If you're a horse owner of dedicated reader of horse care
books, you KNOW that horses need to see dentists as much as we do. Take a
look at these pictures for some 'inside' info!
Why do horses need a dentist? Nature has equipped the horse
with 36 teeth...12 incisors in the front of his mouth which are the ones we
usually see, and 24 molars at the back on the upper and lower jaw...and these
are the ones a lot of people tend to forget about!
The incisors are designed to bite or tear and the molars to chew and grind.
Horse teeth, unlike human teeth, grow continuously at a rate of around 6mm
(1/4") a year for all a horse's life and there is a corresponding rate
of wear about the same amount on the teeth as the horse chews his food.
Now you'd think these two factors would cancel each other out but unfortunately
it doesn't quite happen that way. As you can notice in these pictures, the
lower jaw is narrower than the upper jaw and over a period of time, the teeth
wear down unevenly, resulting in sharp ridges which can cause the horse a
lot of pain. The top teeth cut the inside of his cheek and the lower ones
can lacerate his tongue so that eating is painful to such an extent that the
horse will avoid this pain, even if this means going hungry.
Signs your horse's teeth need attention include:
• bad breath with thick, glue-like saliva;
• a change in eating habits;
• dropping
half-eaten food from his mouth;
• weight loss or a general decline in condition;
• holding his head at an angle, head-shaking, bolting and general misbehaviour.
There are no nerves in a horse's teeth, so filing away the sharp edges doesn't
cause them any discomfort...although it makes humans watching the procedure
for the first time squirm!
For most horses, a yearly checkup and filing will mean the horse is suffering
no discomfort due to poor teeth. Younger horses in work benefit from inspection
three or four times a year as their temporary or 'baby' incisors are in the
process of being replaced by permanent ones. As in humans, the permanent tooth
pushes the temporary one out but this can take up to two months during which
time the horse can be very tender in the mouth. The dentist will help nature
along by removing the temporary tooth and lessening the discomfort.
So called 'wolf teeth' can be another extraction job. These sometimes appear
in front of the first two top molars and as they are not subject to any grinding
action, can become long enough to strike and lacerate the lower jaw. Wolf
teeth can be either extracted or cut off just above the gum line.
Teeth aren't all that dentists find in horse's mouths! One dentist was contacted
by a worried owner who horse had completely gone off his feed. An examination
revealed the horse had apparently eaten a bag needle which was stuck firmly
at the back of his tongue with the eye digging into the roof of the mouth.
Once it was removed (it was so stuck a pair of pliers was needed) the horse
began to wolf down feed! Other items that can get lodged in a horse's mouth
include dog bones (one dentist estimates he extracts around three a year)
and also hay bale wire.
Our thanks to the Equine Dental
Association of Australia for allowing us photograph their horse skulls.
Email: edaa@horsedentist.com.au
to locate a qualified horse dentist in your area.
This article and images may be reproduced in the interests of horse welfare
providing it includes a credit to Horsewyse
Magazine.
Above: This shows the gag that dentists use to
keep a horse's mouth open so they can work on their teeth. It doesn't cause
the horse any pain.
