Cardinal Equine Veterinary Dentistry

04/25/2025

People often get confused between canines and wolf teeth, so here are some pictures to help tell the difference.

Wolf teeth are vestigial teeth that are often tiny. They sit right in front of the first cheek tooth and usually erupt somewhere between 1-2 years old. These teeth can interfere with training because their roots are not very deep and when the bit comes into contact with them, it doesn't feel good for the horse. Often wolf teeth fall out on their own (or never come in) but if they don't, we usually extract them so they don't cause training issues.

You can see a wolf tooth in the photos with a purple circle around it. You might have to blow the picture up to actually see the tooth. The teeth in the same photo surrounded by the green circle are the full-sized cheek teeth. This was taken in a 5yo gelding and then we removed the wolf tooth. No after pics since those are a little bloody!

Canines are typically only found in geldings and stallions, though occasionally, mares will have small canines. Canines are substantial teeth and not easy to remove and usually erupt around 5 years old. The lower ones are typically found just behind the front teeth (incisors) and the upper ones are usually a little further back in the bars. It is important to make sure your bit does not interfere with the upper canines. Folks used to float the canines on the theory that they interfered with the bit or noseband, but if you insert your bit properly and your noseband fits properly, they are rarely a problem.

The photos below show two muzzles from the side with the lips pulled back. The one with the black lips is the gelding. His canine teeth have blue arrows pointing to them and the incisors (front teeth) have orange arrows. This particular gelding has tartar on his lower canines (outlined in pink) which we removed after we took the pic. The muzzle with the pink lips is a mare. She has orange arrows pointing to her incisors, but you can see her bars clearly and she has no canines on the top or the bottom. This is typical for mares.

I included the pics without the mark-ups so you can see the teeth more clearly if it's helpful. Happy weekend, everyone! 😎Enjoy the weather!⛱🐴

04/20/2025

EOTRH stands for Equine Odontoclastic Tooth Resorption and Hypercementosis. It is a nasty disease that almost exclusively affects front teeth (incisors) and sometimes canines of older horses. This disease causes affected teeth to have roots that bulge, which can change the way the front teeth come together when looked at from the side. It also causes cavities throughout the roots of affected teeth. These cavities hurt like the Dickens and prevent horses from properly using their front teeth for eating, grazing, grooming, nipping, biting fat carrots, cleaning out the feed pan, and anything else they do with these teeth. The chronic pain can cause horses to be difficult keepers.

Despite some research, we still have no idea what causes this massively painful disease and we have no medications to effectively treat it. The only humane treatment available at this time is to remove the affected teeth. EOTRH starts at the corner incisors and works its way towards the middle. By the time of diagnosis, typically the corner incisors are much more affected than the central ones, but if the disease has been fast-moving or diagnosis has been slow, often all the incisors are affected. The only humane treatment is to remove all the front teeth and affected canines.

Owners often worry that their horse will not be able to eat, that so many extractions is cruel, and that their horse will look funny after the procedure. Extracting so many teeth IS a big deal, but almost every patient I have had who has gone through this procedure has been much, much happier afterwards. In the two videos below, you can see a 33-year-old chestnut Thoroughbred gelding. We removed all of his front teeth and lower canines late this winter and this is one of the first times his person turned him out on grass. The other video shows him grooming one of his herd-mates, which was behavior his owner had not seen before the surgery. He is gaining weight and generally loving life. Though occasionally his person does see an inch or two of his tongue!

04/13/2025

Teeth aren't the only thing we look at when we do an oral exam! We also examine the soft tissues in the mouth, including the gums, bars, lips, commissures, and tongue. Just this week we found a puncture wound leaking pus under the tongue. Unfortunately no photos of that because my phone would've gotten way too slimed. Here are two photos of tongue injuries.

The first is an old, healed laceration in the tip of the tongue. This would have bled a lot when it happened but the owner may not have been able to figure out where the blood was coming from. The horse would probably have had blood on the front legs and maybe the lips or in the feed or water bucket, but no visible wound. Luckily, he is all healed up and this will not affect his ability to eat going forward.

The second photo is a much newer laceration (green arrow) across the body of the tongue (purple line.) This can be caused by a foreign body like a stick or hay bale wire. Wounds like this can also happen from the bit when the horse steps on her reins or lines when long-lining. This type of wound can affect the way a horse eats and it is difficult to treat because tongues do not hold stitches well and you can't really bandage them to keep them clean and dry.

04/04/2025

Miniature horses often have more dental abnormalities than full-sized horses. This is likely partially due to the line breeding that created such small creatures in the first place but also because often, their teeth are disproportionately large for their heads. This particular 6yo mini mare has multiple problems.

Her last molars can't erupt because there literally isn't room for them in her mouth. They should have erupted about 1.5-2 years ago and they just can't fit. She also has a marked underbite, or sow mouth. In her case, it is so pronounced that her bottom incisors (front teeth) almost don't touch her top incisors at all. We keep her chewing comfortably by floating her every 6 months to keep her incisors from overgrowing and blocking her natural chewing motion. If you look carefully, you can see that her lower corner incisor (green arrow) is still a baby tooth, even though the adult tooth should've come in about 1.5 years ago. And despite her imperfect dentition, she still manages to carry a little extra weight around, because... minis! 🐴

03/28/2025

It is very important to do a thorough oral exam on every horse at least once a year, whether they need a float or not. This 20yo pony gelding had a little bit of nasal discharge, but only intermittently and it wasn't very stinky. The day we saw him, he had no discharge at all. When we opened his mouth, we found he had a very large cavity (green arrow) in the 4th tooth back on his upper left arcade. When we looked carefully, we also found a periodontal pocket (yellow arrow.) This pocket was so deep, we could drop a probe into it more than 1.5 inches. This was probably the source of his nasal discharge.

If left alone, this most likely would have developed into a nasty, full hole between his mouth and sinus called a fistula. Once those are fully developed, it is very difficult to get them to heal. So, we extracted the tooth with the cavity and packed the socket with amnion to help it heal up. Interestingly, after we pulled the tooth, you could see on the side where it was losing attachment to the horse's head. To the left of the purple line near the chewing surface, there is no periodontal ligament attachment. To the right, toward the tip of the root, you can still see the broken periodontal ligament fibers. They are grayish-pink. This tooth should have been grayish-pink almost all the way up to the chewing surface.

After we extracted his tooth, the owner reported that the pony was eating much better than before and seemed much happier. Which of course made us really happy! 🥲

03/14/2025

Some days, you are the child. Other days, you are the lollipop. This was our assistant Carly's day to be the lollipop. Thanks, Finn!🤣

03/07/2025

We all get by with a little help from our friends! This is Kate, who felt that we were insufficient to the task of extracting 5 cheek teeth from her friend, Hosanna. So she supervised us very closely.😆 Spoiler alert: We did manage without her direct intervention, but she REALLY wanted to help.

03/06/2025

A nice summary from the American Association of Equine Practitioners!

02/27/2025

Can you spot the canine teeth in this picture?

Hint: They are the ones that look like bananas.🍌

The other teeth are incisors. These teeth give a nice a view of what equine canine teeth actually look like both above and under the gumline. A horse's canines are situated behind the front teeth (incisors) and are often mistaken for wolf teeth because they are located in the bars. Usually only geldings and stallions have full-grown canines. If mares have them, they are typically smaller or even unerupted and every so often, can interfere with bitting. There is no definitive reason why horses, who are herbivores, should have canines which are typically associated with carnivores. Another quirk of the equine digestive tract (since there weren't enough already! 🙃)

02/20/2025

EOTRH can be a scary diagnosis because it means we need to extract all of a horse's front teeth. Horses can eat just fine without their front teeth because they use their front teeth for picking up grass and hay and not for grinding (that's the back teeth's job). Horses usually end up using either their lips or their gums for grabbing hay or grass once their front teeth are gone and they start doing it long before they are healed from their extractions. Here are pictures of a horse's gums about one month after full incisor extractions due to EOTRH. She still has a little healing left to do, but she is eating very well and living her normal life.

02/12/2025

Here is an oddly folded front (incisor) tooth. It belongs to a 7yo TB gelding and does not bother him at all. The tooth likely grew this way due to trauma to the dental germ while the mature tooth was developing. It could also have been a genetic anomaly. The rest of his front teeth are completely normal. He says "CHEEEEEEESE!!" 😁

02/04/2025

This tooth was extracted from a 16yo WB gelding who had no symptoms yet. He was eating well and had no nasal discharge. The fractured tooth was found on a routine oral exam and float by his primary care veterinarian. This is the second molar on the upper right (5th tooth back out of 6) so it sat just a little closer to his nose than his right eye. When we pulled it out, it was full of stinky feed material. We are pretty sure this is a case of "Better out than in!"😜

01/31/2025

EOTRH (Equine Odontoclastic Tooth Resorption and Hypercementosis) can be a very scary diagnosis for horse owners. It means that eventually, all of your horse's front teeth, and sometimes the canine teeth, will need to be removed because they will become excruciatingly painful. Owners often worry about how their horse will function without any front teeth. The answer is: better than they functioned with them! After the front teeth are removed, horses graze and eat much more comfortably now that their painful teeth are out of the way.

The most common long-term side-effect is that you might see your horse's tongue. This is a recent patient for whom we extracted all of his front teeth and his two lower canines about 2.5 weeks ago. He is eating, drinking, and playing as usual. And if you look carefully, you can see a teeny, tiny bit of tongue peeking out of the left side of his mouth. Until he catches you looking and pulls it in. 😉

01/14/2025

There are two excellent client education seminars coming up in February, one hosted by Forward Thinking Equine Veterinary Services and the other hosted by Blauner, Buchholz and Associates. Please take advantage of all the wonderful knowledge these excellent veterinarians have to share!

DelVal Equine is excited to partner with Blauner, Buchholz & Associates to host their 2nd annual Horse Owner Lecture Night! We hope you can join us!

01/03/2025

Horse teeth are made out of three materials:

Enamel (Green Arrow): This is the whitish, translucent material. It forms the ridges that help grind up hay and it is the hardest material in the equine body.

Cementum (Red Arrow): This yellower material forms most of the volume of the tooth. This provides the cushioning between the dentin and the enamel and gives the tooth it's overall shape.

Dentin (Orange Arrow): This black material is the superhero of equine teeth. It protects the pulp (blood vessels and nerves) from exposure and fills in the infundibulae (cups) on the upper cheek teeth. The coolest thing about it is that when an equine tooth cracks, the dentin will attempt to fill in all the open pulp chambers to save the tooth from infection and total destruction. Most of the chewing surface on this particular tooth is covered in dentin trying to do just that. It didn't work in this case (we had to extract the tooth) but sometimes it does!

12/18/2024

So, this is not a normal cheek tooth, or I wouldn't be holding it in my hand. But, does anyone know which three materials make up a horse's tooth? You can see all three of them really well on this chewing surface. Bonus points if you know the purpose of each material!

12/13/2024

When your mom doesn't give you enough candy canes and the veterinary dentist shows up with a head stand...🤣