Transcript Equine Science & Technology

Equine Science &
Technology
Health Management
Health Management
Vaccine- a product given to a horse to stimulate its immune
system and help provide protection against disease.
There are two types:
Killed vaccine- contains killed or inactivated organisms.
Modified live vaccine- contains organisms that are live but
modified in some way to make them incapable of
producing severe disease.
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Vaccination- defined as the administration, by injection
or intranasal means, of some agent (such as
bacterium or virus) into an animal for the purpose of
preventing disease.
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Cannot depend on vaccination alone for disease
prevention.
Individual horses vary widely in their response to
similar vaccinations.
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Vaccination
 Heredity also plays a part in the level of
resistance.
 Nutritional management practices also affect
degrees of resistance.
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Using teeth to determine age
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The best way to determine the age of the horse is from
good records.
When a record of age does not exist, the teeth furnish the
best estimation of the age of a horse.
Age determination is made by a study of the twelve front
teeth, called incisors.
The two central pairs both above and below are called
centrals (centers), pincers, or nippers.
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The four teeth adjacent to these two pairs are
called intermediates
The outer four teeth are designated as
corners.
The horse has 24 deciduous (temporary) teeth
and 42 adult (permanent) teeth.
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Four key changes in the teeth can be used to
estimate the age of horses.
 Occurrence of permanent teeth
 Disappearance of cups
 Angle of incidence
 Shape of the surface of the teeth
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Occurrence of Permanent Teeth
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Horses have two sets of teeth, one temporary (baby or
milk teeth) and one permanent.
Temporary incisors tend to erupt in pairs at eight days,
eight weeks, and eight months of age.
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Occurrence of Permanent Teeth
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Permanent teeth are larger, longer, and darker in color.
The four center permanent teeth appear (two above
and two below) as the animal approaches three years
of age, the intermediates at four, and the corners at
five. This constitutes a full mouth.
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Disappearance of Cups
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Young permanent teeth have deep indentures in the
center of their surfaces referred to as cups.
Cups are commonly used as reference points in age
determination.
In general, the cups become smooth in the lower
centers, intermediates, corners, upper centers,
intermediates, and corners at six, seven, eight, nine,
ten, and eleven years of age respectively.
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Disappearance of Cups
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A smooth mouth theoretically appears at eleven.
As cups disappear dental stars appear
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first as narrow, yellow lines in front of the central enamel
ring,
then as dark circles near the
center of the tooth.
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Angle of Incidence
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The angle of incidence or contact changes from
approximately 160 to 180 degrees in young horses,
to less than a right angle as the incisors appear to
slant forward and outward with aging.
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Shape of the Surface of the teeth
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The teeth change substantially in shape during wear
and aging.
The teeth appear broad and flat in young horses.
Twenty-year-old teeth may be twice as deep from
front to rear as they are wide.
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Obvious signs of dental disease can include:
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Weight loss
Halitosis (bad breath, foul smelling odor from the
mouth)
Excessive drooling
Dropping feed while eating; difficulty chewing
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Subtle signs of dental disease can include:
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Head tossing
Excessive chewing of the bit
Behavior problems while being ridden (bucking,
fighting against the bit)
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Common Dental Abnormalities
Enamel Pointssharp points that develop on the outside of the upper
teeth and the inside of the lower teeth as a horse
grinds its food back and forth.
 Removed by using a special file (called a float) to
rasp down the sharp edges.
 Carrying out this process is called floating teeth.
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Common Dental Abnormalities
Hooks and Ramps
 Hooks are sharp points found on the first upper
teeth.
 Ramps are sharp points found on the last lower
cheek teeth.
 A small hook or ramp can be removed by simple
filing.
 A taller point may require cutting with a molar cutter
before being filled.
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Retained Caps
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Deciduous premolars are normally replaced by the
permanent premolars without a problem
Occasionally a deciduous premolar fails to fall out
The retained tooth is called a cap.
Retained caps can result in pain for the horse and can
lead to decreased feed consumption and lowered
performance.
The caps can be easily removed by a veterinarian.
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Malalignment
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If the incisors or cheek teeth of the horse do not
align properly, the teeth will not wear evenly.
Horses with overshot or undershot jaws will
normally need their teeth checked frequently to
ensure that the biting and grinding surfaces are
meeting.
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Infections
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Feed that becomes trapped in a tooth can lead to
bacterial growth, resulting in infection.
Other causes of infection are fractured jaw and
inflammation of the periodontal ligament (ligament that
holds the tooth to the bone)
An infected tooth usually leads to more of the obvious
signs of dental disease …
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Swollen face or jaw
A draining abscess
Trouble eating, etc.
Health Management
Sanitation
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A sound sanitation program is of paramount
importance to fly control.
The basic aim of a sanitation program is to reduce or
eliminate fly larval development sites.
Manure management is essential.
Timely spreading of manure promotes drying and
prevents larvae from developing.
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Sanitation
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Wet areas where manure, mud, and plant debris
accumulate also form ideal breeding habitats.
Modifications to the drainage around corrals to reduce
excess moisture can eliminate fly production sites and
make chemical control efforts much more successful.