I don't mind talking about this at all as I find it somewhat interesting with what I have experienced. I have had two Cavaliers in 26 years who were missing one tooth each. They were completely unrelated, their stories as follows.
Puppy #1--a blenheim bitch born 10/95 that I called Heidi. Her missing tooth was one of the middle two on the bottom. I had bred her myself; her dad happened to be a boy out of my one disaster litter. My disaster litter had immune problems with one puppy developing myositis at 6 weeks, another developed another weird immune problem where his nerves were eaten away until he died at 15 months of age. Even though the mom was MVD clear till age 9 and dad was clear till age 8 or 9 at least--5 out of the 6 of the puppies developed MVD between 4 and 5 years of age--although one was clear until 7 years of age. The other 4 seem *healthy*, including Heidi's dad, so far as we can tell but they are all hypersensitive to vaccines--not usual for my dogs. The dad was only bred twice and even though he seemed very healthy, did quite well in the show ring and passed all his tests--his puppies were not healthy with allergies and such--so he was neutered and placed as a pet and is still doing very well. Anyhow Heidi was missing that tooth. I had her x-rayed and the tooth bud WAS there, but for some unknown reason the tooth did not grow in. I did breed Heidi one time--she seemed quite healthy and passed all her tests. She was a lovely bitch with a wonderful head and good structure, but mismarked on the head so I never showed her. She had 3 puppies who were not missing teeth--but they too had immune problems. Not as serious as her dad's brothers and sisters--more along the line of allergies and itchiness--but I decided to not take chances and spayed her as well after just one litter. None of her dad's other offspring or her offspring were ever bred so the problem stopped right there. Puppy #2 was a blenheim bitch I purchased from someone else--completely and totally unrelated to Heidi, as unrelated as Cavaliers can get, but born in 11/95--rather close to the same birthdate as Heidi. Both her parents were imports. She was missing one of the middle two teeth on the top. Again she was x-rayed and the tooth bud was there but the tooth never grew in. Because the tooth missing was on the top she was undershot so she was only shown as a puppy--she got a 2nd in a class of 21 despite the bad bite--she was quite a pretty bitch. The litter she was born in also had weird immune problems--myositis and other things. Only she and one other boy seem to be healthy--the others all developed weird problems. This bitch is still healthy and MVD clear but she never was successful at producing puppies. She kept delivering her puppies too early--8 days early the first time, 3 out of 6 survived. There were extenuating circumstances that caused me to believe the puppies would probably have lived if things had been slightly different, so I bred her again--she had the second litter 9 days early and only 1 out of 6 survived. It was years before I bred her again and I almost spayed her several times but my vet (Dr. Hutchison of course) convinced me her progesterone was probably dropping too early so we tried one more time when she was 5 years old and still MVD clear. Despite progesterone injections she lost the whole litter of 5 so she was spayed and removed from my breeding program as well. Yes, her progesterone did drop, but I think her losing the puppies was immune related. All 4 of her live puppies are neutered and spayed so it won't go any further. They were a weirdly sort--the 3 boys from the first litter ALL had TWO retained testicles--the only puppies I've had in 26 years with 2 retained testicles. The girl is tiny--we called her our pocket puppy--cute as the dickens and personality plus, but so small. She is not very bright at all--I truly believe she had minor brain damage because of being born too early--immature lungs. Anyhow, I can't help but wonder if the missing teeth in these two bitches were somehow *tied* to an immune condition. It all seems too much a coincidence. No puppies I had before or since have had missing teeth! And all those weird immune things came to a quick stop when the dogs and offspring were removed from my breeding program. Weak teeth I take to mean smallish teeth that either look like or you know they have weak roots. I have seen them on some of the Cavaliers I've boarded. They look *bad* as compared to the nice, biggish, strong looking teeth I am used to seeing. Many times they are crooked due to movement because of weak roots. I have not seen many like this, but when I do it seems very apparent they are *weak* teeth. Laura Lang Roycroft Cavaliers ========================================================= "Magic Commands": to stop receiving mail for awhile, click here and send the email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20NOMAIL to start it up gain click here: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20MAIL E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] for assistance. Search the Archives... http://apple.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ckcs-l.html All e-mail sent through CKCS-L is Copyright 2002 by its original author.
