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Ask Your Veterinarian Presented By Kentucky Performance Products: Leaving Dental Work To The Vet

Veterinarians at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital answer your questions about sales and healthcare of Thoroughbred auction yearlings, weanlings, 2-year-olds and breeding stock.

QUESTION: Why is it important to have a veterinarian perform dental work on your horse?

DR. BRAD TANNER: Responsible horse owners have mental checklists of the things that need to be done each year for their horses. These include deworming, vaccinations, Coggins test, health certificate and of course annual floating. The annual float is a treatment for the condition of sharp enamel points. No treatment, be it antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, etc. should be administered without an examination and proper diagnosis.

Why should a dental float be any different?

Dr. Brad Tanner

The tooth of a horse continues to grow (erupt) throughout life. Those areas of the tooth that do not get worn away become long and sharp. Left to their own devices these sharp teeth may cause cuts in the cheeks and tongue (see below). These sharp teeth cause increased discomfort in performance horses as bit and bridle change head carriage which forces increased contact of these teeth with the cheek tissue. Dental floating is the necessary treatment for this common condition in the horse.

While responsible owners are correct to have their horse's teeth checked annually, the floating is not the most important thing happening — it is the exam. A proper dental exam performed by your veterinarian can provide insight into your horse's general health as well their oral health. This veterinarian has spent years of training in anatomy, physiology, medicine, surgery, imaging etc. and is equipped to recognize, diagnose and treat oral pain.

The dental examination will include assessing facial symmetry, bone enlargements, lymph nodes, draining tracts, maleruptions, malocclusions, soft tissue lacerations and abrasions. The exam will also include a close inspection of each tooth surface with a dental mirror or an oral camera. These close looks often show painful problematic teeth with cracks, fractures or feed packing that may need to be investigated with additional imaging.

Recognition of abnormal dental wear or other pathology may be indication for dental radiographs or a CT scan to further investigate problematic teeth. These imaging modalities are common practice in human medicine as the ADA (American Dental Association) recommends radiographs every couple of years, and with increased access to quality digital radiography this is also becoming more common in horses.

This image shows damage to a horse's tongue that has arisen from sharp points on the teeth. Photo courtesy Dr. Brad Tanner

Horse teeth do develop cavities and these can lead to fracture, pain, and sometimes sinus infections. These problems can be avoided with early detection and treatment. The treatment for these is cavity fillings (restorations) and can be done as a routine standing procedure. Our goal is to preserve functional occlusion of the teeth and allow continued grazing. Given the opportunity horses on pasture will graze up to 16 hours daily.

Dr. Brad Tanner received his DVM from Auburn University in 2005 and completed an internship at Rood and Riddle thereafter. He is a shareholder in the clinic, where he focuses on advanced dentistry, primary care and reproduction. Tanner became board certified in equine dentistry in 2019.

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Swarms Of Mosquitoes Kill Horses And Livestock After Hurricane Laura

The mosquito population in Louisiana exploded after the rains from Hurricane Laura receded. Thousands of the insects attacked horses, cows, deer and other livestock, causing them to pace or run in the heat until they were exhausted.

Some areas of the state faced massive clouds of the bloodsucking insects in the days after Hurricane Laura made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane on Aug. 27, reported a Louisiana State University AgCenter veterinarian. Spraying efforts have since brought the mosquito population under control.

Though residents in the area are used to mosquito population spikes after heavy rains, the amount of mosquitoes seen after Huricane Laura were unprecedented. It is estimated that farmers located near where the hurricane made landfall lost between 300 and 400 head of cattle, said Dr. Craig Fontenot, a vet based in Ville Platte.

Thankfully, the species of mosquito involved in the outbreak doesn't transmit human disease easily, but people are still urged to take precautions. At the height of the outbreak, any exposed skin was immediately covered in insects. Though humans could wear long pants and sleeves, livestock were unable to get away from the insects, many of them pacing or running until they were exhausted, leaving them susceptible to weight loss and disease.

You Scratch My Back, I’ll Scratch Yours

Mutual grooming, where two horses groom each other's back and withers with their teeth, is usually done by horses that are familiar with one another. Drs. Masaki Shimada and Nae Suzuki of Teikyo University of Science studied a group of nine horses that lived in a protected area of Cape Toi. They wanted to determine if mutual grooming was used as a parasite removal tool, a way to strengthen friendly relationships or as a way to restore troubled relationships.

The duo monitored the nine horses for 33.5 hours over 15 days, applying models to learn about the roles of aggression, kinship, proximity, social rank and social networking during mutual grooming.

All nine horses groomed themselves during the study period for nearly 36 minutes. Six of the horses engaged in mutual grooming: two stallions, one colt and three adult mares.

There were 84 recorded mutual grooming sessions, with the average session lasted about 85 seconds and always comprised only two individuals. The grooming was almost completely symmetrical: When one horse started grooming, they almost immediately began receiving grooming as well, on the same part of the body. When one horse stopped grooming, the other did as well. Additionally, horses that spent less time self-grooming spent more time being groomed by another horse.

The scientists concluded that mutual grooming assisted in strengthening familiar relationships and helped with parasite removal. Their findings did not support that mutual grooming assisted with relationship repair. For example, the top-ranked horse never groomed the second-ranked horse, but he did direct aggression toward him.

Read the entire article here.

Ask Your Insurer Presented By Muirfield Insurance: September Sales Checklist

Equine insurance experts answer your questions about insuring Thoroughbreds for the breeding and auction realms.

Email us at info@paulickreport. com if you have a question for an insurer.

QUESTION: With the Keeneland September Sale and the Fasig-Tipton Selected Yearlings Showcase in our midst, is there anything that a buyer should be aware of with respect to getting their purchases insured? Are there any other coverages that they should ask about?

BRYCE BURTON: With the number of horses that will be changing hands over the next few weeks, we thought it would be beneficial to discuss what buyers should be aware of from an insurance perspective when making their purchases. The critical matter to note is that risk of loss passes from the seller to the buyer as soon as the hammer falls on a new purchase. It's important to do your due diligence prior to bidding in order to ensure that coverage would be in place should something happen to the horse, or the horse were to cause bodily harm or property damage, while on the sales grounds.

If the buyer has a current Full Mortality or All-Risk Mortality policy in place, they should speak to their agent in order to confirm that “Fall of the Hammer” coverage is in place. Most policies contain an endorsement that states that as soon as the hammer falls on a new purchase, the policyholder automatically has Full Mortality or All-Risk coverage in place. This is done to put the insured's mind at ease during the tumultuous sales, as they don't have to worry about notifying the insurance company until the sale ends. Some policies may only allow automatic additions up to a certain sum insured value, so it's a good idea to speak to your agent in order to confirm this information.

Lastly, we recommend looking into Race Horse Owners Liability Insurance coverage, which protects horse owners from the unique liability exposures which come as a result of the ownership of their horses. This includes bodily injury or property damage, which can and may be more likely to occur on the sales grounds. These specific equine-related risks are normally excluded under any run of the mill homeowners or umbrella insurance coverages that the owner may already have in place. The buyer can notify their agent prior to the sale so that liability coverage is bound the second the hammer falls.

Bryce Burton is a property and liability specialist for Muirfield Insurance. He is from Frankfort, Ky., where
he grew up an avid race fan. His Thoroughbred racing fandom combined with a collegiate internship in the insurance industry, culminated in a start in the equine insurance field. Bryce has been with Muirfield Insurance since 2014, following his graduation from Transylvania University in Lexington.

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