A couple of nights ago I fed the horses and was picking grass by Shoni and Tabasco's pen. Of course they both stop eating their hay to come over and beg for the grass so I start forking it over and notice that Shoni's teeth look weird. I hold the grass up and get her lips going and see that they look really BAD! Keep in mind that Shoni and Tabasco are the first babies (and mustangs) that I have ever had. I have absolutely no experiences with horses losing baby teeth. The next night I showed my mom and she decided to look it up on the net. We found a helpful horse site: http://www.horseadvice.com/horse/messages/4/218260.html with a 2 year old with teeth similar to Shoni's. It sounds like it is normal for the incisors to look like that in a young horse but the color of Shoni's has me nervous. I put a call into our regular vet and another call into a vet that has an equine dentist. My regular vet called back and pretty much said not to worry about it. He said that I should be more concerned with teeth in the back since they can effect eating and cause weight loss. He also said that horses have been losing their teeth for years and that they do it on their own in the wild. :) As far as the vet with the equine dentist I am still waiting for a call back.
I took my camera out to take some pictures of her front teeth but they didn't come out real well. I think it gives some idea of how her teeth look though. From the photos you can see how swollen her gums look and also the discoloration. The two half teeth (I think they are adult teeth coming in) are yellow and a baby tooth has a black figure eight at the bottom.
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I was worried about Bella's teeth at that age too. She had just come from the BLM and I thought maybe she'd smashed her teeth in the chutes. The sharp, jagged roots were pointing forward, the gums were so red they were almost black, and they were all jaggedy too. I showed a picture to an equine dentist and even she thought we may have to do some work on those teeth. But they fell out, she grew in new ones, and all is well. At least I think all is well... My vet is checking her teeth tomorrow to make sure she's ready to take a bit.
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