Don't Forget - Your Horse Needs Dental Care Too

Most horse owners, especially those using their horses in competitions, are usually pretty good about keeping their horses vaccinated. But after talking to several dozen rider over the past few months, across several different events, I've come to believe that many horse owners don't routinely get their horses teeth examined or floated. Usually I hear "My horses don't need it", or "I haven't seen any problems with their teeth."

Some of these problems they would expect to see wouldn't necessarily be traceable to a horse's teeth, like head tossing, avoidance of the bit, or getting bracey on the bit while riding. If your horse has these problems, especially if they are recently developed, you should consider a dental exam and floating to either fix the problem or rule out the teeth as a problem, as part of your solution finding.

Other problems that are obviously associated with teeth problems could be the horse dropping feed from his mouth, seeing undigested bits of feed in the manure, and, in the extreme, weight loss.

The horse's front teeth cut hay and the tongue pulls it back to the rear teeth (molars) where they grind the hay using a sideways motion. This is necessary to allow the feed to be ground down, swallowed and more easily digested. If a horse can't adequately grind up his feed, then the digestion process will be degraded and can even cause blockages or impaction colic.

During the sideways chewing and grinding of the feed, the back teeth usually become uneven, creating hooks and points on these teeth which not only will reduce optimum grinding of the feed for digestion, but these hooks and points can cut into the gum or tongue making pressure from a bit painful.    

The process of floating teeth involves sedating the horse. My Vet uses a mix of Xylazine and Butorphanol. The sedation lasts long enough to float the teeth and clean the sheath of the geldings, but the horses come out of the sedation pretty quick after that and while I can ride them, I usually give them the day off as they also get their spring vaccinations and sometimes their necks are alittle sore.

I asked my Vet if a decent enough exam can be done without sedation, she replied that "she cannot do a real good assessment of their teeth without sedation, and that likely 80% of the exams without sedation that show no major issues, will require floating once that horse is sedated." In other words, the best exam can't be done without sedation and while the horse is sedated you might go ahead and have his teeth floated.

While I have used non-Vets in the past who used the manual float method and did a good job, the modern method of floating uses a specialty power drill and a ceramic bit which is safer or less of an abrasive on teeth. That's the power drill, called "power floating", that you see my Vet, Amy Starr, DVM of Paws n' Hooves Mobile Veterinarian Services, in the picture at the top left.

Floating should result in, removing all the hooks and points and creating an even surface on the upper and bottom molars of the back teeth to grind feed against.  In the picture at right, you can see the hooks and the points on the molars.  This horse was floated about 13 months ago, so you can imagine how bad the teeth can get in a short amount of time.  He also had a few small cuts on the inside of his mouth where the sharp edges of his teeth cut him.

Floating is painless to the horse as the nerves for the tooth are well below the top surface of the teeth. There is a danger that heat built up of the file or ceramic bit on the tooth can damage the pulp of that tooth, but professional Vets or Equine Dentists trained in floating teeth would know this and eliminate that possibility.

Back to the people who think there horses don't need dental work,......... While the total cost of getting a horse's teeth floated (around $125) my seem like too much money, especially if you have several horses to do, wouldn't it seem like the costs of a Vet's farm call and colic treatment, which you would help prevent with floating, make it seem like a good investment? Not to mention eliminating performance or bit acceptance problems.

I think it's just something we owe the horse. I have had horses, and usually these will be older horses, who needed their teeth floated about every 8-9 months. But generally, I try to get my horses floated once a year, for me that's every April, so I can also get spring vaccinations and blood pulled for their annual Coggins tests.

Feeding Bran Mashes

Cindy M wrote to me and asked: "Hello! Just read the Bran Mash article and was wondering if you give this bran mash to them instead of a meal? in between meals? We are pretty new to the horse world, but already have way too much experience with colic. Wondering if this might help. Thanks for the info."

Hey Cindy, thanks for writing. Giving your horse a bran in a mash is not necessarily a colic treatment, such as when they are exhibiting colic symptoms.  But it may be one of the things you should consider overall for your horse's health, particularly digestive help, and as a preventative measure for colic particular if you keep you horse in a sandy area and your horse may consume sand when it is picking up hay off the ground,....hence the name sand colic.

I give a weekly bran mash as one of my preventative measures for sand colic and for general digestive health. I use a little bit of molasses and corn oil to help the taste and I sometimes include a couple scoops of Sand Clear. I feed it an addition to regular feedings, usually equal time between feedings.

One of the best sources for Horse Nutrition is the book, Equine Clinical Nutrition, by Lon D. Lewis, Williams & Wilkins, 1995. This books states "While some people feed wheat bran to help with digestive health and a colic preventative, Bran has no laxative effect nor soften stools (manure) in horses, and that there is no evidence either way that bran mash can help prevent colic." As much respect as I have for Lewis’ work, I will remain one of those people who think a weekly bran mash is a probably a good idea.

Some people say that using corn oil is counter productive when mixing it with bran or any Psyllium product. I don't see that, especially with the small amounts of corn oil I use. Other people won't use molasses as it may spike the horses blood sugar,..again, I use very small amounts.

Bran is actually the ground up outer layer of a kernel of grain. Most bran available at feed stores is wheat bran or rice bran. The different being that rice bran has a much higher fat content and can more easily go rancid. Bran is a low density feed at about half or less the weight compared to the same volume of grains such as oats or corn. So the same volume of bran compared to its grain counterpart provides only half the digestible energy.

If I'm working a horse pretty hard or have to use him two pretty long days in a row, I may feed him a bran mash each day for it's energy value. Again, with just a small amount of corn oil and molasses to make it a little more palatable to the horse.   

Given the same weight (not volume) Wheat Bran actually provides slightly more digestible energy than Alfalfa, Grass Hay or Beet Pulp, but is actually lower in percentage of crude fiber.  But Wheat Bran is not something you can use to replace Alfalfa and Grass Hay.


Another thing you may consider doing is tuning in SmartPak's Webinar's on Horse Health issues.  SmartPak is a equine supplement distributor, and more than a distributor, as they customize supplement packets based on owner and horse needs.    

This Thursday, September 13th, SmartPak is hosting two Colic Prevention Live Webinars,...one at noon to 1pm the other at 7 to 8 pm.   This is advertised as a free one hour live webinar on Colic Prevention including smart tips to reduce your horse’s risk presented by Dr. Lydia Gray, Medical Director and Jessica Normand, Senior Director - SmartSupplements™ at SmartPak.

I use a pelleted feed product called Patriot from ADM Alliance Nutrition.  What I like about ADM is their motto is "Forage First".  ADM proclaims horses are classified as non-ruminant herbivores, with digestive tracts designed to best utilize good-quality forages....and that research shows that feeding programs relying too heavily on cereal grains, with limited forage, often result in health and performance problems.

ADM has a very good website with horse nutritional information and information on their seminars. You may want to bookmark this site and refer to the very good ADM articles on Horse Health issues.

I hope this helps Cindy,...Safe Journey.