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| Author |
Message |
    
Nancy Herbert (Gemtwist)
| | Posted on Saturday, Apr 21, 2001 - 2:05 am: |   |
Some friends were over tonight and parrot-mouthed horses came up in the conversation. Some questions came up that no one knew the answers to and I was curious if anyone out there had the answers.
1) Have any studies been done on the genetics of parrot mouthed horses? From what little I have found to read on it, both parents have to be carriers of a gene which causes the parrot mouth. Is this true?
2) If a foal's teeth don't line up in front perfectly when he is first born, but later on they do, is he still considered parrot mouthed and/or a "carrier"?
3) Is there a difference between the terms overbite and parrot mouth or is one just used for people and the other for horses?
4) Are there any known factors which determine the severity of the parrot mouth (genetic or otherwise)?
5) Anything new in the dentistry area that might help with this problem? I heard of some work being done where a wire was attached from the jaw across the teeth and then back to the jaw on the other side. The theory was that if done early enough, they could prevent the upper jaw from growing and let the lower jaw catch up. From what my vet told me results were mixed and you had to start when the foal was very young.
Thanks!
Nancy |
Robert N. Oglesby DVM (Dro)
| | Posted on Sunday, Apr 22, 2001 - 9:40 am: | |
Hello Nancy,
1) No currently all the information we have is conjecture and supposition based on simple observation.
2) Not if they did this naturally.
3) No difference really but you should always be sure exactly what someone means when they use either term.
4) None other than perhaps the severity of the parents parrot mouth being somewhat predictive. Foals are born to parents with normal mouths.
5) Currently this is the state of our knowledge with the orthodontics being the best chance at a more normal bite.
DrO |
Nancy Herbert (Gemtwist)
| | Posted on Sunday, Apr 22, 2001 - 11:36 am: | |
Thanks for the info Dr O! I'm always amazed at the number of things I've believed to be fact that turn out to be just a lot of people agreeing with each other (grin).
Nancy |
Christine Holmes Bukowski
Member
Username: Canyon28
Post Number: 31
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Friday, Dec 12, 2003 - 1:38 pm: | |
I have a filly that has an overbite. It seems to run in one bloodline in reining horses, and unfortunately, this bloodline is very popular right now. Anyway, we tried to fix her with the upper jaw wiring starting at two or three months old. It was a failure, because in this instance, the fillys lower teeth did not touch the upper fronts at all, so when the upper jaw was wired , the lower jaw of course kept growing, but the lower front teeth got hooked behind the uppers, and it also seemed as if the wiring caused her upper jaw to curve downward, it really didnt hold back the growth of it much. the curving downward, actually made the overbite worse, since the lower teeth were stuck behind the upper ones. If the lower teeth were partially touching on the uppers, I think this wiring solution might have worked. The only solution that would have worked for my horse would have been a bite plate to keep her mouth apart, and this would have had to stay in except during feeding time. Keeping her mouth and teeth apart would have allowed the lower teeth to move past the upper ones. Luckily this filly is very talented, performance wise and also can eat quite normally. her back teeth are completely normal and line up perfectly. She just needs her front teeth ground down every 8 or 9 months.
My mare does not have an overbite, in fact she has outstanding conformation and so does the filly, the mare has had foals before and since with no problems what so ever. but I have been gathering some info on the bloodline the sire had, and it seems to be fairly common in his bloodline. |
