I am curious if anyone else got a lab with an overbite that got some experience with if it affected the dog in any way? Millie got an overbite that you really can't tell unless you put the lip up but vet said if the adult teeth causes damage to the gum in the future we might have to remove them. He also made the comment that you never know if the jaw might catch up later as she grows but he didn't sound that optimistic to that. Is these kinds of things genetic? Thank you
It'd have a genetic component, yes. A friend of mine had a Lab with a very pronounced overbite (his lower jaw was too short) and it never seemed to affect him in any way. He was pretty fat, so had no trouble eating! Nothing was ever done about it and his teeth didn't contact his gums. If her teeth do start to press into her gums I wonder if grinding them down and then capping them might be an alternative to removing them. That'd be something to look into if it ever comes to that. Hopefully it will be fine though and you'll never need to do anything at all.
I'm hoping she never will have an issue, still got the puppy teeth in (they have started to drop out this last week though). And she surely got no issues eating, she do anything for some food. Even lays and block the door to where we got the food to make sure she don't miss when it's time for some. She was the biggest one in the litter and the breeder did make sure I wasn't gonna breed on her since he already found out about the overbite at his vet (which was why she was the left over and we got her when she was 11 weeks). If it is in genes, shouldn't someone of her blood lines have an overbite too or am I just wrong? Millie waiting for lunch.
We met a man with a GWP with a horrendous overbite. The top jaw was at least an inch longer than the bottom. It was easily visible when the dog stood still, sideways to us. The man said the dog had a hard time ripping meat off raw bones but no trouble with other foods. We only met him once so don't know how his gums might have been affected later in life.
Although things can have a genetic component that doesn't mean that it's appeared before in previous generations. Some things can be caused by complex genetic interactions that require the right conditions to be expressed in a physical feature. I don't know if an overbite is like that but it's not necessarily something that the breeder would or should have known about in advance. Hopefully it won't ever be a problem. It's not noticeable in that photo.
You really can't tell at all unless you lift her lip up to look at the teeth. Hopefully she won't have any problems in the future *crossing fingers* im trying to stay away from google about everything about dogs since it got me basically hysterical last time haha.
