten the end of Sept. She's now about 17 weeks old.



She's been to the Vet several times, has already been spayed (Oct 4) and had to have a partial tail amputation as she had an injured end of her tail when I found her. When I first got her, I noticed what appeared to be little "tooth buds" coming in between her lower canine teeth. One seemed to be protruding from the gum lower than the others. The Vet commented on it but said basically that those were her baby teeth so they'd fall out anyway. Well she's been chewing on things a little more lately and her breath is a little more smelly so I thought maybe she was teething. I was shocked to see that one of her upper canine teeth, it appears that baby canine tooth has not fallen out and is growing along side the permanent canine.



And the bottom incisors (the little teeth between the bottom canine/fang teeth)....they are quite yellow, I'm thinking these are still the baby teeth (?) but that one that's not protruding in line with the others......the gum looks a little red around it. I am attaching pictures.



I do have a Vet appt for tomorrow afternoon. When I called the clinic yesterday, my vet wasn't in but I explained situation to Vet Tech who said she'd talk to another Vet then came back and told me not to worry, that cats rarely retain baby teeth....I assured her that i've read that it does happen and often the retained tooth needs to be surgically extracted. The impression I got from her was that I should just give it time and it will likely just fall out?



Has anyone ever dealt with this? Like I said, she's only 17 weeks so according to what I've read, she still has a fair bit of time before baby teeth are expected to fall out.



Concerned more about the bottom ?tooth bud that seems to be growing out the wrong spot......I have already spent $1700 I didn't really have or plan for when I rescued her, becuase of her initial health issues (the injured tail, had diarrhea, eye infection, very dehydrated, needed special food for a few weeks due to ongoing diarrhea, tore out one of her claws, etc etc).

I'm perplexed as to why the bottom incisors (the little teeth between the 2 lower canines/fangs) are so yellow? They've always looked this yellow. Her top incisors are nice and white.

Poor little girl, I can't imagine them having to do major dental work and cut into her gums to remove teeth and such. A shame she's already been spayed as I've read that IF there are problems w/ retained baby teeth they are often extracted while cat is under for their spaying/neutering.



Thanks for any info you can share. I had kittens 20 years ago and didn't know anything about cats then but never had any issues with their teeth or retained baby teeth.

Am attaching PICTURES of her teeth issues.

[jckkerrison]

Yes retained baby teeth are very often taken out when they are neutered {perhaps another reason for them not to be done young as it saves on another anaesthtic for the poor animal....}yes we do actually see quite a few & very often they are in the cats that are just coming up to the six months,those that & over very rarely do they have any retained baby teeth,our vet always takes them out as a precaution anyway but does make you think that if the younger felines came along just a couple of weeks later then nature would have taken its course. As for the yellow teeth & protruding one have never seen anything quite like that,some ab's have a side effect of yellowing teeth so are obviously avoided but then it would effect more than just those,could be genetic,if they are baby teeth then should be easy to remove if the vet thinks it is necessary for any of them.... hopefully he doesn't,good luck for tomorrow for both of you & please keep us updated.....xxx