Anybody else had this problem?

[BabyElephant]

Took Poppy to the vets last night for her rabies jab (second step towards getting the passport!) and when she did the health check that they always do, she said there was a problem with her teeth. Basically the lower canines are not in the right place and they are pushing up in to her upper gums (in front of her upper canines).

I am concerned for a number of reasons:

1 - how could I have missed this? I check her teeth every week and have never noticed this - I am obviously not a very good doggy mummy.

2 - is this my fault, could I have done anything to prevent this happening?

3 - what will they do to sort this out if it doesn't rectify itself when the "proper" teeth come through (I never thought to ask this question last night).

Has anybody else come across this? I'm now off to find pictures of what teeth should look like...

[erdog3]

First off you are a good doggy mommy, one of the best, never doubt it.
Second there is no way this could have been prevented.
Third, teeth come through quickly, easy to have missed.

Yes it is common for dogs to have all sorts of different problems with their teeth. Some can have undershot, or overshot jaws, some crooked teeth, some even retain teeth.
To find out if this is going to be a problem for Poppy you will have to ask your vet on this one.

[Dax]

What did the vet recommend? Filing down the lower canines? OR just as a bit of info.

I agree with Ellie - you're a fantasic mommy. Don't doubt yourself - you haven't had 8 years training or experience to spot everything.

PS Before you start any costly work - get a second opinion.

[HeartSong]

I know here in the US a few states have braces for dogs with teeth out of place. It actually is quite common to have out of place teeth and easy to miss if you aren't trained in the proper placement of teeth. If new ones come in and aren't that far out of place, they won't cause much problem and won't have to be fixed. If they are far enough out of place, your vet will know the right thing to do to get them in their proper place.

[Moo]

There's no way you could change the growing of your dog's head, not your fault. Kirby had extra teeth... puppy teeth that never came out even though the adult ones were grown in. I never would have noticed if on of the puppy canines hadn't stayed behind. It wasn't threatening to his health for them to be there, but I went ahead and got them taken out.

[BabyElephant]

Sorry Dax, I should have given a bit more info in my original post. The vet told me that we would have to keep an eye on them when the adult teeth come through. She said they are currently puppy teeth and they are in the wrong place but the adult ones might come through OK but if they don't then we will have to do something about them. I never thought to ask what treatment would be required - doh.

Moo - how did they remove his puppy teeth - did they have to cut in to the jaw to get them out?

[Rip's Girl]

It sounds like an overshot bite to me. Ripley has the same problem. His lower canine teeth press into the gums right in front of the upper canines.
That, or, if she has a perfect scissors bite, it could be that her lower jaw is too narrow. (Again, Ripley has this problem. Poor pooch.) and that is causing the canines to press into the gums.
I don't think there is anything wrong with the teeth, I suspect that there is something wrong with the bite. Personally I would go and get a second opinion. Sometimes they will extract puppy teeth under anesthesia. If you're planning on getting her spayed, and you decide you want to do that, it would be best to do both at the same time.

BTW this has never bothered my dog. He still eats, bites, plays tug and all that fun stuff, it doesn't seem to hurt at all.

[Dax]

I think vets sometimes pull these little "we'll have to keep an eye on it..." just to see our reactions. Baby... time will tell. Such is life...

[Moo]

They didn't have to cut the jaw, just into the gums... Basic knife surgery, one week recovery time. They said he'd be too tired and sore to eat hard food... fat chance. He wouldn't eat the squish for the life of him.

[BabyElephant]

I will wait and see, I'm not going to stress about it - she is currently still eating and not in any pain so time will tell.

As for Kirby, doesn't seem like anything will keep him down!