Diastema- gaps in teeth...

[Queenbee]

Hi there,

Well, what with the snow and all I knew that it was going to cause changes and problems in the horsey world, more cases of colic, shortage of haylage etc... I thought I was well home and dry! Then my mare smiled at me, you know, one of those funny things they do with their upper lip, and there was this HUGE mass of cr ap covering her front upper teeth, the grass had become sort of charred from the snow and with her picking at it with her front teeth it had begun to wedge between her incisors and create gaps, I picked out the trapped food and people if we could do scratch and sniff via internet you would be gagging now, I was and I have not got a queasy stomach! My poor baby's gums were all sore and bleeding! Cue mad woman frantically calling her EDT, he was excellent and came out 2 days later, Eb's HATED the new power drills that he uses (she was none too keen on him doing it by hand in the past!) He thinks it has been caught in time and has told me to pick the gaps clean each day and swill out with corsodyl solution. Have you ever tried this with a tw at of a mare?!! she is now getting a bit better with me pratting around in her mouth and I am hoping that in 2 weeks her gums will have recovered enough that we won't have to take any further action. The EDT agrees with me that it has been caused by the grass being extra tough since the snow fall, since she is only 18 and this should not be present in her yet.

So peeps a warning, please check your horses teeth, we don't always think of it, thank god Eb's smiled at me!

 

[rossiroo]

last year about this time, my then 18 YO mare had the same problem,(just smelly not sore or bleeding) I was told by EDT to brush the grass out with large toothbrush I did it for a short while and the problem has not re-occured. She has just had her 10 month check up and the gap seems to have lessened. Perhaps your horses might aswell.

 

[Oberon]

My 24 year old suffers with this.

Our first hint was an infection to his salivary glands, which appeared with acute symptoms overnight.

It is because he is coming to the end of his teeth. They taper at the end, so he now has many gaps.

He has regular dental surgery by the vet, he has to go to the clinic to be sedated.

He has a haynet, but I use a forage replacer diet as hay/haylage is too long and can get caught around his teeth and possibly cause infection/choke.

And I get his teeth checked every 6 months or less, depending on when the vet is nearby.

 

[Queenbee]

last year about this time, my then 18 YO mare had the same problem,(just smelly not sore or bleeding) I was told by EDT to brush the grass out with large toothbrush I did it for a short while and the problem has not re-occured. She has just had her 10 month check up and the gap seems to have lessened. Perhaps your horses might aswell.

Yes, that is what we are hoping, I clean all the horrid stuff out and then sluice it out with corsadyl and water 50:50 the EDT is coming out again in 2-3 weeks to check the progress, if the gums and gaps have improved then all will be good... fingers crossed!