Broken puppy teeth

My little Mac is coming on great, he's nearly 14 weeks now and settled into his routine - thanks to some great crate training advice from you guys

As expected he loves to chew anything he can get hold of, remote controls, slippers, magazines etc so I picked up a bone from the butcher for him which I gave him yesterday.. he loved it and chewed away on it for ages however... I was playing with him this morning and happened to notice his 2 little front teeth are gone - and then to my horror realised the bottom 2 are also gone

You can see a tiny bit of tooth on the gum where each tooth was and the gum is slightly pinker in this area.

I'm horrified that I've caused this with the bone - clearly his teeth are far too brittle for it - my question is, should I take him to the vet or is this common and to be expected as they will shortly be replaced by his adult teeth?

Are you sure they have broken rather than just fallen out?
I wouldn't bother with the vet, unless you are very worried or unless there is swelling in the area and he is really sore there. It could be they have just fallen out with a bit of help...he's at that age.

Hi Donna it sounds as though your puppy may not have broken his teeth at all but is teething and the tiny bits of tooth you can see in the pink gum are the new teeth coming through.

The gums will be pink and sore during teething and may bleed a little, you can help by giving your puppy cold soothing things to chew like an old tea towel knotted/moistened/frozen or a frozen carrot (under supervision).

I would have another look, of course if you are in doubt check with the vet.

It seems you are both absolutely correct.. much to my relief!

He now has brand new adult teeth making their way through his wee gums

While we're on this subject, I'd be interested to know what your views are on butcher's bones (it was a beef shin bone) for a pup his age - was I right to think it's too much for his little teeth and mouth at this stage or are they actually ideal for a teething puppy??

Aww you must be happy!

People have different views on bones, personaly I find big cow bones too much for the dogs and they can break teeth on them
A knuckle bone (and take it away once they are done with the knuckle) ox tail or any lamb or chicken bones seem fine (so long as they are uncooked)

Mac this afternoon, what an angel!

Hi Donna as Ben says there are varying opinions on feeding bones. This article gives a good description of the different kinds of bones..

http://rawfed.com/myths/bones.html
Dried fish is good for chewing on too , Burns make a product called Ocean Bites
and Fish4dogs do a couple of dried fish products too. (Both companies have websites).