Bleeding mouth - help!

measles

measles

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I hope someone can give us some advice as I'm concerned about our pony's mouth.

Before we bought her a few months ago she had been ridden in a wilkie snaffle but with her tongue over the bit as her old owners had found her to be increasingly mouthy over the years they had her. She's now 11yo and is fit and well and has had her teeth done twice with us - once when we bought her and they didn't seem to need anything other than routine rasping, and again she'd a recent check up with no problems found.

The problem is that she is becoming cut when ridden about an inch back and inside from the corners of her mouth on both sides. She is also red on the sides of her tongue and red on the floor of her mouth under her tongue. This happens when she does any ridden work other than hacking and there's no cuts further back from her teeth or chaffing at the corners of her mouth.

She would still try and get her tongue over if in a jointed bit so we've gone for straighter bits. Her rider has very soft hands and it's not them being rough and the same thing is happening in a straight bar happy mouth, a waterford, a 3 barrel myler and whilst she didn't cut herself on a pelham she didn't like it at all as she's slightly parrot mouthed. All of these bits are properly fitted, of the correct width etc and were in good condition.

I hope someone might have some suggestions as I wondered could she be allergic to stainless steel? Or could she have a recurrent infection of some kind? What other bits might suit as we need some control jumping - maybe a nathe mouthpiece? Or a friend suggested sweet iron or copper?

Help!
 
I'd suggest calling the vet out to have a good look under sedation. It may be worth getting the vet & EDT at the same time - our vets will let you take the horse to them & meet the EDT there which works out a fair bit cheaper as there's no call out fee.
 
Thanks for your responses. I have the vet coming out on Monday anyway and plan to ask his advice and have him look at her. Have you come across any allergies or oral infections before?

I so much want her to be happy and settled in her mouth - it must be such a horrible experience for her when she's so unconfortable and then we have to leave her to let it heal fully and round and round we go. [:
 
Have you tried riding her in a tongue bit? It's like a french link but has a tongue guard as the middle link. My horse used to get his tongue over the bit when jumping. I use the tongue bit now and he's much happier in his mouth. It also means I can drop the bit down and have his noseband much looser.

Hope you find a solution.
 
Here's a link

http://www.aivly.com/shop/10/138/index.htm

The pic is at the bottom of the page "Shires tongue bit". It's certainly made a big difference to my horse. It's just a matter of getting them out of the habit of getting their tongue over the bit. I can swap him into a normal snaffle for a dressage test now with no problems at all.
 
Or you can put a tongue loller on a bit...

Personally though, I think the vet is the first stage but he really may need to look under sedation - certainly with a gag (I wouldn't be happy with a quick peer in the mouth unless the vet can immediately identify a problem, for example ulcers).

To be honest, a horse getting his tongue over the bit shouldn't causing bleeding unless the teeth were sharp.It may well be that you have to play around with bit & noseband set ups until you find something the horse is more happy with, but first stage is certainly diagnosis of the problem.

In terms of allergies, I would think it's more likely to be an allergy if you were using a rubber bit than SS. I presume the bit is not pinching the corners of the mouth?
 
It sounds more like hes biting his own tongue and mouth. I have a horse who used to do this. Def get teeth checked by EDT. I actually found my boy went better in a french link than a straight bar. In a straight bar he was more able to get his tongue over the bit.

I have a horse who had a reaction to ss but I dont think she ever bled. She just went bald. I use a kk bit and rubber rings to stop the SS touching her.
 
hi i dont know if it'l help, i've found the neue schule bit bank extremley helpful, ask for heather they are online.
 
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i reccomend a type of bit called soft mouth there is all sorts of them pellum bubble snaffle etc soft bit is a type of rubber and generaly much better on the horses mouth.

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Thanks everyone. Vet out tomorrow so will see if he has any suggestions or comments.

Do you know who makes "soft mouth" bits - not come across those before? Was thinking of a nathe and have managed to find someone with one to borrow, depending on what vet says. Fingers crossed!
 
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