Wolf Teeth - Leave them in or take them out?

hudsonw

hudsonw

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Hi, I've just bought a Shire x TB colt yearling that has his wolf teeth.
I've had him vetted (which he passed with flying colours
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) and the vet said his wolf teeth are there and he'll take them out.
My yearling is being gelded in 2 weeks time so the vet has said he'll do his teeth at the same time, whilst he's sedated.
However my last horse still had his wolf teeth all his life and never caused him any problems so i'm not 100% sure if they really need to come out?
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I can see the benifits of having them done at the same time so it's all done in one go but i'm worried about the stress and pain
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If they do need to come out then should i have them done sepratley to his "bits" or at the same time...should they come out at all?
Help....
 
Might as well have them done now as he is going to be sedated anyway. If they cause problems later you will have to have him sedated again. He will probabaly be more stressed about losing parts of his anatomy than a couple of teeth !!
 
While many horses live comfortably with them in the long haul, most seem to have problems with them when they're coming in, which is, unfortunately, often at a critical time in a horse's ridden career. I don't take them out as a matter of course IF the horse isn't having a problem (and there is the possibility of laying the horse off, perhaps for some time, when they're coming in) but I'd say I've had more have to have them out than left in. It's far worse to end up with problems in the horse's mouth you then have to fix.

If you can have them done now and they're far enough through to make sure they get all of the tooth, it's probably worth having them done. The only qualifier might be if they're still below the gum line as if the tooth fractures during extraction you could end up with a more serious problem in the long run. I've known a few horse whose mouth issues have come down to retained wolf tooth segments.

But if your vet is confident it will be better for him to have them done under sedation anyway. The heal quickly and it much more time and cost efficient to have them done now.
 
My yearlings wolf teeth are through too - dentist had a quick check of her on Friday while he did my mare.

His thinking is to leave them alone for now as she may loose them when she looses her baby teeth, and tbh I'm in no rush with her - shes not even bitted yet.
 
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