As winter months creep up on us, shorter days and cooler temperatures signal plants to slow and eventually stop their growth. The lush green of your pasture begins to turn to brown. This means less forage is available for grazing horses during the winter, and what is present lacks the nutrition found in warmer months. So how do you transition a horse from moist green grass to dry hay?

Where to Start

Roughage is an essential ingredient for healthy digestion. Spring and summer bring great opportunities for horses to indulge in green pasture, as they graze periodically throughout the day during turnout. But as grass stops growing and browns, a horse likely needs other forage sources, and possibly a complete feed or grain-type supplement.

Besides pasture, typical roughage sources include hay or complete feed pellets. Alternative fiber sources are available, such as soybean hulls, beet pulp, rice hulls, corn cobs, chaff, and straw, but these don’t allow horses to “graze” on something all day long.

Instead of being fed two to three relatively large meals in a 24-hour period, it is better for a horse to have the opportunity to nibble periodically throughout the day and night. In general, horses fed large amounts in two meals a day tend to bolt the food in a short time—an hour or two at most. This results in long fasting periods until the next meal arrives, possibly leading to ulcers or behavioral vices. This is not at all how the equine digestive system is supposed to work.

To keep your horse healthy and thriving, it’s best to feed him a minimum of 1½ to 2 percent of his body weight in roughage (hay or pasture) each day. Active equine athletes may need at least that much hay plus a grain-type supplement and/or a high-fat supplement, like vegetable oil or rice bran.

Horse Dental Care

Dry hay is considerably more difficult to chew than fresh grass. This means that attention to details, like dental care, becomes important, not only so horses can extract the most nutrients from their diet, but also to minimize the risk of impaction colic or irritant diarrhea from food that isn’t chewed well.

Have your veterinarian perform a thorough dental exam at least once a year, especially heading into the winter months. Sharp points can be removed through floating procedures, so your horse is more comfortable chewing and can break down hay stems. This improves digestibility of the forage.

Senior horses often need especially diligent dental care to be able to extract the most from their hay. Some are missing so many teeth that it may be necessary to offer a gruel of soaked complete-feed pellets.

Additional calories can also be added by way of soaked beet pulp pellets, which are high in fiber and provide added safe calories for a more difficult keeper.

Slow that Gluttonous Horse Down During Winter

Ideally, a horse offered free-choice hay would control his intake, eating only as much as he needs to maintain the perfect body condition. But some individuals won’t stop eating, and—like with people—excesses calorie intake results in obesity.

Feed intake by voracious eaters and easy keepers can be slowed by using a slow feeder. These feeding systems are made of either a container that is hung on the wall or a box or frame feeding system on the ground. Close-knit grids or small holes in the feeder forces a horse to work at getting hay out. Many commercial small-hole hay nets are also available with 1½- to 2-inch holes, but some crafty ponies may need 1¼-inch or even 1-inch holes.

Read More: Nutrition for the Easy Keeper

Compared to throwing loose flakes of hay on the ground or in a stall, it takes a bit more effort and time for a horse to pull out hay from a slow feeder. This more closely approximates grazing, and it shortens the fasting periods between refills, keeping your horse’s stomach and intestines in a healthier state. To add to the benefits, there is less wastage caused by a horse trampling or soiling his hay, which then keeps feed expenses down.

For horses in a large dry lot turnout, an alternative is to use a mesh sleeve that fits around a large bale of hay. (Horses should be barefoot if using these to avoid getting a shoe tangled up.) “Double bagging” the hay bale in a net feeder further reduces the mesh size and makes it more challenging to extract hay.

Some horses figure out how to maximize how much they can pull from the holes, and will need the slow feeder bag hung from stall rafters on a breakaway rope to prevent the horse from bracing it against a firm surface and speeding up his eating.

Supplemental Nutrients During Winter

A ration balancer is a good supplement to provide for horses transitioning from pasture to hay. These are vitamin/mineral pellets fed from a large bag generally at 1 to 2 pounds per day and are great if your horse doesn’t need extra calories from grain. Consult with your veterinarian about the ration balancer most appropriate to your area.

Vitamin E is a key nutritional ingredient for all horses. Inadequate intake of vitamin E can cause muscle, neurologic, or immune system problems, and at the very least may affect performance. This vitamin may be deficient for horses that have no access to green grass, as it tends to dissipate as hay is dried after cutting and baling.

A Canadian study demonstrated that horses with pasture access in summer months had vitamin E plasma concentrations that were 63 percent higher than non-pastured horses that consumed only hay or pelleted feed. This is a particular concern for young, growing horses as well as adult and athletic horses.

In addition, horses that are supplemented with high-fat diets to improve calorie intake may be deficient in vitamin E if it is not supplemented as an antioxidant along with the fat. The best vitamin E supplement to use is d-alpha-tocopherol, a natural vitamin E that is readily absorbed.

Vitamin A or carotene may not be present in adequate amounts if horses are fed older batches of hay or hay that has lost its green color. Most commercial feeds contain ample vitamin A, so feeding small amounts of pelleted feed is likely to provide a sufficient supply of vitamin A.

An insatiable desire for fiber may cause horses with limited pasture or forage access to consume the dirt or bedding around them. This has the potential to lead to sand colic or impaction colic. Use of psyllium fiber fed for six or seven consecutive days each month helps clear the intestines of ingested sand and dirt.

Intake of sand and dirt can be prevented in the first place with feeding systems that limit access to dirt, such as rubber mats, or by using the slow-feeder method.

Salt is an important dietary ingredient for any horse. Provide a salt block that your horse can access voluntarily. This is safer than adding salt to the feed, as any excess salt is simply urinated away, making more work for the kidneys.

In some areas of the country, the soil may be low in selenium, leading to a deficiency in the hay. Check with your veterinarian before supplementing with selenium, as over-supplementation can cause serious problems from toxicity.

And finally, don’t forget to provide plenty of clean, unfrozen water to your horse in the winter. Water is considered an important nutrient for digestion, preventing the dry, fibrous feeds from becoming impacted in the intestines and keeping all metabolic processes running as they should. If your water tends to freeze, plug-in buckets or tank heaters designed to safely warm the water are your best bet.

Boosting Your Horse’s Nutrition During Winter

With some common sense and creativity, you can find ways for horses in winter months to acquire their feed more in keeping with natural trickle-feeding tendencies to optimize gut health. The ability to eat small, intermittent meals throughout the day also works wonders on a horse’s mental health and behavior.

This article about winter nutrition for your horse appeared in the November/December 2020 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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Could dental pain be the culprit for your horse’s behavioral problems? A recent study done by researchers at the University of Helsinki in Finland that was published in the Journal of Equine Veterinary Science established a link between common horse behavior problems and dental pain caused by abscessed cheek teeth. Periapical infections (those around the apex of the tooth root) or abscessed cheek teeth are common in horses and will usually induce pain that is displayed in your horse’s behavior. According to the research, half of the cases of periapical infections were diagnosed during routine dental examinations, indicating that horse owners were unaware of the association between undesirable behavioral patterns of their horses and dental pain.

Behavior Problems Linked to Tooth Pain

Common behavioral signs associated with cheek teeth abscesses fall into three main categories. Some signs include:

Eating and Drinking:

◆ Eating slowly or taking frequent pauses while eating hay
◆ Turning the head while eating or dropping hay or grain from his mouth
◆ Dipping hay in water or avoiding drinking cold water

Bit-Related:

◆ Evading the bit
◆ Headshaking, lolling tongue or opening his mouth when ridden and/or driven with a bit
◆ Rein contact worse on one side of the mouth
◆ Resistance to bridling

General:

◆ Withdrawn, intense stare, aggressive behavior, or self-harm to his head
◆ Avoiding social interaction with other horses and people
◆ Bad-smelling breath
◆ Poor performance, such as a decline in athletic ability

Zoetis is committed to educating horse owners about the importance of annual dental examinations and care by an equine veterinarian. Behavioral signs caused by dental abnormalities are crucial to identify. Recognizing these potential behavior changes in your horse that may be caused by dental pain can help with earlier diagnosis, treatment and improved health and wellness for your horse.

If your horse is expressing any of these behavioral signs, work with your equine veterinarian to conduct an oral and dental examination. Annual oral and dental examinations are a recommended baseline of care for your horse. Depending on your horse’s age, level of performance and overall condition of the teeth, additional examinations throughout the year may be needed.

For more information, visit www.zoetisus.com.

The post Recognizing the Connection Between Dental Pain and Horse Behavior Problems appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

As veterinarians, there are always those horses we’ll never forget. For me, when it comes to horse dentistry, there are four.

The first is Shiloh. During my second year out of vet school, the old, beloved mare couldn’t eat for two weeks after my boss floated her teeth with hand floats.

About five years later, there was Mariah, who for some strange reason kept breaking her teeth. It seemed every few months I’d be called out and find yet another of her molars broken. We were at a loss as to how she was doing it.

Next was Roulette, who was so mouth-shy that no one could get near her with a dewormer. When I floated her teeth, a process part of horse dentistry, I found the smelliest, rotten broken tooth in her upper molars. I can only imagine the constant tooth pain she was in.

Finally there was Opie, whom I had taken care of for 15 years and a favorite patient. He too got a fractured tooth, and they called in a vet specializing in horse dentistry to fix it when I couldn’t. That put me on the path to improve my horse dentistry skills. I knew I had to do better for Opie and my other clients.

Modern Improvements

Equine vets have stepped up the horse dentistry game big time. Now we have a board certification association that creates actual equine dentists, which is a great deal different than a dental school that certifies non-vets.

We take X-rays of the teeth and we look at tooth root health. We treat gum disease. We have the ability to fill cavities. We no longer expose the sensitive pulp chamber of the teeth. It’s much more than having Joe from down the road come out and float your horse’s teeth.

The Horse’s Mouth

Equine teeth, adapted by nature to constantly chew grass all day, are being constantly worn down. To accommodate this, the horse’s teeth constantly erupt (grow) from the gums. They essentially have very long teeth hidden inside their jaws that emerge as the surface wears down from grinding food.

The horse’s upper jaw is slightly wider than the lower jaw, so the back molars are not completely aligned from side to side. The upper outside and lower inside of the cheek teeth do not touch, and as the teeth are worn down, sharp ridges and points develop on the inside lower teeth and outside upper teeth, or the teeth become slanted from side to side.

The points can become so sharp that they cut the cheeks and tongue, causing ulcers, and after a while, poor grinding causes the horse to drop food. These points, ridges and slants are what need realigning, or what is known throughout the horse world as “floating.” In the horse dentist world, the new term is “occlusal alignment,” which is essentially restoring the grinding surfaces of the teeth­—the occlusal surfaces—back to their original alignment for the most effective and efficient chewing.

How the Tooth Works

So why was Shiloh so mouth-sore after being floated that she couldn’t eat, and why did Mariah get so many broken back teeth? It turns out there are some areas of the horse’s teeth that we shouldn’t touch. The structures that allow us to grind down the sharp points and ridges are also the structures that can become diseased or get damaged during attempts to realign the teeth.

Horses’ teeth have a strong enamel covering along with hard reinforcement, called dentin, within a large cavity. This cavity is called the infundibulum. Like us, they have pulp chambers that hold the sensitive nerves.

As the tooth erupts, dentin and enamel are laid down to protect the pulp chambers and harden the center of the tooth within the infundibulum. When we correct the alignment by floating the teeth, we grind down only the edges of the teeth, not the middle of the teeth that touch and grind (called the occlusal surface).

The grinding (occlusal) surfaces interlock with each other in a zigzag pattern with what is known as the transverse ridges. Sometimes teeth are ground down on this occlusal surface in an attempt to flatten those ridges. Only excessive ridges should be taken down.

The danger in grinding down the occlusal surface is exposing the pulp cavity. If this happens, the underlying nerve is exposed and the tooth becomes extremely painful and has the potential to die over the next several months. Studies have shown that there can be as little as 1 to 3 mm of enamel covering the pulp chambers, which makes exposing them and damaging the teeth easy to do.

Wave Mouth

In the case of Shiloh, because of her advanced age, her teeth had worn into what is known as a “wave mouth.” Horses have front teeth, called incisors, used for ripping grass. These are the teeth you see when you lift up the horse’s lips. There are six upper and six lower incisors.

If you are able to open the horse’s mouth and look in the back, you will see the teeth that do all the hard work—grinding hay and grass. There are six upper and six lower large molars on the left and right sides of the mouth, often referred to as the cheek teeth.

The small wolf tooth, if present, is just in front of the first cheek tooth, typically only on the top jaw, and the canines are just behind the front teeth. In the case of wave mouth, the lower cheek teeth form a hump and over-wear the upper cheek teeth, causing a wave.

Where we get in trouble is when we try to correct these misalignments. Sometimes when grinding down the waves and humps to flatten the teeth, we expose the pulp cavity, or the heat generated from the grinding causes heat damage to the pulp chamber.

The front teeth can also get a wave, known as smiley face, or slant from side to side, known as a slant. Where we get in trouble is when we try to correct these misalignments. Sometimes when grinding down the waves and humps to flatten the teeth, we expose the pulp cavity, or the heat generated from the grinding causes heat damage to the pulp chamber.

If attempting to make the teeth look aligned, it is possible to take so much down that the back cheek teeth no longer touch each other and can’t do their normal grinding anymore. This also puts more pressure on the front teeth, making them sore and possibly causing the beginning of a serious disease called equine odontoclastic tooth reabsorbtion and hypercementosis (EOTRH).

Tooth Death

Shiloh was most likely overfloated, something that often happened 20 years ago. If the pulp cavity becomes exposed, sometimes the tooth fixes itself with a patch of dentin to seal off the exposed chamber, but if it doesn’t, the nerve dies slowly, a very painful process.

Since the cheek teeth have multiple pulp chambers that often communicate with each other, this causes the tooth to die. Once it dies, it has the potential to fall out. The process can take months or years.

Dental Caries

In Mariah, Roulette and Opie’s case, their problem wasn’t over-floating or misalignment of the teeth, but rather the tooth itself developed what are known as caries. These weaken the teeth and cause them to fracture.

As mentioned earlier, one of the adaptations of horses’ teeth is the infundibulum. This cavity in the center of the tooth is quite large and runs deep within the tooth. It gets filled in with dentin to help strengthen the tooth.

Only the front teeth and the upper cheek teeth have these specialized cavities. Unfortunately, sometimes these don’t fill in properly with dentin, and a small hole develops in the center of the tooth. This hole can get packed with food and other bacteria and grow in size.

Caries can get very large and involve the pulp chambers. They can get so big and so impacted with food that the tooth splits open, causing a fracture. If left in the mouth, the fractured tooth becomes very painful and can cause gum disease or sinus infections, since the upper cheek teeth are within the sinus cavity.

Diseases

Other areas of concern in the horse’s mouth are the gums and the front teeth. Horses can and do get gum disease. The most common form is a space between the cheek teeth, called a diastema, which allows food to get impacted between the teeth.

This impacted food is a source of infection, and if left unchecked, causes gum disease by creating deep, infected pockets. These pockets can cause loosening of the teeth, leading to possible tooth loss and pain.

EOTRH is a dental disease that is being more commonly recognized. This is a disease of the incisors (front teeth), where the bone surrounding the teeth becomes inflamed.

The initial response by the jawbone to this inflammation is loosening of the teeth because the bone surrounding them becomes reabsorbed. Once the body realizes the teeth are loose, it overcompensates by laying down extra calcium to try and strengthen the area and save the tooth. Instead, there is a lot of pain, destruction of the tooth, excessive enlargement of the tooth roots, and fractures in the teeth.

Begin with an Exam

We’ve come a long way from the days of Shiloh. Now the accepted practice is the oral exam, not just floating the teeth. We sedate each horse and open the mouth fully with a speculum to look at each tooth with a bright light and a mirror or endoscope (special camera that can get to the back of the mouth).

We examine the infundibulum and pulp chambers for caries, fractures or damage to the chambers. We look at the gums with a mirror or endoscope for signs of gum disease. We use special picks and probes to determine how big and deep the caries or gum pockets are. We take X-rays, computer topography (CT) scans and bone scans of the teeth to determine if the tooth roots are healthy.

We clean out caries and fix diastemas by opening the gaps between teeth, which prevents food from becoming trapped. We extract diseased cheek teeth and incisors in a much more humane and pain-free way.

And we’ve gone back to school. Now there are many specialized courses for vets to learn these new techniques. For those who want to take it to the next level, a true veterinary dental association board-certifies veterinarians that want to become dental specialists.

These specialized horse dentists and others are developing new techniques to try and save teeth. They are working on ways to fill in caries before they fracture, giving the tooth a filling and doing root canals.

Horse dentistry is no longer your average Joe’s float job. It’s real dentistry, and vets are getting on board.

Janice Posnikoff, DVM, was the owner and principal vet at Orange County Equine Vet Services in Orange County, Calif., for over 20 years. After spending time in Maryland and Virginia, she now brings her love of dressage and expertise in sport horse medicine to her hometown city of Winnipeg, Canada at Elders Equine Vet Services as an associate vet. She lives and practices there with her five bunnies, close to family and friends.

This article about horse dentistry originally appeared in the March 2018 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

Further reading:

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Equine Dentistry 

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Q: Is removing wolf teeth necessary? When should it be done?

A: “Wolf” teeth, the true first premolars, typically sit right next to the first large cheek teeth aka second premolars. They do not occur in every horse, may occur only on the top or bottom arcade (or only on the left or right), and may be present but not visible because they did not erupt through the gum (known then as “blind” wolf teeth). They typically erupt around 5 to 6 months of age.

Wolf teeth come in all shapes and sizes but are typically much smaller than any of the other teeth. When they are abnormally positioned and have the potential to cause bitting issues it may be recommended to have them extracted, but many performance horses do just fine with normal wolf teeth.

It used to be that we always removed wolf teeth in young horses before they were ever started or had a bridle in their mouth (commonly done in male horses at the time of castration). However, we’ve become less aggressive in this and other aspects of equine dentistry and now the thinking is: “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

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Q: The vet was just out to look at my 20-year-old horse, who’s become difficult to bridle, picks at his food, and won’t even take carrots from my hand anymore. I kinda figured it was a mouth problem, but my vet said regular floating wouldn’t fix this, that my horse has some kind of new disease (with a bunch of letters) that might mean some teeth have to get pulled. Do you have any idea what she was talking about?

A: I believe you’re talking about EOTRH, which stands for Equine Odontoclastic Tooth Resorption and Hypercementosis. It’s a newly recognized syndrome in older horses resulting in disease and destruction of incisors and canine teeth, and sometimes cheek teeth.

As the disease progresses, the roots of multiple teeth begin to resorb or dissolve, and the body tries to stabilize these teeth by laying down extra cementum (the bone-like substance covering each tooth). This results in hypercementosis or bulbous swellings around the roots of affected teeth. These teeth become infected, abscess, and may loosen or even fracture. In severe cases there may also be significant extension of disease to the bone around the affected teeth.

EORTH is a slowly progressive disease, and it’s unknown at this time what the trigger is that starts the process. It’s believed that the process actually begins well before owners and veterinarians first start to recognize signs.

EOTRH is a very painful condition for affected horses, and chronically affected horses have weight loss, lack of appetite, attitude changes, hypersalivation (drooling), head shaking, discomfort in the bridle, and other signs. It’s known that both periodontal (gum) disease and dental abscesses are painful, and this syndrome causes a significant degree of both, with usually multiple teeth affected. Because horses are quite stoic and adapt to this chronic pain, it’s typically not until the pain is gone (ie the affected teeth are extracted) that you realize how much the disease was affecting them.

A veterinarian may suspect EOTRH during a routine exam or when asked to look at a horse showing signs like yours. However, radiographs (x-rays) are essential to making a diagnosis, because most of this process occurs below the gumline and cannot be seen. Often there are more severe changes present radiographically than what are expected just by looking at the teeth and gums. Radiographs will show whether the horse has more severe resorption or abscessation, or if there is significant hypercementosis present that could make extractions more difficult. Vets use these images to then make a plan for extractions, deciding whether they should be removed in stages (if only a few teeth are affected) or if all the incisors and canines require extraction due to advanced disease.

Regarding extractions, horses tolerate these very well and usually remain standing under heavy sedation with local nerve blocks so they cannot feel anything happening in the mouth. Afterwards, pain medications and antibiotics are usually prescribed. These horses are typically eating a soft, soaked pelleted mash or chopped or pelleted hay before going home the same day and back to normal feed the following day. They generally start feeling better within 24 hours of having chronically infected and painful teeth removed, and owners frequently report a noticeable difference in their behavior and attitude.

If EOTRH turns out to be the diagnosis in your horse after a follow-up exam and radiographs, follow your vet’s advice and in no time your horse should be back to his old self!

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By Henrietta Coole, Equine Guelph

With winter around the corner, now is the time for a dental check-up and nutritional status assessment, especially for older horses. Compared to spring and summer, horses burn significantly more calories through fall and winter simply to stay warm. As a result, they need to eat more – placing increased strain on the teeth and jaw. As well, with the dietary shift from pasture to hay, your horse will have to chew with more force to meet its nutritional requirements.

Perhaps it’s time for a routine dental float? Or, maybe it’s the season to think about changing from hay to soaked hay cubes to maximize your aging horse’s feed efficiency during the upcoming winter season.

Learn more about dental care for your senior horse on Equine Guelph’s online healthcare tool – the Senior Horse Challenge. Check out The Tale of the Teeth Video and read a new Senior Horse Dental Care fact sheet provided courtesy of Alex Bianco, MS, DVM, University of Minnesota Extension. This resource includes frequently asked questions about sedation, aftercare and recommended diets for horses with many missing teeth.

Aside from the natural expiration of teeth, geriatric horses are also prone to dental disease that can result in teeth falling out or being extracted by a veterinarian. Because each set of premolars and molars erupts at a different age, they also expire at different ages. These can lead to gaps between teeth and teeth of varying heights (“wave mouth”) which causes abnormal chewing patterns and uneven wear on the teeth.

These variations in dentition, combined with the rough nature of forage and the natural bacterial population of the mouth, can lead to secondary infections of the teeth below the gum line, at the tooth root. Bacterial tooth root infections typically result in loose, and/or fractured teeth. If the tooth is an upper molar, the infection may also spread in to the maxillary sinus and cause a secondary bacterial sinusitis. While dental infections rarely lead to systemic disease, dental abnormalities or tooth root infections often result in ineffective or painful chewing which results in decreased feed intake, weight loss, and increased risk of esophageal obstruction (“choke”).

Remember that senior horses often need more frequent dental exams than the routine once a year check-up. Signs of dental issues include: dropping feed, bad breath, nasal discharge and/or weight loss.

While you’re visiting the Senior Horse Challenge to learn more about dental care for your aging horse, take five minutes to answer 20 questions to test your healthcare IQ for general geriatric care. This online tool will provide you information ranging from metabolic disorders to locomotion related concerns – pain recognition to general management including dental care.

Equine Guelph thanks Boehringer Ingelheim for sponsoring the Senior Horse Challenge online healthcare tool.

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Q: How can you tell the age of a horse by the teeth? And what are the most common teeth/gum/jaw diseases that horses can get?

A: Because horses’ teeth continue to erupt throughout their lives, it is somewhat possible to estimate their age using a handful of indicators. Aging is more accurate from birth until about the age of five years because deciduous or “baby” teeth are being replaced by permanent teeth through this time frame. After that, veterinarians use indicators such as the appearance/disappearance of “cups,” the dental “star,” and the enamel ring in the lower incisors, as well as Galvayne’s Groove and presence/absence of a hook on the upper corner incisor. Even the angle of the upper and lower incisors provides information.

From the sixth edition of Guide for Determining the Age of the Horse published by the American Association of Equine Practitioners:

Teeth erupt, wear, are shed, and appear to change shape with reasonable regularity…However age determination is not an exact science as a multitude of factors can influence the appearance of an individual mouth. Factors such as nature and quality of feed, environmental conditions, breed, heredity, injury and disease can influence teeth and affect wear.”

Ask your veterinarian to show you these indicators the next time he or she is performing an oral exam on your horse in case you want more information on determining your horse’s age through his teeth. In the meantime, here is the eruption schedule for deciduous and permanent teeth in the horse:

The first three cheek teeth on the top and bottom (premolars 2, 3, and 4) all come in at birth or within the first two weeks.

The first permanent premolar (aka “wolf tooth”) appears when the horse is 5 – 6 months old, if at all, with the rest of the permanent premolars and molars all appearing by 4 years of age.

Not surprisingly, it is the very things that make it possible to estimate the age of a horse that are also responsible for the most common problems in the mouth. Sharp cheek teeth (as a result of constant growth) and retained deciduous teeth or “caps,” are two issues that veterinarians routinely find when examining a horse’s mouth. Additional problems include excessively worn or abnormally long teeth; loose, lost, or fractured teeth; infected teeth or gums; and hooks, ramps, steps, or waves (referring to the shape of the cheek teeth arcade). While it is possible for horses to develop cavities, their tooth structure, diet, and eating frequency are a few of the reasons cavities are seen less frequently than in other species.

The post Ask the Vet: Your Horse’s Teeth appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

Q: Why do horses have their wolf teeth removed?

A: Let’s begin with some basic equine dental anatomy. Horses have six incisors on the top and six incisors on the bottom. That may seem obvious but did you know that cattle only have incisors on the bottom? And that they have eight incisors? The purpose of incisors: to bite off long-stem forage.

The next set of teeth–found more often in males than females–are the canines or tusks. Horses can have a full set of four (two on the top and two on the bottom,) or just sometimes just two, or sometimes none at all. These are sometimes referred to as the “fighting teeth.”

Between the front teeth and the back teeth, or “cheek teeth,” lies the interdental space, so named because there are no teeth in this area making it a convenient place to place the bit. Cheek teeth are actually made up of premolars and molars, and horses have 12 of each of these (3 premolars then 3 molars on the top right, 3 premolars then 3 molars on the bottom right, and the same on the left side). The purpose of the cheek teeth is to grind and crush food.

What about the wolf teeth then? These are considered vestigial premolars. The word “vestigial” means a structure which has lost its function but has been retained through evolution. If present, these much smaller teeth are located just in front of the first premolar. Some horses don’t have any wolf teeth, some have 1 or 2 on the top, and some even have them on the bottom. Even when they are present in a horse, it’s possible that they haven’t erupted through the gum tissue at all or have only come through part way.

Because wolf teeth are completely unnecessary to the horse – and because they may get in the way of a bit or dental instruments or be a cause of pain—many veterinarians recommend they be removed BEFORE they cause a problem, so BEFORE a horse begins training. However, this is a conversation that owners need to have with their vet about each and every horse because each and every horse and horse mouth is different, meaning the time, cost, and potential risks or problems are different. For example, a yearling colt that is being castrated and has two, small, erupted wolf teeth is a much different scenario than a 10 year old gelding that has been exhibiting performance issues and found to have one non-erupted but large wolf tooth.

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“Floating” is the name of the process in which a vet or equine dentist files away sharp edges on a horse’s teeth. Unlike humans, horses’ teeth continue to erupt throughout their lives (leading to the terms “long in the tooth” and “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”) But due to the uneven widths of a horse’s upper and lower jaws (along with variations in feed and roughage) the edges of some teeth can wear in an uneven manner, and these edges can become extremely sharp over time, sometimes causing pain in your horse’s mouth, or pain when using certain bits.

How much and how fast these sharp edges develop varies greatly from horse to horse and situation to situation, but it’s common for an average horse to need their teeth floated several times during their lifetime, and perhaps much more often than that. Older horses that have dental issues, such as missing teeth, may also need routine floating as the existing tooth opposite the missing one has nothing to wear against and can thus become very sharp or cause problems.

Your vet will perform a regular oral examination—many vets recommend once a year—to determine if a floating is necessary (as well as to look for any other issues). This includes an examination of the interior your horse’s mouth to check her teeth for sharp edges; your vet will also check your horse’s bite to help identify any uneven grinding surfaces.

If a floating is required, your vet will likely sedate your horse, which will make the job easier on your vet and much less stressful on your horse. The vet will then likely use a mouth speculum to safely hold your horse’s mouth open during the procedure. Next, a rasp is used to file down the uneven edges. Unlike your own teeth, the nerve endings in your horse’s teeth are quite distanced from the surface of the tooth, so the filing does not hurt or cause discomfort to the horse in the way you might imagine. Some vets prefer a handheld rasp, while others use an electric power rasp, but care is taken not to injure the horse’s tongue or the sides of his mouth during the filing in either case. All in all, the floating process probably won’t take more than about fifteen to twenty minutes.

If your horse was sedated for the floating, be sure to withhold feed, forage, or pasture until she’s back to normal, to avoid choke. After that, she’s good to go!

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The following disorders can signal dental trouble and need immediate veterinary attention:

1. Dropping food while eating, difficulty chewing or excessive salivation.
2. Loss of body condition.
3. Large or undigested feed particles (long stems or whole grain) in manure.
4. Head tilting or tossing, bit chewing, tongue lolling, fighting the bit or resisting bridling.
5. Poor performance, such as lugging on the bridle, failure to turn or stop, even bucking.
6. Foul odor from mouth or nostrils, or traces of blood from the mouth.
7. Nasal discharge or swelling of the face, jaw or mouth tissues.

Source: “Learn to Recognize Your Horse’s Dental Problems,” American Association of Equine Practitioners

Further Reading
The Basics of Equine Dentistry
Dental Issues of the Senior Horse

The post Recognize Your Horse’s Dental Problems appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.