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Teeth and worms
The horse has three pairs of incisors, three or four pre molars on each side of the jaw depending if wolf teeth are
present and a further three molars behind, the pre molars are present first and gradually replaced, the process is not
complete until 3 1/2yrs, molars are not replaced and take from 8mnths to 4yrs to appear.
Difficulty in eating are one of the first signs of tooth problems,as is head shaking and pulling when being ridden.
Serious teeth problems can cause swelling of the face and discharge from the nostrils
sharp edges occur on the inside of the lower teeth and on the outside of the upper teeth, the cheek may become sore
and ulcerated as the edges cut the cheeks, the pain is obvious when turning the horse when bridled.
Extracting teeth is very difficult, usually the tooth has to be taken through a hole in the jaw, a mallet is used to punch
the tooth from the jaw.
Wolf teeth
wolf teeth are small pre molars that erupt sometime between 6mthns and 3yrs and lie immediately in front of the
cheek teeth they usually cause problems when the horse is first bridled at around 4 to 5yrs, they are often blamed for
causing the horse to fight the bridle but look to your bitting and tack first.
teeth rasping
most abnormalities of wear occur as a result of the feeding of hard feed, check the teeth twice yearly spring and
Autumn are good times, best if little restraint is used but some horses may require sedation, the teeth need to be felt
by the hand this is best done with a gag in the mouth, large hooks may need to be knocked of with a chisel, sharp
edges are removed by rasping, quite a noisy procedure.
Worms
Some internal parasites of the horse and pony
Strongyloides westeri is a very tiny worm that affects foals of up to 8mnths it lives in the small intestine and
can cause diarrhorea in the young foal the larvae are carried in the dams milk mares have the larvae in their tissues
in late pregnancy the larvae migrate to the udder
Strongyles
strongyles is by far the most commonly found worm living in the horses intestine, various types are found ranging
from 1cm to 5cm,they are reddish in colour, the most common is the red worm (strongyles vulgaris ) the small
redworm and the larger but no less important strongyles edentatus and Strongyles equinus
Strongyles vulgaris eggs are eaten from the pasture and pass to the small intestine here they burrow through the
wall of the intestine and migrate along the tiny arteries to the gut the aota, they cause clots in the arteries so oxygen
can not get to the gut this can cause extreme pain and colic, this is common in young animals between 1yr and 4yrs
after that they can develop some resistance to these worms. The adult worms harm the walls of the colon, damaging
blood vessels and causing haemorrhages this can result in lost condition and sometimes anaemia, eggs remain active
over winter on the pasture, when the weather condition is right millions of eggs hatch together.
A smaller worm trichonema does not migrate larvae develop in the intestinal wall , in late winter they immerge en masse
this can cause severe diarrhoea that can be fatal