Straight from the Horse's Mouth

S1 E23: "Straight from the Horse's Mouth"

In this episode, host Stacy Pearsall discusses the anatomy of horse teeth, the time of teeth rupture, the aging of a horse by teeth, and the importance of equine dental care.

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Transcript

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Have you ever heard of the term never look a gift horse in the mouth? Well, that expression comes from the practice of aging a horse by its teeth. And guess what? That's our topic for today. Let's get started. This is the Brabant Bulletin brought to you by the European Brabant Registry of America, where people, passion and preservation are our mission. Hello Brabanters. Did you know? Just like humans. Routine dental care is essential for maintaining your horse's health. Most vets will recommend a dental exam at least once a year, if not twice, depending on the age and the lifestyle of your horse. Unlike us, horses, teeth continue to erupt or grow throughout their lifetime, which can lead to a lot of dental issues that need to be addressed quickly. A dental exam with a primary vet will consist of a visual exam, as well as what we call floating the teeth where necessary, to remove any of those sharp points or abnormalities. Routine dental care is important for a number of reasons. With domestication and confinement, our horses have modified their diet and eating patterns, which also lead to dental issues. Performance. Horses are started at a younger age and asked for higher performance. More than ever, breeding horses are not selected based on their dental attributes either. So what are the advantages of routine dental care? Well, just a few. it helps your horse's mouth be more comfortable so they can continue to eat properly. They can utilize their feed more efficiently, and it also helps them perform better. Because if your horses are tossing their head, it's likely that maybe some dental issues are at play there. and also, it promotes a healthier horse and allows them to live longer. And let's face it, we want to be with our horses as long as possible. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's just talk a little bit about, horses teeth first and a little bit of that sort of growth cycle. Because, as I said, from the beginning, that old adage of looking at gift horse in the mouth comes from aging a horse by its teeth. So let's talk about the phases of teeth growth. Just like humans, horses have two sets of teeth during their lifetime. The first set are called deciduous teeth or baby teeth, just like us. And then the second set their permanent or adult teeth. They come in a little later. So horses have two different types of teeth. They have the front or the forward teeth, which are, also called incisors. And the function of these teeth are to cut off the forage like pick up the grass or the hay. And then the second set of teeth are the cheek teeth which include pre molars and molars. And those are used for chewing and masticating the feed, basically grinding it up before they swallow it. These teeth are wide. They're flat, and they have grooved surfaces to allow for grinding. An adult male horse will have 40 permanent teeth, while an adult female mare may have 36 to 40 adult teeth. This variation of adult mare teeth is due to mares being less likely to have canine or bridle teeth. So let's talk about the deciduous teeth. There are the first incisors, which are central. they are there at birth or the first week. So that's the eruption timeline rather. So the second incisors or intermediates come in about 4 to 6 weeks. The third incisors or the corner teeth. Come in at about 6 to 9 months. The first, second and third premolars or those chick teeth come, erupt around birth or the first two weeks for all pre molars. Now let's talk about permanent teeth. The first incisors, or those central incisors come in at about two and a half years old. The second or intermediate teeth come in at about three and a half years old. The third incisors, or those corner teeth, are four and a half. And then the canine or bridal teeth come in at 4 to 5 years. Now, wolf teeth are those first three molars. They come in at 5 to 6 months. So we're backing up a little bit. and then going into the second premolars, those first cheek teeth. Two and a half years. Third pre molars are three years. Fourth pre molars four years. It gets a little easier when you think about that timeline. So at two and a half roughly two two and a half years old those second pre molars three years old, the third premolars four years old, the fourth pre molars and then those first molars, the fourth cheek teeth. Are you confused yet? I know it's a lot, but essentially there's a lot happening for the loss of teeth. So if you're raising up a horse of your own, you may find teeth around when they're eating feed. starting around two and a half years old is actually more like two years old. You'll start seeing them kind of around the pasture. All right, so how often should you have your horse's teeth looked at? Every horse should have a dental exam performed as part of their routine annual care. So if you're getting vaccinations, just have the vet put the speculum in the mouth. Do a little visualization. Make sure that everything's good. some horses require sedation. I find that our Brabants are quite mild mannered and allow for a full mouth exam with very little sedation, if not any. and you can practice training your horse to have these dental exams from an early age. If you have, foals on the ground or if you've got a weanling, start putting your fingers in their mouth and just make it a routine thing. The veterinarian will examine the teeth. they'll look at the surface of the gums, the cheek, the tongue, the hard palate, the soft palate. And they'll be checking for any abnormalities from that exam. The veterinarian will decide if there are any dental care needs that need to be performed, like teeth floating. A dental flow files down the teeth with a manual or a power operated file. My, that actually has this drill, and it's got a circular, grinder, which you can actually touch that grinder to your finger, and it doesn't hurt. But when it touches the teeth, it grinds the teeth down. Horses tend to chew in a circular motion. The upper jaw is also wider than the lower jaw, so horses commonly develop sharp points on the outside of their upper molars and the inside of their lower molars. These are the areas that are commonly grinded down or floated, and depending on the horse's age. If they're younger or older, they're more likely to need dental care. Lifestyle and performance also plays a factor, so if your horse is stalled or if they're eating grain, generally require more dental care versus a horse living outside on a pasture eating forage. also genetics, just like people, some horses will have better mouths than others due to their genetics. A young horse in training may need to have a dental exam performed as often as every six months, while a middle aged horse that is living outside on a pasture may only need that yearly exam. Okay, let's talk about aging a horse by its teeth. Now, we talked about the the two sets of teeth in their lifetime, the eruption timeline. That's where the aging comes into play. Eruption of the permanent teeth. Disappearance of cups is one of the factors. So cups are deep in dentures in the center of the surface of new permanent teeth. These disappear at intervals six, seven, eight, nine, ten, and 11 years of age. As a horse ages it changes, so by 11 years of age a horse should no longer have cups and begin to develop dental stars on the surface of their teeth. Also, the angle of incidence is another thing we look for. Most commonly, this is the angle that forms by the meeting of the upper and lower incisor teeth. That's the teeth at the front of the mouth. In young horses, the angle is 160 to 180 degrees. As a horse ages, that angle will slant forward and outward become less than a right angle. So think of it as kind of standing upright, like if you put your points of your fingers together and as you continue to change that angle on point outward, that's the angle of the teeth, that angle of incidence. The shape of the surface of the teeth undergo a lot of changes as the horse ages as well. And the young horse, the surface of the teeth will be broad and flat. As the horse ages, the surface will become more oval at about 8 to 12 years of age, you'll see that most predominantly, and then a triangular shape by the age of 15. It is important to remember that these features can vary from horse to horse, and that is the only way to estimate a horse's age. So you're really looking at a sort of spectrum of age if you don't know the birth of that horse, if the horse was not registered and you don't know the background, looking at the teeth can give you a general idea of the horse's age. So when deciding how often you should be doing dental exams, it's important to discuss a schedule with your vet. A horse's dental health can vary dramatically based on their age, lifestyle, and genetics, as I've said before. So in general, a young horse's teeth change more dramatically up until the age of five, when they lose their baby teeth and gain their permanent teeth. Because of these changes, it is always a good idea to have a dental exam performed at least 1 or 2 times per year. A young horse's teeth are often softer than older horses, and that allows them to develop sharper points more quickly. Middle aged horses with good mouths may only need a dental exam performed once a year. As horses become seniors, they are more likely to have dental issues and should have 1 or 2 exams performed yearly. Because a horse's teeth continue to erupt throughout their entire life, senior horses can wear their teeth out and eventually completely lose them. It is important to check for any dental abnormalities that cause issues with being able to properly chew or digest. And so if you're seeing your horse chew on hay and they're balling it up and spitting it out, check their teeth. If you see them eating their supplement or their grain and they're dropping it out of their mouth, check their teeth. If they are tossing their head and shaking their head when they're doing work, check their teeth. If you see facial swelling, weight loss, foul smelling breath, nasal discharge large, undigested feed in their manure. All of these can be signs of clinical dental issues. I had a horse in for training, and I saw that there was, an abscess at the bottom of the jaw, and it was it was oozing. Our Brabants have, quite excessive hair on their mandibles. So sometimes these things can be overlooked. Now, I do a thorough head to toe exam on every horse that comes in for training. I noticed that foul smell and oozing shaved off the mandible. And notice on actually both sides of the jaw there was infection brewing had to vet out, had X-rays performed, and there was quite a significant infection in the bone, which required, quite a bit of treatment by a surgeon. I had another horse in for training and they were a tossing their head. They were quite painful. I was teaching them to take the bit into their mouth, and I noticed discomfort, and so I halted any sort of training at that point, had my vet out, had X-rays done, and he was a juvenile. Continuing to grow, and he was in that stage of rupturing some of those molars, and he couldn't loose that cap. So the vet had to come and pull caps off because he couldn't dislodge them himself. Once he recovered from having those caps removed and his teeth were ruptured, he was fine. But this really comes into play. You have to pay attention to what's happening. Common dental problems in horses include sharp points in cheek teeth causing lacerations and ulcers on the inside of the tongue. And that becomes painful when they're eating. So it's not just about discomfort. When we're working them. And again, retained caps. So I had that horse in for training. He had the caps. He couldn't rupture them. So the vet came out and pulled them. Now let's talk about wolf teeth. There has been, and continues to be, quite a bit of controversy about the presence or absence in shape of wolf teeth. The first premolars, located near where the bit sits. Many people feel that those teeth don't cause any problems as long as they are not sharp. This may be true, but a lot of horsemen prefer to remove these teeth when the horse is young, to eliminate them as a possible cause of pain and bad behavior. In most practices, they routinely remove wolf teeth. For many young horses destined to be performance horses or working horses. If one person encounters wolf teeth in an older horse in their mid teens or so, the horse is not experiencing any issues with the bridle. Just leave them alone. Some young horses who are entering training with their wolf teeth, they may begin to develop problems. Around the age of 4 or 5. Really, it comes at any age, but it can sometimes be more difficult to remove wolf teeth in older horses because their attachment to the surrounding bone is stronger. So if you're going to have wolf teeth removed, the younger the better. I will say that older wolf teeth are more likely to be broken due to excessive pressure from the bit. So controversial maybe. I prefer to have wolf teeth removed, so as soon as they erupt, then I will have them popped out by the vet. Hey, Brabanters, It's Joe here with less than 7000 European Brabants left on the planet. The European Brabant Registry of America's Mission is to preserve and protect this ancient breed, and it's needed now more than ever. You don't have to own a Brabant to help them become a member of the EBRA today and support efforts to safeguard this heritage breed for future generations. Visit www.europeanbrabant.com and join us today. And now back to the show. Okay, let's get back to some other common teeth issues like. hooks on the upper and lower cheek teeth are misaligned. Long and sharp bridle, canine teeth interfering with the insertion of the bit lost or broken teeth. Now, I had a mare who came up, off. She was just lethargic and something was wrong. So I had my vet out. We did an exam. We looked at her teeth, we floated them and it turned out that she had two fractured teeth that required pulling. And, you know, these things can lead to, excessively worn teeth infected gums. you can also look for misaligned or congenital defects or periodontal gum disease. Dental exams, are really, really important for the overall health. By having poor dental health, it could lead to other things like colic, choke, poor body condition, poor performance, anorexia, the loss of appetite, diarrhea, tooth rot, abscess, infection, nasal issues. Dare I say, get your horse checked. Just make it routine and you can avoid a lot of problems. Well, that concludes our episode for today. I hope it was helpful and informative. If you want to share some experiences about your horse's teeth, feel free to visit EuropeanBrabant.com. Get on the forum members and let's talk some teeth. Until next time, remember to ride a Brabant is to fly without wings.