How Common are Dental Abnormalities in Horses?
No account yet? Register
“Free-roaming horses use their teeth harder and longer when eating fresh grass as compared with a pelleted feed,” explained Teerapol Tum Chinkangsadarn, DVM, a PhD candidate at the University of Queensland School of Veterinary Science, in Australia. “The domestication of horses has limited their grazing time, which has led to an increase in dental diseases or abnormalities.”
To get a better idea of just how prevalent dental abnormalities are in domestic horses, Chinkangsadarn and colleagues examined the skulls of 400 horses, ranging in age from 1 to 30 years, presented to an abattoir (slaughterhouse) in Queensland.
The team determined that horses aged 11 to 15 had the highest occurrence of dental disease and abnormalities. Of those, 59.2% had hooks, 30.8% had wave mouth, and 26.7% had periodontal pockets (severe gum disease)
Create a free account with TheHorse.com to view this content.
TheHorse.com is home to thousands of free articles about horse health care. In order to access some of our exclusive free content, you must be signed into TheHorse.com.
Start your free account today!
Already have an account?
and continue reading.
Related Articles
Stay on top of the most recent Horse Health news with