Hi There.

Advice needed from Border Collie owners/breeders/vets...

I have purchased a Border Collie 4 months old Bitch. just been to the vets had jabs/wormed. I knew little of her previous history other then she was rescued from a house where she had been left with a child. The vet informs me she is fine other then a "severly overshot jaw" which could require surgery. Either by removing the tooth that is protruding slightly into the gum/roof of her mouth or by re-aligning the jaw altogether. Either way quite costly.

A quick google search however informs me a) most dogs who are overshot will grow out of it by the ten months period of stopping growing....

b) Overshot mouth isn't always a cause for surgery as long as the animal is not in pain and can eat/chew perfectly well. I am not looking to show her. She is a pet who runs with me.. long walks etc stick/frisbeee/fetch etc etc very clever dog. Lovely temprement.

Question is - Is an overshot jaw serious? she is in "No pain" as far as i can tell. she chews treats and chews just fine. pulls a rope without problems. Eats biscuits both science soft and Puppy hard "crunchy" just fine. However she does have I make it 2 and a half cm gap between her lower teeth and her higher teeth.

If I can find a way to post pics i am happy to do so...

Any information? Thankyou.

Here on forums or Garysmiling@live.co.uk is fine.

Thankyou.

Anyone?..

Give people time ... ;-)

Unless it's a medical emergency a vet won't usually want to make any decisions until she has all her adult teeth through and her mouth has stopped growing; the lower jaw is reputed to grow for longer than the upper, so the difference between her jaws might not eventually be as bad as you fear. if it is, however, then it's probable that she'll only need a couple of teeth removed as a worst-case scenario. I know a dog whose upper jaw is a good 2 cm longer than the lower, and she has no trouble eating.

Hi Jean.

Thanks for the reply. I hope your right :-) Thankyou.

I have been trying to get hold of PDSA since I posted first post here its constantly engaged. So thanks. Now I won't worry myself too much with it for another 6 months as long as she's eating fine...then i'll get her checked out again. Thankyou.

Gary.

Hi Gary

I know nothing about overshot jaws so can't help you out on that one but I was wondering if you were aware that your collie shouldn't be doing long walks/runs etc at her age. I may have just misinterpreted your post but the normal recommendation for puppies is that they only get 5 minutes of exercise for every month of their age until they reach maturity, in order to try to help prevent damage to hips and elbows etc. For  a 5 month old puppy that would equate to 25 minutes. The long runs and long walks may be what you are intending to do with her in the future but I certainly wouldn't be doing them yet with her at her tender age :-)

> the lower jaw is reputed to grow for longer than the upper

Busters front teeth met as a pup, gradualy he became undershot. I was quite suprised how much the bottom jaw is out now, he looks like a bulldog if you pick his lips up! Teeth don't stick out through the lips though so you can't see he's undershot without lifting the lips.

Agree with Harley about the long runs/walks at such a tender age.  Lots of people think big dog, lots of exercise.  But this is far too early for her.

I think the bottom mandible carries on growing slowly until they are about 10 months old, so it stands a good chance that your dogs bite will close up better than it is now.

One of my bitches is a rescue so we dont have papers, so can't trace her lines etc but she has a very level bite, but it certainly doesn't inhibit her from eating, or barking unfortunately lol.

Hopefully surgery won't be needed on your pup :)

Flatcoat puppies almost always go overshot at 4 months, and come more or less right by 6 months

Jo

No experience in dogs but plenty in cats. I just don't get why any vet would suggest surgery! Not only do the bites change quite a lot as the animal grows -in my cats what I WANT is an overshot jaw at about 3-4 months of age as that will end up being a perfect bite once adult. But if there really is a problem, then simply removing the offending teeth sorts it. I've had that happen once to a cat I'd bought in. He was so undershot, as an adult, his bottom teeth cut into his nose and cut holes. The teeth that were in the way were removed, the rest left, and he was fine.

i have a pedigree boy the same age - and his jaw is overshot also, im really hoping it changes as he gets older as i would hate for him to be in any discomfort, at the moment it causes him no problems,so we will wait it out