STETTLER, Alta. – An annual session with a dentist can prevent later health problems for horses.
“The most maintenance they need is when they are young, not when they are older,” said Shorty
Olson of St. Albert, Alta., a horse dentist for 12 years.
A horse’s mouth changes through the early years as the 24 baby teeth are shed and replaced with 36 permanent teeth, he said at the Stettler Horse Congress on Sept. 25.
If a horse has uneven or misaligned teeth, it may develop a bad temper, may be more prone to colic, suffer jaw discomfort or be unable eat properly and start losing weight.
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“By the time a horse starts losing weight, dental care is long overdue,” Olson said.
The modern, domestic horse may have excessive incisor length because it relies on a processed feed diet instead of grazing.
When horses eat processed feed, they grind it with their cheek teeth, which causes them to wear down at a normal rate.
However, the front incisors are not grinding at the same rate and do not wear down evenly to the back teeth.
The incisors erupt into the mouth and with little wear they create a partial or total gap between the upper and lower molars. With this gap, grinding feed becomes difficult.
A horse must grind its food into small particles. If that doesn’t happen, the feed can’t be fully digested and it passes out the body.
Another area of care is monitoring baby teeth.
Horses shed baby teeth between 21/2 and four years of age. These should be watched to ensure they fall out and do not interfere with permanent teeth.
They also have wolf and canine teeth that may have to be removed if they interfere with the bit.
Wolf teeth usually erupt when the horse is five to eight months of age and can be in the upper or lower jaw. As well, they may sometimes be impacted.
Horse teeth reach full length at around five years of age.
The mature tooth measures five to 71/2 centimetres from the apex of the root to the grinding surface. There is normally about a centimetre of crown visible at the gum line with the rest of the tooth embedded in the jaw. As the horse ages, the tooth erupts into the mouth but is normally ground down.
Horses with dental problems may have a bad temperament, poor body condition, difficulty eating, swelling on jaw bones, bad breath and excessive salivation. They may also head toss when being ridden, be hard to bridle or pack feed in cheeks for protection against sharp, protruding teeth.
If a horse’s teeth are out of line, the dentist can rasp them down evenly.
Olson said horse owners must educate themselves on dental care and make informed decisions when hiring a dentist. A layman can lift the horse’s lips and check the front teeth for levelness, possible abnormalities or changes over time.
“It is up to the horse owner to get educated on the procedures and what needs to be done,” he said.
