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Overbites?

cavimom

cavimom

Well-known member
My Lily is about 4 months old and I am trying to gather more information on overbites. Here is the situation - when I was talking to the breeder we ended up getting Lily from, there was no mention of her bite issue. The day we were to drive 4 1/2 hours to meet them and pick her up we got a call (3 hours into my drive). They had just returned from her vet visit and found out that a) she has a hernia (no big deal to me) and b) she has an overbite. The vet marked it as severe. I was not too worried when I saw her as it did not look severe to me and I didn't think it was much to worry about. When I got home and took her to my vet they suggested teeth pulling. I read all around this site and saw ho most say let it be as things sometimes correct themselves and why pull yet. So, I decided on that. Especially since one of the vets said something about pulling 8 (EIGHT!!!!) teeth and seeing how her jaw grows. I just couldn't do that to her. That is a lot of teeth at once, and she was eating just fine. I am just wondering if I made the right decision. Wait? Do something now? Do something later? She is in no pain and seems oblivious to the bite problem. Any thoughts?
 
Think I'd wait too. Eight teeth is an awful lot for a small dog to lose in one go :yikes Could you get a second opinion?
 
One of Teddy's litter brothers had an overbite, so was sold at a lower price. Some go right, but his didn't. Neither did that of a cavalier belonging to a friend's aunt. In the latter case, I know that there was no intervention and the only problem is that he is a messy eater, because he drops some of his food.
 
harry has an overshot jaw, and as long as he can eat ok i'll leave him alone, maybe sometimes treating a "defect" causes more problems, as long as he's happy i'm happy.

believe me, harry can eat alright, so much so that we call him harry the hoover!
 
Thanks everyone. Lily does fine eating. So I am pretty sure I will leave it alone. I did get a second opinion and the next guy said 2 teeth only. That was better. I just couldn't do 8 all at once. OUCH! But he also said it was okay to not do it and wait. If we need to we can do it later. I did get a discount at the last minute of $50, big deal, so that was cool. Didn't even think of asking for it though. I was just so happy to get an adorable little cavi!

Lily cracks me up when eating. She doesn't stand or sit at her bowl. She grabs a mouth full walks away, drops it on the floor, sits and eats there. Then goes back for more and does it again. It is just too funny. Not sure why she does it.... :roll:
 
Personally I would wait and see how she does.

But on the other hand, if you decided to go ahead and do it, it's too bad you couldn't ask your breeder to cover the costs.. .. .. $50 is nothing when you factor in anesthesia, pre-op blood work, and the vet care/visit. I was amazed after Kosmo got his hernia fixed and neutered it costed $460! :yikes :yikes :yikes
 
When I get her spayed and her hernia fixed it is only going to run my about $200, thank goodness. But to do the teeth as well would be another $200. I wish I could get the breeder to assist in paying, but her "contract" states I accept her as is. Of course, we had no option to change that considering that we found out during our journey to get her. But hey, she is healthy and happy....
 
My Belle had to have one baby tooth extracted when I had her spayed at 6 months because she had 2 teeth in the same place. The adult tooth grew in and the baby tooth did not fall out. She had a good baby bite, but it has changed a little in over two years.
 
excuse my ignorance about these things, but why does an overbite need to be corrected? What problems would occur that correcting the overbite is supposed to prevent? thanks
 
judy said:
excuse my ignorance about these things, but why does an overbite need to be corrected? What problems would occur that correcting the overbite is supposed to prevent? thanks
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Judy, if an overbite is severe, the lower teeth hit in the wrong place.
 
Beauregard has a horrible overbite. The very first thing twovets said when they saw him was about 'half his jaw being missing'. I can almost put my index finger in the space...and I suspect that's close to 3/4". He was a very small puppy, and looking back I wonder if it was because he had problems nursing. He has some problems with hard things, and takes a lot longer to eat a dog biscuit than the other dogs do. He has some problems picking up 'flat' toys like a frisbee off the ground...but he's figured out how to use his feet to 'stand them up' long enough to grab it.

I think dogs are like children...they adapt. For a puppy, there really isn't any adapting required... Beau has always been like this. He doesn't know something's wrong, and he just makes it work. If it causes problems later on, we'll deal with them then. We've known one of our vets personally (as well as professionally) for several years...I'd like to think if there was something he thought we should do now he would say so.

As an aside, we also got an extremely good 'deal' on Beau. In fact, the agreed upon price was cut in half by the breeder, although no mention was made of the overbite.

KC
 
Eveyone has pretty much convinced me to just leave it be. She does fine eating and such, so why mess with it. Don't fix it if it works fine!
 
I would mention it to the vet each visit, just so they can take a peek and make sure the roof of her mouth is ok, etc. No big deal! ;)
 
Cavimom... keep us posted on how Lily is getting on.

As it turns out the puppy we're expecting has an overshot jaw. I haven't seen him (and won't, until we pick him up as he's in Scotland. We'll be getting photos but the breeder says you can't tell just by looking at him at the moment). Now, this doesn't bother me in the slightest as long as it's mostly a cosmetic problem. Apart from being a bit awkward at chewing or picking up things, or being a messy eater is there any other way it can cause them problems?

Overall I agree with JeanKC... I think puppies adapt just like we do :D
 
Hmmmm. Doggie orthodonture, an idea who's time as come. :)

Cecily--congratulations on the new puppy! You're getting him for Flea, right? ;)
 
cecily said:
Cavimom... keep us posted on how Lily is getting on.

As it turns out the puppy we're expecting has an overshot jaw. I haven't seen him (and won't, until we pick him up as he's in Scotland. We'll be getting photos but the breeder says you can't tell just by looking at him at the moment). Now, this doesn't bother me in the slightest as long as it's mostly a cosmetic problem. Apart from being a bit awkward at chewing or picking up things, or being a messy eater is there any other way it can cause them problems?

Overall I agree with JeanKC... I think puppies adapt just like we do :D
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You may find he'll grow out of it? Chloe's bottom jaw apparently normal at 5 weeks, protruding a little at six weeks- but not noticeably so; very noticeable at ten weeks, and now at going on for fourteen weeks she looks much more balanced. There's still a gap in her teeth- bottom teeth in front of top teeth by a couple of millimetres- but it's rarely noticeable otherwise, and as her muzzle is still a little wrinkly, I'd think that it will virtually disappear as she grows. As you know, she can look a little boxerish sometimes, but we think that's mainly the effect of a very white chin :D :D

Re Lily, when I did some checking on overshot/undershot jaws the lit I found said either have the teeth pulled before the puppy gets her adult teeth, or wait until the puppy is older- apparently a muzzle and face can continue to develop and grow until the dog is 18 months. At that point if it's a real issue, then stuff can be done- but at least you'll know by then that that's the way your dog is, rather than fixing it and then wondering if it'll come right naturally.
 
judy said:
Cecily--congratulations on the new puppy! You're getting him for Flea, right? ;)
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:lol: :lol: That's right Judy!! Given how well Flea bonds with puppies we're hoping Tandie will watch and follow suit!
 
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