Advice/Ideas? Pony chewing very carefully!

[Booga22]

My NF pony who is rising 3 & half, has started to chew her food very carefully and much, much slower than usual. She is only on a balancer and chaff, and I always feed it to her damp, but last night I notices she was turning her head out to the left and crossing her lower jaw out across the upper jaw, dropping some food in the process. She isn't doing this on every mouthful, but she is certainly eating very carefully and tentatively.
I have had a look as far as I can see, but obviously not that easy and not helped by the fact she used to be very head shy. I have rubbed the whole underside of her jaw and throat gently in the hope of dislodging what ever it is, but doesn't seem to affect her further.

Any ideas? She was still doing it this morning, seems to be able to graze ok but the grass is very short, and she was doing the same with her hay last night so again, I soaked it before letting her have it.
I was thinking along the lines of her having something caught in her cheek/gum maybe even her tongue? Teething? (Long shot maybe??)She has done this once before and it cleared overnight pretty much, but she isn't herself at the moment
She doesn't have access to the one section of hedgerow not unless she stretches her neck to the very extreme and more, and there is nothing else in her field. She had the bit in her mouth on Sunday at a show, and led around perfectly so I would say it has happened since.......
If not clear soon, then looks like it could be a vet job, but with a needle phobic pony.....

Sorry it's long, so thank you if you've made it this far!!!

 

[Enfys]

I'd say that it is time for the Dentist/Vet whichever you use.
At her age I would suspect teething.

 

[nicolenlolly]

Hiya

Mine did this and as the vet was out for the vacs I asked her to look...it turned out that little caps come off their teeth as they grow, Chips is about the same age so it could be the same. Anyway just as children lose their teeth, apparently ponies lose these caps at various stages, she knocked his with the rasp a couple of times and it came off. It bled a little but nothing major. This was in May and she said it would be about 6 months before the next one but I have noticed he is being slower again at eating so might be time to get the vet out to just check for me.

Hope that helps

 

[Booga22]

Hiya

Mine did this and as the vet was out for the vacs I asked her to look...it turned out that little caps come off their teeth as they grow, Chips is about the same age so it could be the same. Anyway just as children lose their teeth, apparently ponies lose these caps at various stages, she knocked his with the rasp a couple of times and it came off. It bled a little but nothing major. This was in May and she said it would be about 6 months before the next one but I have noticed he is being slower again at eating so might be time to get the vet out to just check for me.

Hope that helps

Thank you - I hadn't thought of caps on the teeth. I forgot to say that she had her teeth rasped and wolf teeth removed about 8 weeks ago, which she wasn't best pleased about. There doesn't appear to be any smell or discharge from anywhere, so hoping it is her teeth. Would be so much easier if they could talk!

 

[Enfys]

She hasn't banged her head or had a kick recently has she?

Only asking because I have a 5 year old who has been funny about her mouth/head recently, crossing her jaw, being fussy with her food, etc. Had the Dentist (qualified) around this morning and he said that her jaw was 'out' . He opened her mouth up sideways and I actually heard her jaw click, I am a dreadful sceptic and thought "Uh huh" but I did see an immediate improvement in her behaviour and he hadn't even floated her teeth at that stage.