Chalky teeth

[Count Oggy]

I had a new dentist visit my horse a while back who gave me some new information. He said my boy had chalky or soft, sensitive teeth. Apparently this is common with hand reared horses, he said they weren't that bad and a credit to the people who reared him. I'm now thinking that if he has a weakness in his teeth due to diet as a foal, could this also affect his bones? What could be the long term implications? He's a fairly heavy boy (the foal out if a foster mare) but has an easy life.

 

[SEL]

Did he say why it's common with hand reared horses? Mine was hand reared, so I'm wondering if this is another problem she might have waiting for me.

Not long had a dental & nothing flagged tho.

 

[Count Oggy]

Hi SEL, he didn't say and I didn't think to ask at the time. I think it's just a breasts is best thing. Nothing is quite as good as the mother's milk. I'd not had anyone mention it before either. I thought of it again whole watching a programme on H&C where it was a problem with a wild stallion (who obviously wasn't hand reared, but maybe other diet related issues). What other problems are you having? Maybe we could start a support group ��

 

[ycbm]

I found two things on a US site that might help.

Magnesium:

Yes, magnesium can weaken calcium phosphate. It substitutes in the Ca2+ position and results in a weaker bond between the surrounding phosphate groups.

Yes, I do tooth mineralization/demineralization research with the University of Colorado School of Dentistry.

Given that horses already have a somewhat "softer" enamel (approximately 80 GPa for horses as compared to 116 GPa for human enamel), a change in its compositional nature such as substituted magnesium could result in even "softer" teeth. Dental enamel gets its ions from the saliva and if it is Mg rich instead of Ca, the Mg will migrate into the tooth. Tooth enamel does not harden from the inside so it is the salivary calcium and phosphate (PO4) you need to think about.

Also, remember, a horse's teeth evolved to wear in order for the horse to eat plants covered in abrasive dirt and sand. By being "softer" than human enamel, you prevent shattering of the tooth, like biting into a popcorn kernel unexpectedly.

My opinion, stop giving magnesium. Simple and easy.

And stress when tooth is in development (like an orphan foal)

enamel hypoplasia. This is a pathology that occurs during enamel formation - the body is so stressed during enamel formation (from extreme systemic stress from any number of things including malnutrition, starvation, disease, etc.) that the enamel forming cells actually pause in the process of laying down enamel. When the body recovers, enamel formation starts again, but a permanent line or pit is left in the tooth (teeth) corresponding to the time of stress. Where the pit or line is, it will be weaker or 'softer', and more susceptible to disease, because it will have drastically less enamel, but the rest of the tooth should not be affected by the hypoplasia - in other words, away from the hypoplasia, the enamel will be whatever it was destined to be (hardness-wise - destined from genetics, environment, biology). At least, this is the way it works for most animals (I am not specifically knowledgeable about horse hypoplasia). Hypoplasia can also have a genetic etiology.

It sounds like your horse has poor enamel quality (and therefore his teeth lack hardness). There is a surprising amount of variation in quality of enamel...I have met people with poor enamel, and with them, it causes all sorts of problems. I would imagine there is nothing you can do to increase hardness because, although horse teeth continue to erupt through life, the teeth are already formed (enamel is already done - there is no changing what was already laid down). Best of luck to you!

Very interesting subject. I might be reviewing my use of magnesium.

 

[supsup]

Very interesting subject. I might be reviewing my use of magnesium.

Don't think I'd be quite that quick to change dietary magnesium, just based on that quote. The real question is whether higher dietary levels magnesium affect the relative levels of Ca, P and Mg in the saliva, and that isn't stated anywhere in the quote. It may well be that, similar to blood concentrations of minerals, these are tightly regulated by the body, and more dietary Mg actually doesn't show up at all in the saliva (but may be needed/used in other places in the body).
And the time teeth are "bathed" in the feed that contains extra Mg is so short, I doubt it affects the enamel strength much. Apart from that, having something like MagOx in the feed does not equate to having free ions floating about.