Flared Out Teeth

She is missing two incisors on the top. But the drastic splaying like that is not normal. I'm not sure how much you trust your breeder, but if they were truly normal several years ago, that is an incredibly dramatic shift.

My husband looked at the pictures and said immediately "get an x-ray".
 
It looks like she has soft cartilage that didn't calcify. I'm seriously ashamed of this breeder for not telling you she had a problem before she was sold to you.
 
Lightplum said:
hmm looks more of a bite issue than anything. Id bet when she was loosing her baby teeth she probably lost them all at once and she didnt get in enough of the adult teeth to hold everything in place. Shes missing quite a few incisors so im wondering if that also threw the bite off.

I cant find the pic im thinking of showing it...heres a general though..
Click to expand...

The former owner never indicated that Mattie was missing any teeth. She only said that her teeth were not tight together. It did not keep her from making champion. Would she have been disqualified if she was actually missing teeth? I do know that she said that Mattie's daughter's teeth look similar to Mattie's so she is thinking she needs to bring her to champion status sooner rather than later if Mattie's teeth are any indication of what is to come. Her daughter just won a 4 pt major a couple of weeks ago.

My concern is definitely not with "looks', but with her health. I just want to make sure she is ok. If her teeth look "funny" but she is ok then I'm ok with that. She is retired and she earned an easy, hopefully healthy life now with us. That is what's important.
 
Ashley and SheltieLuver I didn't see your posts until after I replied to Lightplums post.

I don't know what to think about the former owner at this point. She was not the breeder as far a Mattie is concerned. Mattie came from a kennel in Oregon, Winter Creek Shelties. The former owner bought her as a young puppy, raised her and showed her to her championship. She had 2 litters, the first litter only produced one pup, then she later had a second litter that produced 7 pups. She was inseminated a couple more times but it didn't take and then she was retired. I called the former owner last night and spoke with her about Mattie's teeth. She never had them x-rayed and according to her, she realized that they were shifting but did not feel that there was anything seriously wrong with Mattie. I will say that she never brought her teeth up to us and we did not realize that there was anything wrong. She didn't mention Mattie's teeth until after we had already adopted her and then she said that one of the reasons she decided to put Mattie in a forever home was because she could not be shown as a senior with her teeth the way that they are. That was the first time I realized that there was an issue with her teeth. She had already been with us for a month or more and we had already fallen in love with her. It's not like I'm going to say, here take your dog back, she is defective but I would never have chosen to be faced with vet bills and expenses for bad teeth. We went through enough expenses with our old dog that we lost early in December. I'm feeling a little disheartened right now. I have gotten to be on very friendly terms with the former owner and now I'm wondering if I was as easy mark to pass off a dog that is going to require extensive vet attention. This woman is being honored at the nationals in Oregon in a week or two. She is well known in the breeding/showing world of Shelties. She had a sheltie named Marty. He died young but sired many, many, champions and this is what she is being honored for. I just can't wrap my head around the fact that she would do anything that wasn't honorable as far as her dogs are concerned. I'm so confused. :confused2:
 
Sorry you are distressed. Why don't you just wait and see what your vet says after they take xrays and gives you an idea of treatment options before you get any more upset. You say she is a great dog and you love her and that is what is important. Hang in there !
 
Ok, I know which breeder you are talking about. I'm involved in the show world as well. She has produced some excellent dogs. I don't really think she would have sold her to you if she thought something serious was going on.
 
Reading the posts, I don't believe it is the breeder the dog was gotten from, but from someone who purchased her has a pup and raised and showed her.
 
youd be surprised what finishes and thats all im going to say on that...she could have had teeth like that from a very early age.
 
My Toby's teeth look a lot like your dog's teeth, especially in photo 001. Only difference is Toby isn't missing any teeth in the top.

I always thought his teeth were strange since his mouth never really closes either, but Toby came from a puppy mill and is far from perfect so I never put any real thought into it. Toby's teeth don't cause him any issues.

Its probably best if you have an xray done just to be on the safe side. If nothing is really wrong on the xrays and its just a cosmetic thing, try not to worry about it.

Tomorrow I'll see if I can get photos of Toby's teeth for you as a comparison.
 
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