Lost back teeth

This morning my husband found what looks like a string of the back teeth from one of our 8 NDs. Their front teeth are much taller than the ones he found on the ground, when he was cleaning their area. So we suspect they came from the back of one's goat's mouth. Would these grow back? (Our NDs are 1.5 yrs old). We will try to pry each mouth open to check all teeth but we know that's going to be hard as our goats squirm quite a lot when we try to hold their heads still. We hope to identify the one that's missing the teeth. But wanted to see if anyone knows whether that's ok/common, whether the goat will still be able to chew their cud, etc. In other words, should I be very worried and should I do anything in particular? Thanks for any advise you could offer!

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  • Interesting thought! Well, if you figure out who is missing those teeth, and you see massive swelling on their cheek within the next few months, you'll know why. At least that's what happened with my son. He woke up one morning and his upper lip was crazy swollen and hurting. I know swelling on the head of a goat always freaks out people because they're thinking CL, so I'd just keep this in the back of my mind for a few months. 

  • My husband clarified he had actually found them on the tray the hay falls onto after they eat. I wonder if the occasional rocks we get in our hay caused this. I'll keep an eye on them all. Thank you, Deborah! 

  • Goats do have baby teeth, but they don't normally lose all of them at once. I wonder if something hit it in the mouth and knocked out some of the teeth early. That actually happened to two of my children.  Turned out fine for one, but the other woke up one day many months later with an abscess. Hopefully the permanent teeth will grow in normally. 

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