Vikki Fowler - Veterinary Equine Dental Technician

01/04/2025

🤣

✨ Exciting news! ✨

Are you tired of your horse’s teeth ruining your selfies? We’ve got you covered! We are excited to announce we are launching a brand-new Equine Whitening Toothpaste to revolutionise your horse’s smile 🦷✨

✅ Removes stubborn grass stains
✅ Leaves breath minty fresh (goodbye, carrot breath!)
✅ Approved by… well, no one… but your horse will love it!

Don’t let your horse be the only one at the yard without a Hollywood smile!

Available from your EDT… today only… 😉

01/04/2025

🤣

Finally we found it! The elusive tooth worm that causes dental disease seen for the first time on a CT scan! For hundreds of years tooth decay was thought to be caused by this elusive creature and only now has it been imaged - the wonders of modern technology!

28/03/2025

I am well known for strongly believing a horse should not be ridden until they are 4 years old at the earliest. This gives time for their body’s to develop, but also for their teeth to change. The old fashioned timing for breaking is smack in the middle of them changing lots of their baby teeth. That isn’t fair on them.

Following on from our last post, here’s a handy guide to average permanent eruption dates for you to save, helping you to keep track of your young horse’s dental changes!

26/03/2025

❤️

Are you preparing to introduce your young horse to work this spring? It’s really important before you start your young horse to ensure their mouth comfort.

🦷 Before the age of 5 years horses undergo significant dental changes including:

- the shedding of 24 deciduous (baby) teeth
- the eruption of 24 permanent molars, 12 incisors, possibly four canines and possibly wolf teeth.
This period generally coincides with the introduction of the bit and bridle and then ridden work.

🗓️ Regular check-ups every six months for young horses are extremely important, providing an opportunity to detect and address issues early, also paving the way to allow the horse to perform at their maximum potential.

🔍 Common dental problems in young horses include:

Sharp Enamel Points

As horses teeth erupt and come into wear, they are gradually worn down from chewing. This natural process creates sharp enamel points that may cause painful ulcers on the cheeks and tongue. These sharp points develop on the outside of the upper cheek teeth and the inside of the lower cheek teeth. When a horse has a bit in and a bridle on, the tack can press the soft tissue against these sharp points, increasing the risk of painful soft tissue damage. Thorough rasping of the teeth removes these sharp edges and helps maintain balanced dental arcades, reducing the likelihood of future malocclusions. Because horses have hypsodont teeth, meaning their teeth continuously erupt, sharp points will keep forming over time. Regular dental treatments will give your young horse the best possible experience of a comfortable mouth as they start their career.

Problematic Wolf Teeth

Wolf teeth are small, vestigial teeth that typically erupt between 6 and 18 months of age. Wolf teeth can be present in both male and female equines. They are most commonly found on the upper jaw and rarely on the lower jaw. While the impact of wolf teeth on performance is widely debated, it’s traditionally common practice to remove them in young horses as they serve no useful purpose. Lower wolf teeth almost always certainly need to be removed and upper wolf teeth are usually assessed on a case-by-case basis depending on their location.

Retained Deciduous Teeth (Caps)

Retained deciduous teeth are baby teeth that are present beyond their normal shedding time, which can affect the proper eruption of adult teeth. Mobile caps or those with a clear junction between the baby and adult tooth should be extracted to prevent issues like food trapping, gum inflammation (gingivitis), or more severe problems such as periodontal disease, or even apical infections. Retained teeth may also cause dental displacements, which may lead to diastemata with periodontal disease, and soft tissue trauma if they are out of line and pressing against the cheek or tongue. However careful assessment of deciduous teeth is really important as premature removal can damage underlying adult teeth.

By prioritising early dental care, you’re not only ensuring your young horse’s comfort and willingness to accept the bit but also reducing the risk of dental disease in later life. It’s a really important component of your horses overall life long wellbeing and every horse should have regular dental treatments.

18/03/2025

Most will know by now that we have Strangles in the area (NW England). It appears several yards already have it and it is already spreading quickly.

Please, please let me know if your horse or any horse on your yard is suspected or has tested positive so I can rearrange your appointment.

If your horse is under the weather, depressed, lethargic or off their food, please take their temperature and call your vet as your first point of contact. A horse with dental issues will try to eat and struggle resulting in quidding or pulling weird faces (beyond their normal weird faces 😅), a horse with a fever won’t try to eat at all.

Strangles is a bacterial infection, there is some strange dogma about it and people like to hush it up, don’t! It is nothing to be ashamed of, it is a bug like any other bug. Isolate the whole yard, isolate the infected horses away from others and let everyone know to stay away.

Strangles is highly infectious. It does not travel in the air like flu and other viruses though. It travels in the discharges so snot and pus from abscesses. The problem is it can live up to 6 weeks outside of the horse. This is unusual and the reason it is transmitted so easily. It rarely gets chance to move horse to horse because affected horses are isolated so it’s mostly transmitted by the people going between them, buckets and tools (brushes, barrows), in the transport carrying them and on professionals. All it takes is someone walking through a bit of sprayed snot from a sneeze and the bacteria can end up at the local feed store, at a competition or at the rug wash etc. Someone skipping out and taking the barrow or brush to another stable, or borrowing someone else’s grooming kit. So easily done!

Although it is a bacteria, Strangles can’t be treated with antibiotics in the first place because this makes abscesses more likely to form and some suggest it makes a horse more likely to become a carrier. So do not self medicate your horse, you truly do need your vet.

If you are worried about the risk then there is a vaccination available through your vet. These days the vaccine isn’t given into the lip like it use to be. Anyone that had that done will remember how awful it was!! But those days are gone. Now it is in the muscle like a normal vaccine. 2 vaccines 4 weeks apart will cover the horse. BUT the horse is only protected after the second vaccine so if you wait until strangles is on the yard, it’s too late. It is a yearly booster like normal although some may choose to do 6 months if the horse is vulnerable. I would dare to say, you don’t need to keep it up if the risk has passed so don’t feel like doing it now means you are stuck always having to. It’s been many years since we’ve had an outbreak like this. Some may choose to, just in case, of course.

Be sensible. Any horse that’s looking poorly, isolate immediately and get them tested. Especially if they have a high temperature, a snotty nose and/or swellings between their lower jaw bones. If you don’t have a thermometer, get one! Doesn’t need to be a horse specific one, any will do.

If you have a livery yard, make sure you have isolation facilities. Somewhere away from other horses, somewhere that people aren’t walking past. Whilst the risk is this high it would be sensible to isolate every new horse moving on to the yard for 2 weeks. Strangles takes 2 weeks to incubate. Meaning it’s 2 weeks from contacting the bug until they start showing symptoms. Make sure you have a hand sanitiser and boot disinfectant outside the isolation box too.

Once a horse has had Strangles and recovered there is a risk of them becoming a carrier, the bug can hide dormant in a space inside their heads called the gutteral pouch. Then every now and again the horse discharges the bug without showing any further signs of being ill themselves but infecting those around them. It is very important you allow the vet to test your horse to make sure they have not become a carrier or you put everyone else’s horse at risk. This is done either with a scope or swabs.

Stay safe everyone and I hope this helps!

08/03/2025

20/02/2025

This is so important! The Dutch gag and the Cheltenham gag are by far the worst bits for causing damage to the lip corners that I come across. These bits can lift over 2 inches inside the mouth!!

This damage and pain is easily preventable by just using a curb strap on the Dutch gag! And preferably throw the Cheltenham gag in the bin.

🐎 do you use a gag without a curb strap?
This is what can happen!
Split lips are all too often seen when a gag is used incorrectly.
The bit is not stable enough on its own and will over rotate. This causes all the pressure to be transferred directly to the horses lips.
They infact tell the horse to lift the head as the loose ring allows the mouthpiece to slide upwards.
A curb strap should be used with
- 2 or 3 ring gags
- universals (2.5 rings)
- Dutch gags (please see my previous videos on these!)
- tom thumbs
- elevator types
- American gags

This stabilises the bit, prevents the over rotation, reduces the gag action and preserves your horses lips!

The curb should be loose and only come into play when the bit is rotated to 45°
Too tight and curb pressure comes into affect and tells the horse to put its nose down.

The curb strap sits higher than a curb chain and doesn't work on the curb groove in the same way.

07/02/2025

EOTRH stands for Equine Odontoclastic Tooth Resorption and Hypercementosis. 🦷

This is a painful and progressive condition that predominantly affects horses aged 15 years and older. It mainly affects the incisors and occasionally the canine teeth, but there has been some very rare cases of affected molar teeth.

The condition involves two primary processes:

Resorption: this is where the calcified dental tissue starts to break down by the horse’s own odontoclast cells reabsorbing the dental structures. This process is believed to be immune-mediated.

Hypercementosis: this is the development of excess cementum which occurs as the dental structures are reabsorbed. The body compensates by over producing cementum in an attempt to stabilise the tooth. This results in bulbous or club-like shapes forming at the apex of the tooth.

The presentation of EOTRH can vary greatly between horses. Some horses exhibit more dominant with hypercementosis, others are more dominant with resorption.
The disease may progress rapidly in some cases but slowly in others.

Due to its progressive nature, early clinical signs may be subtle or go unnoticed until the disease reaches an advanced stage.

Common symptoms include:
•Tartar buildup due to reluctance to use the incisors
•Bulbous dental structures beneath the gumline (caused by hypercementosis)
•Diastemata (gaps between teeth), leading to food entrapment, gingival recession, and periodontal disease
•Red, inflamed gums with draining tracts due to infection
•Loose, fractured, or missing teeth
•Halitosis

Affected horses often struggle to bite into carrots or pull hay from a haynet. Some may develop headshaking, and severe cases can lead to weight loss.

Diagnosis of EOTRH is confirmed through X-rays, which will reveal the extent of resorption and hypercementosis. Currently, the only effective treatment is the extraction of affected teeth by a vet. Each case requires an individualised approach depending on the severity of the disease. Horses adapt very well following extraction, and their improvement highlights the level of pain they were experiencing before treatment.

The cause of EOTRH remains unknown, current studies are exploring periodontal ligament strains, bacterial causes, occlusal pressures, and genetics, however it’s likely to be multi factorial. As our understanding of the disease grows with ongoing research we hope to develop more effective management strategies.

Regular incisor checks are super important to identify signs of EOTRH early. If you suspect EOTRH, consult your EDT or Vet, early intervention can help minimise discomfort for your horse!

10/01/2025

ANSWER! So yesterday I posted the photo of a young horse losing her baby teeth. Those that said 2.5 years old are correct! The central incisors change at 2.5, the next ones out at 3.5 and the corner ones at 4.5.
This photo is completely normal. I’ve added a few others to show how funky they can look sometimes when they are just swapping teeth. Some lose them one at a time and it looks neat, some shed them all at once and it can panic owners by looking a mess. If in doubt, take a photo and send it to your EDT or vet but don’t panic. After a week or two the teeth will look much more normal. Although sometimes they can initially appear twisted and right themselves over the following months as they fully erupt.
My advise is give the young horse something to teeth on, just like you would a baby. Swedes, massive carrots they have to gnaw on, old lead ropes, large branches (of horse safe trees of course), or even some of the extra large dog toys, just use your imagination 😁

This is one of the most common images I’m sent. So I’m putting it out there, what is going on here? Anybody know? And what do we do about it? Brucey bonus if you can tell me how old she is! ( am I showing my age there?!? 😳)

10/01/2025

Sometimes things look reasonable at first glance but a closer look reveals big problems!

This 9 year old was doing ALOT of messing with his tongue when his current owners bought him. A fellow BAEDT member did a fabulous job rebalancing his mouth, which was a train wreck. But he needed sedation to be able to clear his diastema. He has 5 of them but this one is by far the deepest. This diastema has formed due to a rotated tooth, it’s only very slightly rotated but it’s enough to trap food. This was absolutely packed with rotten food. It’s hard to describe the smell, but it was vile!

The scope came in very handy to see down into the depths of this gap which was 5cm below the gum line!! When it looked clean with the mirror you can see (in the second half of the video) that there was still some rotten material in the deep deep depths. Lovely and clean afterwards though. It takes a lot of patience to get these properly clean, luckily one of the areas that my OCD comes in handy! We shall see how he looks at his revisit and go from there.

09/01/2025

An absolute must when the temperatures are freezing. Make sure you let your EDT know if you can’t provide hot water so they can make arrangements.

As temperatures across the UK drop below freezing this week, we kindly ask that if you’re expecting your EDT, please provide a constant supply of hot water.

In these sub-zero conditions, dental equipment can freeze, making it impossible for your EDT to carry out treatment without access to hot water.

Thank you for helping us ensure the best care for your horses, even in the coldest weather! ❄️ 🥶

06/01/2025

OLD HORSES CAN DIE OF STARVATION IF NOT GIVEN FEED THEY CAN CHEW

Many owners see their elderly horses or ponies getting thinner and thinner despite some bucket concentrate feed, and might assume that 'it's just their age'. These owners often have no idea that all the horse needs is feed in a form that the horse can eat.

Most elderly horses lose weight because they cannot chew very well, and this might be despite good, regular dental care. Horses' teeth grow continuously throughout their lives and will eventually loosen and fall out. They literally 'run out' of teeth. Even those with teeth left can struggle to chew enough conserved forage (hay/haylage) to maintain condition, because the grinding surfaces of the teeth become smoother.

If these horses are fed just concentrates - especially low-fibre conditioning or veteran feeds - they will struggle, because they will be fibre-deficient.

Older horses who gradually get thinner must have their forage (hay, haylage and eventually grass) replaced with ground fibre sources, soaked to a mash, and eventually may need 100% of their feed from a bag.

It is ignorance, rather than cruelty to let a very old - but otherwise healthy - horse get very thin. But it is absolutely 100% avoidable with the knowledge of what to feed!

The grey horse reflects how older horses can end up looking if they don't have their long forage replaced with chewable alternatives.

The dun pony is how an older horse (late 30s) can look despite having lost most of their teeth, when fed 6kg forage-replacement feeds daily

You can claim a free article on feeding older horses and ponies (simply comment feeding oldies below) AND I'm delivering a webinar on this very subject next week. See the link in the comments for more details!

Please feel free to share
🐴🍏