went to vets - he says underbite is not a boxer trait

[Alisha Mobley]

think it might have been on bw i read it...but i remember a story of a vet who operated & rewired a boxers jaw to correct the undershot. how horriffic is that?

There was a similar story posted on a mailing list. A Boxer had been in an accident (pretty bad one if I remember correctly) which resulted in a broken jaw. The vet doing the corrective surgery didn't realize Boxers are supposed to have an undershot jaw so when setting the jaw, he didn't set it to be undershot.

 

[Emily86]

You guys!! Give the poor vet a break or at least a second chance. Vets are given four years to learn to be an oncologist, cardiologist, dentist, radiologist, pharmacist, trauma, and general practitioners to many different species. The standards for each breed and nutrition get lost because the medical system (human too) are reactive instead of proactive. The vet I work for did know boxers were supposed to have underbites (and raved about Violet's), but the vet shouldn't have said that if he didn't know for sure. Good luck with your vet...don't dump him for one stupid statement if I dumped my boss for that I would have only worked one day he asked me how to spell bottle!!!LOL

 

[JulieM]

I fully understand that vets cannot be experts on all breed standards; however in that case he surely would be better served by not saying anything at all, wouldn't he? It's not as if the underbite is going to harm the dog in any way. I think Kathy (kassa) expressed the concern best:

[E]ven if he hadn't realized that boxers were undershot, that he'd take such a strong (wrong) stand on it. Makes me wonder how quick he is to "guess" other things wrong.