Horse Teeth And The Tongue - A Dynamic Interaction
Posted by Geoff Tucker on Wed, Aug 26, 2009
The opinions and views of this blog is for information and entertainment only and should not be used as a substitute for seeking advice from your veterinarian about your horse and your situation. Specific advice may only be given after a valid veterinary - client - patient relationship is made.
In every discussion, article, and text about equine dentistry, there is never any mention of the tongue except for gruesome laceration stories. The importance of the tongue in the ability of the horse to consume the food given it and to the overall maintenance of the health of the teeth is not even mentioned.
The reason for this is simple. When talking about horse teeth or equine dentistry, everyone focuses on the teeth as they do in human dentistry. But in reality, it is the association of the teeth and the soft tissue around the teeth interacting with the horse's perception of pain that causes disease or abnormalities. (Purpose Of Floating Horse Teeth)
Has your horse's ability to chew hay or carrots changed? Is he now leaving behind the long stems or coarse hay that normally would be eaten? How about carrots or treats? Does it look like it is difficult to position? Chances are, the tongue is pressing against sharp points and the horse is saying, it's just not worth it. After spitting out the food, he seeks out softer things like grass, or smaller things like moist grain. (Quidding And Spilling Grain Helped By Equine Dentistry)
As for digestion, an interesting study was completed recently where 17 horses with varying dental care were given the same feed. After a time, ingesta was sampled from the stomach, intestines and from the feces. Given the same feed and environment, but given 17 horses in different dental care, the end result (feces) was the same. If you have mucked stalls for any amount of time, then you already knew the results.
A conclusion from this is that as long as the food gets swallowed, the digestion occurs starting in the stomach. In fact this makes sense. The mouth, teeth, tongue, and saliva have the job of taking the raw food and making a bolus that the animal feels comfortable in swallowing. The saliva may add digestive enzymes and pH buffers, but it is basically a lubricant.
The role of the tongue is to help position the food between the teeth, to switch the forming bolus from side to side, and to pass the bolus back to the larynx where the esophagus takes over in the swallowing process. In addition, after the bolus is gone, the tongue moves around into every corner of the mouth to clean out pockets of food left behind. Go ahead, try it in your mouth. Pretty amazing to think that you can place the tip of your tongue behind your last tooth.
Recognizing the importance of the tongue to feel safe in the mouth is the basis for my approach to dentistry. If someone else calls it "balancing the mouth", "equilibration of the mouth", "creating proper lateral excursion", "advanced equine dentistry", "proper dentistry", or whatever else, it doesn't matter. Because what they are really doing is removing the pain and allowing the tongue to move freely. The horse goes better on the bit and eats better because pain has been eliminated. (How Often Should Horse Teeth Be Floated)
In the past 7 days, I have had 3 horses extremely affected by the pain in their mouth. They could not chew comfortably and had become selective in what hay they ate as well as their consumption of carrots. One had even lost weight over the last few months. Within minutes after floating their mouths, the old chewing habits resumed and they all ate carrots without spilling. One even started to consume the long stem hay he had left since the morning.
Most of you know that as a horseman, I like to keep things simple because life in it's natural state is simple. Complicating things may make someone feel better, but I would rather make the horse feel better.
If you found this information useful, please link to it at www.TheEquinePractice.com.
Blog August 26, 2009 by
Geoff Tucker, DVM is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Blog by
Geoff Tucker, DVM is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.