Treatment for sow mouth/undershot jaw on a foal?

Miniature Horse Talk Forums

Help Support Miniature Horse Talk Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Calekio

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 20, 2006
Messages
314
Reaction score
0
My last foal was born with a under shot jaw... which as he grew it got a lot worse and his teeth are about 1.5" apart!

My vet who is also one of the best & specialist EDT's in the country was talking to me about him today and was telling me about a new method of treating this problem that has just come in from america, which involves putting a plate (or acylic?) on the bottom jaw to allow the teeth the slide over each other and also free up the back teeth as (trying to follow what he said when it got confusing now) they would be 'stuck' on each other... so inhibiting his top jaw from growing forward..

Now obviously whatever i can do to give him a better quility of life as a adult i will try now.. as he said once over 12 months nothing they can try and won't be enough growing room...

I've never heard of this... and my vet although pratice loads of time of 'skulls'.... this will be his first time doing it on a live foal.... which although i trust my vet doesn't fill me with great confidence... but as he said if it doesn't work or starts irrating him we can just take it off...

Now... please no horror stories as already worried..... but i feel i need to try something....

Anyone any experiance with this treatment?
 
Not sure what your vet is talking about with a "plate".....but it sounds to me, like your guy may have big hooks on his upper molars, which are preventing his lower jaw from moving back into it's proper place. This happened to one of mine years ago, who was born with a perfect bite. By the time this horse was a yearling...it's bite was off at least an inch. At three years old, I found out about Carl Mitz & had him come out to see if there was anything he could do. He pulled his upper rear molars who both had the longest hooks he had ever seen on a horse! The lower molars were catching on those hooks & preventing the jaw from moving "back" into it's proper place. As soon as he pulled those offending molars, that horse's bite snapped back to near perfect immediately! Carl said it would continue to correct over time....but wasn't sure if it would ever be perfect again, as the problem had gone on for so long before we caught it. But, in only 6 months, this horse's bite was back to perfect!
default_smile.png


From your description of what your vet says this new "Plate" does.....it sounds as if it is freeing up teeth that are catching on each other. Seems to me, a lot simpler solution would be to have a reputable Miniature Equine Dentist look at him to see if molars with large hooks are the offending problem, and just have them removed.
default_wink.png


I would at least try this before going to some more elaborate, and maybe costly "Plate" system.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
We had a wry mouth filly that Carl put a bite plate on - it was a piece of acrylic with holes drilled in the sides so it hooked onto a halter with zip ties. I used a breakaway halter so I could leave it on her more safely. She wore it for an increasing number of hours each day until she was accustomed to it. I no longer own the filly so I can't say how she is today, but at the very least it kept her from getting worse. It fit between uppers & lowers as you said to allow the teeth toslide over one another. Somewhere I have pictures LOL.

Jan
 
I just had my 3 to the dentist. My year old, Chocolate Thunder, has a pretty bad underbite. His bottom teeth stick out past his top at a slight angle.

His gums lined up perfect at birth but as soon as the teeth came in there was a problem. I asked my regular vet EVERY time he came out and any time on the phone if there was anything we could do. He always said, no, that is just how he is.

Well, fast foward to now, and my baby is 17 months old. The equine dentist said we could possibly put a plate on him! But it would have been way better to start as young as possible! I am SO angry at my reg vet.

She described the plate, as something that holds the 'off' teeth back from growing and gives the correct teeth a chance to grow more and hold back the incorrect teeth.

SO in my guys case, we would plate the lower teeth and let the top grow out till they were over the lower.

She did check his molars ect, he has no other problems!

I bet he would have been perfect if we had gotten to him as a foal! I am going to give my reg vet a peice of my mind later this week. But I cannot freak out like I want to as he is the ONLY house call vet for equines. But I think he is SUCH a jerk!!!!!!!!!

My equine dentist is going to get back to me with prices, and outcome expectations given my guys age.

Please keep us updated with your little ones progress!

I will post what the dentist tells me once she has done her research.

I cannot believe they will be going through the same thing! Weird.
 
This is very interesting.

Jan, I had a friend/breeder who had a filly born with wry mouth. She started real young..2 months I think...with an equine dentist keeping the baby teeth floated as needed. If I remember correctly it was way better by the time the filly was a yearling. (by wry mouth I'm talking about one jaw was off to the side.)

I just feel so bad when I hear of young horses maybe ruined because a vet says nothing can be done to help their teeth early on. My advice to anyone is if a vet tells you there is nothing to be done find other vets to evaluate the situation....or better an equine dentist who specializes in miniatures.

Charlotte
 
Well my vet told me other treatments.. rasping was one but he said there wasn't enough to rasp... and would have a huge problem getting the gag that holds the mouth open on him due to his front teeth.

The other option was wiring the bottom jaw, a bit like braces as he discribed it.. sounded very barbaric to me and he said he'd done one before and it was a disaster and he wouldn't choose that option again.

I will keep you updated on him... and get pictures of what is done... my hardest part at the moment is getting him to 'drink' his feed... as he said that when he's got this plate he can't chew as back teeth won't meet so he'll have to slurp it up... Locket isn't keen on that idea though! lol

But at coming up 4 months old he is hopeful that it will work and even if it doesn't put him dead stright it will make a difference to him and give him a better outlook for the future in a hope he can live a relatively normal life like his friends.
 
[SIZE=12pt]The only thing I have seen work that I am aware of is to basically put braces on a foal at a very young age. The vet can wire the foals mouth to allow the top of the mouth to catch up with the bottom of the mouth. It has to be done before the foal is 6 months old. I was told by Ann T Bowling years ago that monkey mouth is not hereditary, it is caused in-utero by the way the foal lays (Please don't flame me as this is what she told me and she was the expert) or by teeth not allowing the two parts of the jaw to line up properly after the foal is born.[/SIZE]

She suggested if a foal was born with monkey mouth to have the braces placed and monitored with a vets care at about three months old. The vet will adjust the braces as nessessary. I looked into this because a girl friend of mine had a very pretty little stud colt born with this problem. So I started to look around for her and called different places to see if this was hereditary and to see what could be done. After talking with Dr. Bowling, Donna and I took him down to a vet in Albuquerque NM and by he time the foal was 6 months old his bite was perfect and the braces came off. He is fine to this day.

Donna was mostly concerned about his quality of life and felt it was worth the expense to make sure he had 25-30 years of quality life. If I remember right at that time it cost somewhere around 700.00

PS. This was in 1989
 

Latest posts

Back
Top