What are pairs of incisors in horses called? Horse teeth: anatomy, age determination. Video: Cool teeth

Teeth are one of the most important organs of a horse. It is necessary to monitor their condition and treat diseases in a timely manner.

Types of teeth

Horses have several types of teeth depending on their shape and purpose.

The structure of a horse's tooth implies the presence of a cavity consisting of mucous tissue with nerves and blood vessels. Necessary nutritional components penetrate into dentin from the blood of the pulp vessels. The hidden half of the teeth, going into the gums, is called the root, and the visible half is called the corolla.

As the horse's teeth wear down, the gray enamel will press inward and become shaped like a bottle. Having sawed off the abrasive parts, you can see whitish enamel and a substance made of gray bone tissue. At the cup, the greatest depth is achieved on the highest incisors.

Determining the age of a horse by its teeth is the most accurate among all other similar methods. To find out how to determine the age of a horse, take into account that up to 6 years the shape of the incisors is oval, at 7-12 years it wears off and becomes round, and after 12 years it takes on a triangular shape. The dental formula of a horse is: I3C1P3M3 / I3C1P3M3 × 2 = 40. When asked how many teeth a horse has, you can answer that stallions should have 40, and mares should have 36. Their number may vary.

Horse teeth shape

Depending on the shape, there are several types of horse teeth. There are incisors and molars. There are 6 incisors in the upper and lower rows. In the middle there are hooks, then there are middle incisors and edges are placed along the edges. At a young age, the incisors are arranged in a semicircle, but as they grow older they straighten out. In older animals, the incisors protrude slightly forward and are placed at a pointed angle.

Molars (molars) are also called equine teeth. They are needed for chewing rough or large food. There are 3 such molars on each of the jaw branches. The first is formed at 10 months, the second at 20, and the last at three years.

Premolars are the first molars. There are 6 of them. Initially they are milky, but then they are replaced by permanent ones. The change begins at 2 years and lasts about a year.

Canines are found mainly in stallions; they are rarely found in mares. It is impossible to find out the age of the animal from them, because... fangs can form at almost any age. They are located near the incisors and gradually move away from them over the years. The upper pair wears off more and more each time, while the lower one becomes dull and increases in length.

Change and eruption of teeth in horses

Most foals are born toothless. The first milk teeth, also known as hooks, erupt in the first week of the animal’s life. After this, the middle teeth are formed, and closer to the 9th month of life, the edges appear.

Baby teeth completely change to permanent teeth at about 5 years of age. At 1 year of age, the horse has temporary incisors, and at 2-3 years, permanent incisors are formed instead of the central incisors. By the 4th year of life, permanent middle incisors are formed, then the edges. The outermost incisors change later than everyone else. In stallions, the primary canines erupt at the age of 6 months and change when they reach the age of five.

• breed of animal;
• type of feed;
• individual characteristics of the horse.

Dental care

• fragments of knocked out teeth embedded in the gums;
• inflammation;
• improperly growing teeth;
• their wear and tear.

• unpleasant odor from the nostrils and mouth;
• nervousness, failure to follow the rider’s orders;
• problems with chewing food, increased salivation;
• the presence of undigested pieces of food in manure;
• nasal discharge, swelling.

Horses kept in stables eat differently than pastured animals. Their teeth wear down unevenly. It is necessary to saw off their pointed ends, which can be used by animals to cut or bite their lips.

Dental diseases and treatment

The main disease in the horse's mouth is pumps. They develop in cases where the upper jaw is wider than the lower jaw. Because of this, the teeth begin to wear down inappropriately, and the mouth becomes filled with sharp edges. It becomes painful for the animal to chew food, and it swallows it whole. Due to continuous cuts, non-healing ulcers form in the mouth, which constantly increase in size.

This disease makes it difficult to exploit the animal. When the reins are pulled, the damaged parts of the mouth are pressed against the gums. This causes unbearable pain, making the horse almost unable to follow the rider's commands.

It is necessary to constantly monitor the pump formation process to prevent it. If they have already appeared, then you need to cut off their sharp edges. It is not possible to correct the irregular shape of an animal’s jaws for physiological reasons.

Some horses grow teeth in their mouths in places where they shouldn't be. They are called tops. They are of no use and only cause severe pain when bitten. They also influence the formation of pumps. It is impossible to cure this defect, so the tops are usually removed.

With constant trauma to the mouth, rotting and caries can occur. In particular, the boneless space near the first molar is constantly exposed to iron. An ulcer forms at this site, which, if left untreated, provokes inflammation of the periosteum. This in turn will cause the jaw to rot. This can be determined by a tumor, an unpleasant odor, a hardening of the jaw, or a change in the behavior of the animal.

This disease is treated surgically. A cross-shaped incision is made below the place of decay and all remnants of dead tissue are removed. The wound is washed and cleaned, and the resulting hole is plugged. Gradually it is overgrown with new tissue.

The health and performance of a horse directly depend on feeding, not only on the quality of feed and the balance of the diet, but also on the proper functioning of the digestive system, including the condition of the teeth. This means that you should pay attention to a horse’s teeth not only to determine its age.
Poor dental health can bother a horse to such an extent that it can lead to loss of appetite, dysfunction and stomach diseases. To avoid serious problems, you should pay more attention to signs indicating certain dental pathologies.
In what cases should the cause be sought in the teeth? Various dental anomalies and their diseases primarily affect the chewing process. A sick animal will willingly grab the offered food, but chew it slowly, the lateral movements of the jaws are made hesitantly and often unevenly. The last sign may indicate on which side of one of the jaws the affected area should be looked for.

The literature contains interesting observations of how horses suffering from dental diseases eat this or that food. So, when a horse is offered hay, it first greedily begins to grab and chew it. But since chewing is difficult, the horse cannot swallow the grabbed bunch, and it falls out of the mouth. The first unsuccessful attempt does not stop the animal, and the horse again takes the hay, tries to chew it and drops it back. This can be repeated several times until the horse gets tired and loses interest in the food. If a horse is offered oats, it digs around in the feeder for a long time, and then begins to swallow the oats in large portions, not chewing enough.

If in the morning a horse leaves uneaten food in the feeder (at the same rate), if you notice a disturbance in chewing movements, bad breath, or during work the horse holds his head atypically to the side, behaves restlessly, tries to free himself from the bit - all this should become a reason to examine the oral cavity and the condition of the teeth. Often, when examined in the oral cavity, food remains are visible, under the influence of microflora they acquire a greenish color and an unpleasant odor; the cheek pocket on one side can be filled with poorly chewed food mass. In this case, it is necessary to clean the oral cavity of food residues and only then carry out a detailed examination.

How many teeth does a horse have?

In horses, there are incisors and molars: 12 incisors (6 on the upper and 6 on the lower jaw), 24 molars (6 each on the lower and upper jaws on each side). In addition, stallions have 4 canines; mares have no canines. As a result, stallions should normally have 46 teeth, and mares should have 36 teeth.

Anomalies of dental development

The most common type of irregular tooth wear in horses occurs, in which they take several forms: sharp, ladder-shaped, sawtooth and scissor-shaped (some sources provide many more forms of improper tooth wear).
Uneven wear of the chewing surface of the molars of the upper and lower jaw is due, among others, to congenital anatomical features. In this case, sharp teeth are obtained when sharp edges are formed on the outer surface of the upper teeth and on the inner surface of the lower teeth.

The sharp edges of the upper teeth injure the gums, the sharp edges of the lower teeth injure the tongue, palate, and mucous membranes of the cheeks. When examining a horse with such a pathology, wounds and even ulcers can be found on the mucous membranes of the cheeks, tongue, and gums if the horse has been neglected for a long time. At the same time, the horse experiences additional difficulties when chewing, since the food easily slides off the too inclined surface of the tooth. If the horse develops sharp teeth, filing down the sharp edges will help, which is best left to a specialist.

Due to different densities of teeth or forces of impact along the length of the arcade, staircase or saw-tooth wear of teeth is formed, when the chewing surfaces form a whole series of steps, and individual teeth can stand obliquely and incorrectly, at an angle to each other. In extreme cases of pathology, the middle teeth of the lower jaw may be worn down to the level of the alveoli, so that the horse experiences severe pain and is unable to eat roughage.
Excessively oblique abrasion of the chewing surfaces of the upper and lower jaws leads to the fact that the teeth begin to touch not the chewing surfaces, but the lateral surfaces. Most often this occurs due to congenital asymmetry of the skull bones, in particular the narrow lower jaw.

In the literature there is such a description of the extreme degree of this pathology: “the chewing surfaces of the teeth on the right side on both jaws are so strongly beveled that the dental arcades are located parallel to each other and intersect like scissors. As a result, the chewing surfaces of the upper and lower teeth could no longer touch each other, but the teeth continued to grow, and the lower jaws began to touch the upper palate with the sharp edges of their teeth and wound it.” In such cases, you can help the horse by chipping the most protruding teeth, which again is best left to a specialist.

Among the dental anomalies recorded in horses, there are many interesting cases. These include congenital deformity of the jaws, essentially a curvature of the skull bones. It is interesting that with such a deformity, horses are able to live a long and prosperous life. An observation was recorded of an Arabian stallion who was born with a similar deformity, lived happily for 26 years, sired 19 foals, of which only one inherited the deformity from his father.
It is not uncommon for horses to have supernumerary teeth (in other words, extra teeth). Let us recall that normally stallions have 40 teeth, mares have 36. With abnormal development of teeth there may be more. There was a recorded case where a stallion had a double number of incisors - 12 on top and bottom.

The opposite phenomenon has also been recorded in the literature: lack of teeth, meaning congenital cases of missing teeth, which, apparently, are genetically inherited characteristics. As an example, a horse is given that had completely missing incisors on the upper jaw. At the same time, she was alive and well, only she ate food like a cow.

There are many examples of finding various tumors of the hard tissues of teeth, sometimes reaching impressive sizes. This is how tumors weighing 700 grams and even 1 kilogram are described.
Finally, there are known cases of foreign bodies being extracted from teeth or the space between teeth. The most common foreign bodies are nails or pieces of wood.

Teeth change disorder

Changes in teeth as a horse ages

The replacement of baby teeth with molars in horses is often delayed between the ages of 2 and 5 years. There are known cases of delayed tooth change up to 15 years of age. A baby tooth may be abnormally rotated, tilted in one direction or another, but still be in its place. In this case, the tooth becomes mobile when chewed and causes pain to the horse; food residues get between the tooth and the gum, which become stale and can cause inflammation.

Horses often have both a primary tooth and a molar of the same name at the same time. In such cases, the erupting molar may change its normal position in relation to the gum. There are many examples of such phenomena in the literature. Thus, a permanent incisor on the lower jaw was described in a four-year-old foal, which grew horizontally forward and constantly injured the lower lip. Or an example is given of a three-year-old mare, in which one of the incisors of the lower jaw grew 4 mm behind the dental ridge and severely injured the tongue, so that the horse could hardly eat. In all cases of delayed replacement of primary teeth, the latter must be removed under the supervision of a specialist.

Dental diseases

Among horse dental diseases, the first place is occupied by caries (the trivial name is “caries”). By analogy with “human” caries, a small gray or brown spot first appears, soon turning black, in place of which the hard tissue of the tooth disintegrates and a minor defect appears. Having barely begun, the pathological process quickly progresses, destroying tooth tissue. Subsequently, a deep cavity is formed, painted black or brown, filled with food debris.
According to some data, caries most often affects the upper molars, less often the lower ones, and extremely rarely the incisors. With large volumes of carious cavities, the tooth may crack, and the formation of a dental fistula is also possible.
When caries occurs in a horse, there is difficulty chewing movements, excessive salivation, and bad breath.
When providing assistance to an animal, depending on the severity of the lesion, the diseased tooth is either removed or the carious cavity is treated with appropriate medications as prescribed by the doctor.

A horse's teeth are one of the strongest parts of its body. They are used to capture, attack and defend, absorb and grind food. With their help you can even determine the age of a horse. What teeth does it have and how to find out from them how old the animal is - we’ll talk about this and other important details further.

Horse dental anatomy

A horse’s teeth are quite strong, as they help it throughout its life to receive and grind food, to protect itself and its offspring. According to their shape and position, they are divided into incisors, canines and molars. You will learn more about all their functions further.

Quantity

Important! Although the stallion has 4 fangs, they have no functional effect, since they are not involved in eating food. Only the incisors are used, with the help of which horses cut grass, and they chew it with their molars.

Kinds

Like any animal, a horse has four main types of teeth. Each of them performs its own functions. Together they form the dental arcade: upper, lower, anterior and posterior.

Incisors

Each horse has 6 upper and 6 lower incisors: toes, edges and middle ones. The hooks are in the center, followed by the middle incisors and, accordingly, along the edges - the edges. The incisors are also divided into primary and permanent (darker or yellow, they are slightly larger).

In youth, the incisors are arranged in a semicircle, and already in adulthood they are straightened; also in an old horse, the teeth begin to protrude slightly forward and are located at an acute angle.

Fangs

Fangs grow only in stallions - 2 at the bottom and at the top; they usually do not grow in mares. In rare cases, they may appear, but they develop poorly and practically do not grow. It is impossible to determine age by fangs, since they can appear at 2 years, and at 5 years, and even at 8.

The canines are located near the incisors and move slightly away from them with age, turning away from the front teeth. Every year the upper pair wears out more and more, and the lower one can lengthen and become dull.

Premolars (first molars)

The first molars are considered to be premolars - only 6 of them grow. First, milk teeth appear, which are later replaced by permanent teeth. The shift begins at the age of over 2 years and usually ends by 3 years.

Did you know? Not only do horses have larger eyes than other animals, but they can also move independently of each other. The animal can see a panoramic picture. But it can only concentrate on a specific image by turning its head. Horses also see color images.

Molars (molars)

Molars are sometimes called horse teeth, since only these animals have 3 permanent molars on each branch of the jaw (there are 12 in total). They help grind coarse or large foods along with the premolars.

They appear at different ages and unevenly: the first usually grows by 10 months, the second by 20 months, and the last can appear at 3 years.

Change of teeth in a horse

The foal has some teeth from birth or appears in the first week of life. Usually these are a pair of hooks (first incisors), canines, if it is a boy, and premolars. Then, in the first month, the middle incisors appear and then the edges.
Before the change of milk teeth, the foal has 8 molars; their growth period is 9–10 and 19–20 months of life. Teeth replacement also does not occur immediately, but in stages. The first to change are the incisors and hooks, after which the permanent premolars grow.

Teeth need especially careful examination and care. If there are diseases or problems, they can seriously affect the animal’s condition, interfere with eating, and cause pain. Problematic teeth are teeth that grow incorrectly, fragments of knocked out teeth that can stick into the gums, worn out or worn out, and teeth with inflamed gums.

Signs of dental problems include:

• difficulty eating and chewing, excessive salivation;
• unpleasant and pungent odor from the nostrils and mouth;
• discharge with undigested food particles;
• swelling of the nose and copious discharge;
• the animal becomes nervous, restless and disobedient.

Important! If your pet behaves restlessly and refuses to eat, this may indicate problems in the oral cavity. It is very important to figure this out as quickly as possible, as horses get used to the pain very quickly and may not show that anything is bothering them. Dental examinations should be carried out constantly and regularly.

If this is not done, your pet may bite its lip or break its gum while chewing. Proper examination and care of teeth is ensured by a specialist - the veterinarian has all the necessary tools for this.

Why file horses' teeth: video

Defects and anomalies

The most common problem is extra teeth or so-called tops. They appear at any age and cause a lot of discomfort and pain. Since they appear without a pair, they injure the oral cavity and often cause inflammatory processes.

The tops can fall out on their own - they do not have alveoli, so the connection with the jaw is small. But most often their mechanical removal is required. In this case, it is best to contact a veterinarian, as he has special equipment for this.

Did you know? Horses have a very keen sense of smell. Previously, for better control, riders and owners always lubricated their hands with aromatic oils so that the animal did not smell the sweat from them. In addition, horses cannot stand the smell of blood.

Very often, horses develop all sorts of cracks on their teeth, and sometimes breaks occur. The causes of this pathology can be injuries, improper care and nutrition. If an animal begins to take less food or refuses it altogether, this is one of the clearest signs of the development of painful and pathological changes.
Dental problems are often accompanied by gingivitis and glossitis due to damage to the mucous membranes. Cracks in teeth must be treated, and tooth fragments must be removed. It is best to call a specialist for this, as additional treatment with medications and antiseptics may be necessary if the lesion is large.

Tooth decay is another problem that occurs as a result of cracks in the teeth. If they are not treated in time, the damage spreads not only to the teeth, but also to the pulp and gums.

The pathology is manifested by chewing disorders, bad odor and excessive salivation. Bare cavities and pits appear in the teeth.

If the teeth are affected by caries, it is best to remove them, especially if the horse is old. It is also practiced to clean the oral cavity with special cement, which removes plaque and caries.

How to determine a horse's age by its teeth

The gradual change of teeth makes it possible to determine the age of the animal. Usually, to do this you need to look at the incisors, since they are the ones that change in a clear pattern and change greatly with age.

Important! In diagnosing and determining age, you should also pay attention to the labial, lingual and rubbing surfaces. They examine not only the teeth, but also the cups, their shape and quantity.

When determining age, they are guided by periods of change in the dental system: the appearance and erasure of primary incisors, the eruption of permanent incisors, the erasure of their cups and changes in the shape of rubbing surfaces.

Baby teeth are much smaller than permanent teeth (about half the size), they are much whiter and have the shape of spatulas (the gums fit in such a way that a kind of neck is created, like a spatula).

The age-related variability of the body is most clearly expressed in changes in the dental system, which is used to determine the age of a horse.
Teeth are a product of epithelial tissue. The basis of teeth is dentin, a derivative of connective tissue. Dentin is covered on all sides with enamel - a hard, durable, shiny substance that protects teeth from rapid wear. The surface of the tooth and the folds of enamel on the rubbing surface are covered with cement. Cement is produced throughout the life of the horse by the periosteum of the alveoli in which the tooth is located. The tooth cavity is filled with pulp rich in blood vessels. The pulp gradually atrophies with age, and the dental cavity is filled with cement.
The tooth has a free part - the crown and the root, located in the alveolus of the jaw. In the center of the crown of the incisor teeth, the enamel forms a deep fold called the cup (Fig. 6). The depth of the cup for the permanent incisors of the lower jaw is 6 mm, and for the upper incisors - 12 mm. When chewing food, the tooth gradually wears down and moves out of the jaw, and the vacated space of the alveoli is filled with cement.

You must know the dental needs of a newborn foal. Within a few days to a few weeks after birth, the foal's first baby teeth begin to emerge. The central incisors usually appear first.

• Baby teeth are smaller and whiter than permanent incisors, they are scapula-shaped on a thin neck (adult teeth have a more uniform elongated shape).
• 9 months. By 9 months, the foal has a full set of baby teeth, but not all of the teeth have grown long enough to wear out.