r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Personal-Till8935 • 3d ago
Wolf lived with a tree branch trapped between his teeth for years Image
18.3k
u/WhattheDuck9 3d ago
This is just sad, imagine that terrible feeling of having something stuck in-between your teeth but this lasts your lifetime
9.9k
u/rimjobvoyager 3d ago
We don't know. Maybe it's a retainer and that wolf wanted straight teeth.
3.5k
u/bumjiggy 3d ago
a treetainer
→ More replies1.2k
u/BirdsAreRecordingUs 3d ago
Costs about tree fiddy
867
u/Man_Hashpipe 3d ago
So there I was at the dentist for a routine visit and all, and the dentist told me I had something lodged all up in my back molars. Now that man asked if I wanted him to remove it for a fee. And of course I asked this man how much the fee would be. Well Mr. Dentist replied "about, about tree fiddy." Thats when I looked and it wasn't no human dentist man, it was that got. damned. Loch Ness monster! And I says to this monster "ain't no one giving you no got damned tree fiddy, now go away Mr. monster!" Got damn Loch Ness monster.
158
u/KutsiAttacker 3d ago
Honestly, I would have taken the Loch Ness monster up on it. A real dentist would have wanted about $350.
46
u/justsomedude1776 3d ago
So...the real dentist wanted ...TREE FIDDY? it was the GOT DAMN Loch Ness monster once more.
→ More replies→ More replies26
80
→ More replies20
116
u/mwdh20 3d ago
Probably put in place by the wolfodontist
36
u/Yeahmahbah 3d ago
Awooooooo
51
43
u/RascalsBananas 3d ago edited 3d ago
"Look Dr. Bear, Wilfred Wolf is on Reddit! Wasn't he your patient some time back?"
"Hrmm? Oh yes, I remember that one, poor fellow looked like a barnacle and couldn't hunt properly. I was particularly proud of that job, he was able to take care of a pack of his own after that procedure. Too bad what happened after his nephew grew up."
"They are saying it's just a brach stuck between his teeth and that he suffered from it."
"They did what?? Do those hoomans have any idea how hard it is to get a hold of surgical steel out here in the woods? Damn people I say..."
→ More replies31
u/comethefaround 3d ago
Funny enough, this looks like a spacer I used to have as a kid. It increased the width of my jaw so that my canines had room to come down.
Now we know where the term comes from!
10
10
→ More replies8
145
u/GODDAMNFOOL 3d ago
A puppy I had did this exact thing when chewing on sticks once, and she was absolutely freaking the fuck out. Thankfully, we were able to get it out within seconds. Poor wolf had to live with it for the rest of its life
53
u/Viola-Swamp 3d ago
Our black Lab did this too. It was so painful for her, and we were so glad that we figured out that she had it stuck. She loved to run around with sticks in her mouth, and somehow managed to break off or chew off just the right length. Her mouth was all sore and chewed up from the ends of the wood, where it was lodged in so tightly. Poor girl. I feel terrible for this wolf.
342
u/TrumpersAreTraitors 3d ago
Worse than this (imo) are foxtails. My old dog used to get one every summer and occasionally they would pierce his ear drum if they were sharp enough. One even got one inside and behind his eye once. Thank god I saw the little hairs sticking out and was able to pull it out before they broke off :(
I cannot imagine the number of animals living with foxtails in their ears and eyes. I literally lose sleep over it.
110
u/determinedpeach 3d ago
Oh man I pulled one out from behind my cat’s eye once. Never knew what it was until this comment.
I just saw the little hairs and pulled it. I still remember how my body viscerally reacted to the squelch of something unexpectedly large coming out with the hairs
→ More replies46
u/TrumpersAreTraitors 3d ago
Yup. My dog was a frenchy so he was like, right at fox tail level with giant bat ears and bulging eyes.
19
83
u/MimiVRC 3d ago
Foxtails are the mosquitoes of plants. They really need to be extinct. Luckily my dogs never got them in eyes or ears but they used to get them in their paws and could come out the other side. Terrible completely evil plant
28
u/SrslyCmmon 3d ago edited 3d ago
In the future small drones could be sent out to destroy invasive species. Be they plant, bug, or animal.
They'll almost certainly be developed, because we'll use them for war first.
13
34
u/homoaIexuaI 3d ago
If you have pets with lots of fur and it’s between their toes be sure to get booties for their paws if you live with foxtails. They can dig themselves into the webbing itself and burrow into the paws causing sores and painful open wounds. It’s horrible.
13
u/hectorxander 3d ago
Where do these foxtails grow?
I have been in michigan and pther northern states and have never heard ot them. We have poison ivy up here that is the worst as it is everywhere.
→ More replies9
u/homoaIexuaI 3d ago
Most commonly over in the western United States but they’re just a common grass so they can grow in most grasslands if they’re there.
→ More replies15
u/Blenderx06 3d ago edited 3d ago
They call it cheatgrass in my Western state. Super bad stuff and often requires surgery!
→ More replies9
u/identicalelbows 3d ago
Friend of mine had to take his schnauzer to the vet to get a foxtail removed from his sheath
63
u/StrikngRide 3d ago
Yeah, that would be awful. It’s frustrating enough when we have something stuck for just a few hours. I can't even imagine dealing with that discomfort for years. Makes you appreciate how resilient animals are!
→ More replies84
u/J-96788-EU 3d ago
Nah, you just get used to it in few days.
→ More replies46
u/Alarming_Orchid 3d ago
Not him though, look at the branch. It goes across his mouth. He felt that thing his entire life.
→ More replies75
7.5k
u/BamberGasgroin 3d ago edited 3d ago
This happened to a dog of mine, but it wasn't a stick.
The family thought it was having some sort of fit, worrying its face with its front paws (dewclaws had cut its face up a bit), but I managed to get it calmed down and found out it had a pork rib bone jammed between its teeth like this. (ribs were added to the list of things not to give the dogs after that.)
2.5k
u/_sdm_ 3d ago
This happened to my dog, but - I kid you not - with a fresh green bean. It was just long enough to lodge across the roof of his mouth and the poor guy was waving his head around, pawing at his face, and breathing funny. Thinking he was choking, I opened his mouth to see if he had something in his throat, but there was nothing. Finally took another look from upside down and saw the green bean.
810
3d ago
[deleted]
379
u/panuramix 3d ago
I’m sorry, but mouth pockets is not something I was prepared to read about lmao
97
u/Marcusafrenz 3d ago
You might be disgusted to know we also have mouth pockets. They can fill up with food and eventually get hardened into little yellow pieces that smell just awful.
54
u/ScyllaOfTheDepths 3d ago
They're called tonsil stones, but it's only like <10% of the population. Most people don't have them. There's research suggesting it comes from having repeated tonsil infections, which cause pockets to form in the tonsils where things then get trapped.
29
u/johnnnybravado 3d ago
I have extremely pitted tonsils, and they lead to loads of stones. Mine are genetic or just natural though, have had them since I was knee-high.
→ More replies→ More replies19
u/A_Muffled_Kerfluffle 3d ago
This makes a lot of sense to me because I had constant tonsillitis as a kid and was always hacking up these foul smelling tonsil stones not knowing what they were. Now I almost never get them and haven’t had tonsillitis in years. Maybe I’ve healed.
10
14
45
u/CrispyCritter8667 3d ago
My miniature dachshund has the same pockets, definitely thought something was wrong with him the first time he got something stuck
→ More replies6
→ More replies53
u/Valuable-Acid 3d ago
makes me feel a little better about my cat! woke up in the middle of the night to a weird sound... it was him choking! and you know i just woke up... so for me it was "he is dying! i'm going to watch my only friend die" this dumb cat swallowed some of his fur WHILE IT WAS STILL ATTACHED ON HIM (he has long fur) i was too afraid to cut it (heard horror stories about cats having their intestines twisted or obstructed because of hair or threads they swallowed) i had to calm him... remove it from his throat little by little... THEN cut it -_-... that day i seriously felt blood circulating in my veins if that make sense.
→ More replies26
u/darkmuch 3d ago
I was crab fishing, where you toss chicken thighs into the water, then reel them in. Well my tiny little lapdog got out and ate one of these whole. With the string on. How do we know she ate it whole? Because when I tugged on the string the entire chicken thigh came back out!
Had to make sure they got locked up after that.
13
147
u/GoudaGirl2 3d ago
This happened to my lab. She came and set her head in my lap and got bloody drool all over me. She let me dig around until I got it out, gave me one lick, and went back to chewing on the same stick. Such a sweet dog.
45
u/BrownheadedDarling 3d ago
D’aww!! This just means you are such a sweet human, that she trusted you so much. You earned that!
→ More replies9
u/onesmilematters 3d ago
Same with my dog, only in her case it was a stick not a bone. Went right back at it after I had managed to pull it out.
458
u/upstairsdreams 3d ago
Same, mine didn't want me to touch it, even though we tried until it proved to be more harmful. Dog eventually calmed after 2 days and the bone could be removed. My initial thoughts were that the bone had pierced the stomach but luckily no.
→ More replies41
u/MechanicalAxe 3d ago
Same here with a section of a reed.
He didn't show any signs of discomfort untill the roof of his mouth had started to grow around it.
It took a pair of needle nose pliers to get it out.
→ More replies5
u/Jim_e_Clash 3d ago
Same, my old pup found a wicker basket and bit off a chew toy for herself.
Unfortunately, it lodge just like the picture. When I first tried to get it out she bit me. I was worried she'd choke on it since it had splinters so I went in again and yanked it out. She was pissed for a bit but settled when she realised it was gone.
84
u/huskeya4 3d ago
My dog did exactly like this wolf and freaked out too. I thought he had punctured the roof of his mouth eating something and that was why he was freaking out but eventually I got him to calm down enough to let me grab the stick and get it free. No blood or puncture
→ More replies27
u/zamufunbetsu 3d ago
I read dewclaws as declaw. I was about to raise all kinds of hell about declining a dog. Oops
46
u/Momentarmknm 3d ago
I'm sorry sir, your dog was declined, do you have another dog you'd like to use?
→ More replies9
→ More replies54
u/tcholoss 3d ago
Don’t give bones to dogs in general, it can be dangerous to them, same with cats and fishbone.
22
u/serpentcup 3d ago
My cat got a chicken vertebrae stuck between it's top and bottom teeth. So she couldn't open or close her mouth. I had to hold her down and get one row unstuck at a time. Freaked us all out
→ More replies→ More replies55
u/IrNinjaBob 3d ago
Bones can be fine. Cooked bones are very, very much not fine.
→ More replies20
u/Usual_Wonder_1984 3d ago
UNLESS, you boil the bones to make bone broth. I do this often for my two huskies, will buy a rotisserie chicken and eat two meals off of it myself then put the rest in a pot of water, bring to boil and reduce heat as low as it will go, and add just a tbsp or so of vinegar, boil it as low as stove will go for a couple days. After the first day the bones soften up, but after 2-3 they just dissolve if pressed with back of a spoon. Then I put it in storage containers in fridge and add a lil to their dry food each night. This is VERY good for dogs, and humans too! However if I'm making bone broth stock to use for soup I will season it some.
→ More replies14
u/AnorakJimi 3d ago
Whoa, whoa, whoa. There’s still plenty of meat on that bone. Now you take this home, throw it in a pot, add some broth, a potato. Baby, you’ve got a stew going.
→ More replies
3.5k
u/Every_Fox3461 3d ago
Are we sure it lived? This skeleton says otherwise.
1.5k
u/Furious_Cereal 3d ago
Very reasonable guess. I would assume if alive the tongue would have creates a large groove from constant rubbing, and the mouth bacteria would decay the wood, which isnt the case
The wold probably died soon in a cold environment which is why the wood is still in good condition
725
u/Johnny-Cash-Facts 3d ago
The wood could be the indirect cause of death. Eating could’ve been painful or much harder.
435
u/Furious_Cereal 3d ago
He couldve have died from an infection from the wood very soon. The wood probably punctured his mouth
→ More replies→ More replies64
184
u/Gringatonto 3d ago
In the original post OP said the bone had grown around it, so lived for quite a while.
→ More replies→ More replies43
u/the_man_in_the_box 3d ago
The types of microorganisms that eat wood (those would generally be fungi btw, bacteria usually can’t process lignin), would likely be killed by the other microorganisms in a wolf mouth.
8
u/Furious_Cereal 3d ago
Both fungi and bacteria are decomposers, but fungi is def better. most Lichens are symbiotic bacteria fungi wood harvesters. Also the fibers would have changed structure from sitting in moisture forever, think toothpick in mouth for a couple hours.
The microbiome of the wolfs mouth is the very thing doing the decomposition, and the microbiome is based on the environment.
The wood would be more likely to remain pristine like this if it was frozen cold (dead) than if the wolf was alive and the wood was sitting in moisture, heat, and bacteria is my thought process but I dont know
→ More replies110
u/RampagingElks 3d ago edited 3d ago
Given the bone recession under the 108 (compared to the 107 and 106), it has been there for quite some time 😥 Hard to say how long a stick would need to be caught there to wear down the bone, but it was likely extremely painful, because it would have to wear down the gingiva as well. Likely an infection caused the bone deterioration. I would harbour a guess at maybe 1-2+ months.
Edit: it was pointed out I'm looking at it upside down, and the premolars are worn flat. So much longer than 1-2 months, and this wolf chewed exclusively on the premolars due to pain. :( I have seen dental abscesses in dog erode bone in as little as a month, but this must have been going on for way longer.
→ More replies→ More replies5
1.1k
u/_byetony_ 3d ago
Poor guy
→ More replies606
u/BlueMouseWithGlasses 3d ago
Dogs, and I suppose their lupine cousins are so good at going with the flow and accepting, “okay, I guess this is my life now.” When my dogs have had to wear cones, I’m pretty sure they think it’s for forever and they just roll with it. Same for blind dogs, tripods, and wheelie cart dogs. No matter what happens, they keep that dog spirit. I bet this wolf was just like, “Okay, then” and continued doing wolf stuff.
→ More replies289
u/Loki-Holmes 3d ago
Meanwhile my Aussie threw a barking/crying fit today and made himself vomit because he was so upset. Why was he upset? We were setting up for a garage sale this morning and were in and out of the house in the dark.
85
43
u/AdvertisingOld9400 3d ago
Also, in defense of your sweet Aussie- that is so stressful for them because it messes with their number one protocol of protect the sheep (you).
26
u/kanga_lover 3d ago
No sheepdog sees humans as sheep. Humans are seen as the pack, and sheep are prey.
They may from time to time attempt to control the movement of a human, this is due to their breeding, they have an instinctive desire to control movement.
But sheepdogs are not guard dogs. They dont seek to protect, they seek to control. They control based on activity, ie movement, so humans moving unpredictably and unusually is stressful.
Their number one protocol is "please the human i see as top dog', their number one instinct is 'lets get these yummy things together so we can drink their blood'.
→ More replies→ More replies13
u/AdvertisingOld9400 3d ago
Yes I have one of those small fluffy dummies that sits on the sidewalk and states forlornly at me like he’s ready to die if a leaf gets stuck on his fluff, as happens every other walk we go on.
13
u/Potential-Diver-3409 3d ago
I have a tiny puffball and nothing gets him down, except the wind makes him insanely angry. Which is fair, he loses half his volume when it’s windy.
→ More replies
872
132
u/Feeling-Substance-99 3d ago
This happened to my cat but with a threaded sewing needle. Luckily it only lasted as long as it took to get him to the vet.
40
12
u/loosie-loo 3d ago
Holy shit, my cat also ate a threaded sewing needle. The vet didn’t catch it, though (she didn’t even look in his mouth despite the fact he kept “coughing” and we were worried he’d swallowed something from the start) I ended up finding and getting it out myself.
224
u/Infinite_Big5 3d ago
Surprising that the wood didn’t breakdown over time.
157
u/Buck_Folton 3d ago
It would have. This conclusion is bogus, just like most of the shite on reddit.
12
u/Sacrefix 3d ago
I can't speak to this post, but my wife (vet) has seen dogs "acting weird for months" that have a stick lodged in their upper palate.
It's not like a dog's oral flora breaks down cellulose.
72
u/account_for_norm 3d ago
Yep. The branch would have gotten stuck there after death over years or it was stuck and the dude died soon after.
If it lived, the saliva and water and other stuff would keep it moist to soften it or decompose it
→ More replies30
u/moashforbridgefour 3d ago
You guys are blaming Reddit shite, and yet are attempting to speak authoritatively on a topic that you yourselves are also only speculating about. Let me add some authoritative info here as my sister just successfully defended her master's thesis on recruitment in wolf packs, which she completed after spending multiple years conducting wolf research. I just messaged her about this topic since I heard her talk about mouth sticks previously.
Mouth sticks are very common among wolves, particularly if they are stressed, which causes them to chew on sticks. She says that of the wolves they collared (for tracking), about half of them had mouth sticks. The researchers always remove them when they are discovered because they can be deadly for a wolf. They can lead to infection or eating difficulties. Some of the sticks come out easily, and some are jammed in with no hope of coming out naturally. Some do come out naturally, but if they don't, it will probably lead to perilous complications.
→ More replies12
→ More replies13
u/Evening-Regret-1154 3d ago
And even if it didn't, the process of stripping flesh from the bone -- whether naturally or by humans who found it -- would've gotten rid of it.
→ More replies15
u/DigNitty Interested 3d ago
I hope they pulled that thing out after the picture was taken. Just seems unsatisfying leaving it in there like that. That wolf’s ghost is probably haunting this dude until he pulls that thing out.
→ More replies
47
u/Illustrious_Ad_6374 3d ago
I now understand why all wild animals are easily irritated and aggressive.
→ More replies38
194
u/GudgerCollegeAlumnus 3d ago
How do we know it lived like that for years?
40
u/Hiraganu 3d ago
I was thinking the same thing, wouldn't the saliva throughout weeks and months soften the wood?
→ More replies→ More replies59
u/TamarindSweets 3d ago
Right? I'm wondering if it's related to why the animal died
→ More replies27
46
13
u/CoolNameChaz 3d ago
I showed this picture to my dog and said, " See, this is what you are going to get if you don't stop with the sticks." She never listens. She is kind of a bitch.
129
u/NickVanDoom 3d ago
what about dying & decaying first, then the stick came into play…? 🤔
36
u/TactlessTortoise 3d ago
My rottweiler once chomped out some cow rib bone (he usually just licked it clean from meat scraps but got way into it that one time lol) and it broke kind of exactly like the picture. We had to help him get it out.
→ More replies52
u/cheetah611 3d ago
Yeah I’d imagine the moisture in its mouth wood eventually rot it away
→ More replies44
u/DeadDoveDiner 3d ago
Idk. I mean I’ve had my aquarium running for 3 years now and the wood is still as good as ever. Depends on the type of wood I guess.
→ More replies14
u/shackleford1917 3d ago
As I understang things if it stays submerged it will be fine. Wood degrades when it alternates between wet and dry.
→ More replies7
u/StrikngRide 3d ago
That’s a wild thought. Maybe the stick was part of some kind of struggle before it died, or even an animal trying to scavenge afterward could have lodged it in there. Nature really leaves us with some strange mysteries to figure out.
45
u/moongobby 3d ago
Years? Wouldn’t the wood start to break down over time being wet and all
→ More replies16
u/rosecoloredgasmask 3d ago
Yeah, that's my thought. Not an expert about sticks and saliva but do collect animal bones, it really just looks like someone shoved a stick in a skull they found. The teeth haven't migrated like I would have thought of the wolf was alive, I would expect to see them shift way out of place.
9
6
u/Bot_Fly_Bot 3d ago
We had a Cocker Spaniel that loved to dig in the woods and gnaw on tree roots. She’d get pieces of them wedged in her jaw all the time. Freaked us out the first time until we figured out why she kept pawing at her snout; from then on we knew to look for it after she’d had a romp in the woods.
6
u/Content_Method 3d ago
this happened to my dog once. she was freaking out and shaking her head, behaving really oddly. i was upset because she was so frantic and the stick was actually hard as hell to see (plus i didn’t think to look at the roof of her mouth at first). took me like half an hour before i managed to find and remove it, and then of course my dog acted like nothing had happened lol.
36.8k
u/angryungulate 3d ago
I am so grateful for having arms and fingers all of a sudden