teeth problems - showing question

[silverstar]

Hi everyone.

I have a rising two year old colt who is having eruption problems at the moment. It is possible ( highly likely ) that the vets will have to operate to remove a molar to allow the other teeth to grow properly. At this moment he has a rather large bump on his bottom jaw. Its too large to get away with looking like a tooth bump and anyone seeing it would see he was having teeth problems. The vets dont want to operate yet as he isnt having any problems and they want him to mature alittle first.

Now he is my show horse and i was wondering what you all thought on showing him??

I CAN show him this year but he obviously has a large bump that im not sure what the judges opinions would be?? I also dont want to run the risk of getting complaints from other competitors.

I can wait a year and hope that it either sorts itself out or he has the operation, in which case the vets have said once the tooth is removed the lump "should" dissapear just like a tooth bump does. I could then show him next year and noone would be none the wiser.

I dont want to show him this year if the fact that people seeing the lump will ruin his showing career for the future, especially if he has the operation to remove the tooth.

What would a judges opinion be on a horse that was having eruption problems and would it put you off placing him??

Opinions please???

 

[Magic]

It's very common for two and three year olds to have tooth bumps, so judges do take that into consideration, but if this bump is *that* big that it looks to be beyond a tooth bump, if it were me, I would give him the year off from showing and wait til he is recovered. It's obviously going to stress you if you show him, and it probably wouldn't be too fun for him either. JMHO

 

[muffntuf]

Just a suggestion - are you sure they can't pop the cap off the molar so the other comes in? Tooth bumps are common and judges take that into consideration. I had a stallion when he was 2-3 had a horrible, horrible time popping his own caps, it was a very long year for him, vet had to pop off a lot of caps and then we had one very back molar that was so peaked, it took the vet two looks to figure out what the deal was, but it too was a cap that needed popping. He was cutting his cheek and tongue. Once popped though - he was fine and other tooth came in just fine.

 

[silverstar]

Just a suggestion - are you sure they can't pop the cap off the molar so the other comes in? Tooth bumps are common and judges take that into consideration. I had a stallion when he was 2-3 had a horrible, horrible time popping his own caps, it was a very long year for him, vet had to pop off a lot of caps and then we had one very back molar that was so peaked, it took the vet two looks to figure out what the deal was, but it too was a cap that needed popping. He was cutting his cheek and tongue. Once popped though - he was fine and other tooth came in just fine.

Hi thanks for your replies. He has had an xray which shows the molars are growing at an angle against each other so they definatly wont come through. The vets have said he will most likely need a molar removed but they want to wait. Im not really happy with waiting as i think that removing the tooth now will allow the other molars to grow. Im in the process of getting a second opinion