Your horse’s teeth are always hard at work, chopping and grinding forage as they graze throughout the day. When your horse has a dental issue, they may not get adequate nutrition, or they may not be able to eat at all. Improper chewing can also lead to poor digestion and colic. Keeping up with your horse’s dental care and overall wellness products, including items found in the Horse category, helps support your horse’s long-term health and comfort.
Why Do Horses Need Their Teeth Floated?
Your horse’s teeth are continuously growing. Every horse’s upper jaw is also slightly wider than the lower jaw, causing the teeth to grind against one another as they chew. This action creates sharp edges that can interfere with your horse’s ability to chew efficiently and can also create sores in the soft tissues in your horse’s mouth.
Floating, or filing down sharp edges, keeps the chewing surfaces of your horse’s teeth even as they grow and wear down with daily use. Most horses need to have their teeth floated and examined by their veterinarian once a year. Your veterinarian may need to sedate your horse to conduct a thorough examination.
Routine veterinary care, along with preventative health support such as products found in the Horse Supplements category, can help maintain overall health that supports good digestion and dental function.
Do I Need To Clean My Horse’s Teeth?
Do your horse’s yellow brown teeth have you wondering if it is time to start brushing? As it turns out, horses are not meant to have a sparkling white smile.
Your horse’s teeth have a porous outer layer called cementum that helps keep the tooth connected to the socket. The cementum stains easily as your horse eats, so discoloration is normal and does not require brushing.
A typical horse’s diet, made up mainly of forage, keeps their teeth clean through a constant chewing action. Their diet also keeps their saliva alkaline, creating a less favorable environment for bacteria that cause tooth decay.
Some horses do develop tartar buildup around the gumline. This tartar can be removed during your horse’s regular dental appointment.
Maintaining proper parasite control with products from the Horse Dewormers category can also help support digestive health, which works closely with proper chewing and feed breakdown.
Signs Of Dental Issues In Horses
If you keep up with yearly dental exams, your horse is less likely to develop serious dental problems. Even so, some horses are more prone to tartar buildup than others due to genetics or malformations.
Horses under 5 years old will lose a set of baby teeth, just like humans. Your veterinarian may recommend more frequent dental exams while your horse is young to ensure their adult teeth are developing properly and that all baby teeth have fallen out. Retained baby teeth may need to be surgically removed.
Canine teeth are usually only present in male horses. They typically erupt when the horse is between 4 and 6 years old. Canines are more prone to developing sharp edges and accumulating tartar buildup, and fractures can occasionally occur.
In older horses, the teeth eventually stop growing. If your horse lives long enough, their teeth will eventually wear down completely. Horses with missing teeth can still eat, though their feed may need to be soaked to ensure proper digestion.
Call your equine veterinarian if you notice any of the following symptoms of a dental issue.
- Drooling
- Quidding or spitting out partially chewed balls of food
- Odor from the mouth
- Undigested forage in stool
- Tilting the head while chewing
- Facial swelling
- Discharge, pus, or blood from the mouth
- Unexplained weight loss
