As with humans, dogs and cats, horses often develop problems with their teeth and many of these conditions are painful which will affect their ‘rideability’ or ‘soundness’ as oral pain will affect their behaviour and bit seating. Oral pain is difficult for anybody to ignore!   And of course the condition of a horse’s teeth affects its ability to eat and digest food properly and so has an impact on its body condition. 

The science and practice of equine dentistry has progressed at an astounding rate over the past few decades. Today there are veterinarians practising high level dentistry throughout Australia.

August is the Australian Veterinary Association’s Pet Dental Health Month, where the focus is on gaining and maintaining good oral health across the range of companion animals.

In dogs and cats, only about a half of the disease in the mouth can be seen in the conscious patient.  And it isn’t much different in horses. Good sedation and pain relief, and good lighting will help a vet to see problems that can’t be ‘felt’ with the hands.  The old adage “If you don’t look, you won’t see” is just too true in horse dentistry.

Here’s just one case where a horse was badly affected by teeth problems for a long time, but with appropriate care and treatment, this was alleviated.

Red’s story
“Red has a parrot mouth which has meant that he has had to have a ‘dentist’ visit him every 6 months,” says Red’s owner.

“I believed he was helping him for the 4 years that he treated him, but little did I know!”

“Red had been retired since April 2004 and because he was not being ridden I didn’t know his mouth was sore. He has always been extremely hard to keep weight on, at one stage he was having 3 hard feeds and 1 bale (1/2 a bale of Lucerne and 1/2 a bale of grass hay) a day but this was not enough to keep him in good condition.”

“Many people I asked for help said the same thing: ‘have his teeth done’ which is what I did but I still saw no change in spite of trying numerous diets and wonder feeds.  I finally came to terms with the fact that he simply needed a lot of feed!

“One day when I couldn’t get my old dentist to attend to him, I tried a new one and within about two minutes of working on Red’s teeth, he admitted that his problems were far beyond his abilities. Our vet was also there at the time so he looked at Red for me and said that as he thought a tooth was broken and it appeared that it was not recent. He referred me to a vet with a special interest in horse dentistry.

“Red now has a well functioning set of teeth after having lots of work done including having that broken tooth extracted. It has been a long process, but one that has been worth it.
“I now have a very healthy fat horse that is only fed five times a week on either a bucket of feed, or a biscuit of Lucerne hay!  This is pretty impressive and he has gained around 100kg,” said the relieved owner.

Dr Shannon Lee was the vet who eventually solved Red’s teeth problems.

“In spite of Red being regularly attended to by a non-veterinarian ‘equine dentist’ for many years, he had never pointed out any of the serious problems which existed,” said Dr Lee.

“These included obviously fractured incisor teeth, the large hooks or sharp points on his check teeth or the necrosis and fracture of a rear right upper cheek tooth. Under sedation and pain relief, Red had a thorough dental treatment which included extraction of the fractured cheek tooth.”   

Good oral care can make all the difference to the health and welfare of every horse. Advances in scientific knowledge over the last ten years or so have meant scientific veterinary care has even more to offer to the equine patient.

Wayne Fitzgerald.

University of Melbourne Veterinary School
Princes Highway, Werribee 3030

Red before treatment for his teeth problems      

After treatment, Red’s weight and health returned to normal
Red’s incisors before treatment:

Large ulcer on the gum near Red’s broken tooth: