Cattle Teeth

[arlen]

I noticed a little blood on my bull's lower lip the other day. Being that he is such a friendly little guy, I opened his mouth to have a look. It almost looked like his 2 center front teeth were broke off...just 2 sharp nubs sticking up a little, and the gums were bleeding a bit. I wondered if the donkey "got" him.
Today I got to thinking maybe he was cutting permanent teeth. He is right at 2 years old. Would that time frame make sense? If he did get them knocked out, can he get by OK that way?

[tarsallat]

They usually drop the 2 middle milk teeth at about 18 months. Permanent teeth are usually bigger than the milk teeth. Maybe he has already got new ones coming through and blood could be from dropping the next 2 to go.

[Deleted]

Well I'd be - moos have milk teeth which are replaced by permanent teeth?!

Feel a little silly for not even considering this fact but have learnt something new

[arlen]

I was looking today, and he definately has new ones coming in, and some more loose ones, I learned something new too

[Deleted]

Well Jack has losted his two front teeth (Never noticed his now 2 yr old stable-mate go through this)

Poor boy he looks so strange when he does his soft moo thing and there for the whole world to see is "the gap"

Thank goodness for this earlier topic or I would have started to have a small panic attack, instead armed with knowledge of normality, I just did the 'owner' thing of "oh........he's growing up"

He is a late bloomer though with turning two in November.

Can someone tell me how long before that gap is expected to fill up with 'adult teeth'?
And how long before he has a mouth full of adult chompers?

Cheers
Donna

[carragheendexters]

Hi Donna,
cattle will start to lose their incisors at around 18mths. There is a variation in normal cattle, it is an individual thing, just like children. They will usually have a full mouth by the time they are 4 years of age, some are a bit earlier.
This is how they age animals when they go through saleyards, slaughter yards etc, they are inspected and mouthed, they are known as milk tooth, 2 tooth, 4 tooth etc.
regards Louise

[Deleted]

Thanks Lousie for that info - I didnt realise it was such a long and drawn out process.

Yeek, no wonder they will have "their moments" then