# Three year old losing teeth?



## jofielder7 (Aug 19, 2007)

My three year old stallion (he'll be three on January 19) has lost both of his front teeth. One of them looks like it broke in half and the other was loose for a few days until if finally fell out on it's own. The reason they look like they broke is because there was still tooth coming out of the gums. I'm wondering if there is any chance that he is just losing his baby teeth and the new ones are coming in?

Background: I bought this horse in Costa Rica (I am in Nicaragua) and the previous owners are telling me that he is changing teeth. My vet here looks at his mouth and says, "holy crap." I do have to say that my vet is always in a huge hurry and it's nearly impossible to get him to focus on one thing (I have since started working with another vet). The grooms here also seem to think they are "broken."

I would really like to believe the old owners, but I don't know much about horses teeth and would really like to solve this "mystery." I would like to know if I'm going to have a toothless horse who can't eat normally...

I can't get my other vet out for a few days so I would appreciate any input you all might have.

Thanks!


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## tim (Dec 31, 2007)

Haha, yes its changing. 

My horse was 5 when he got a tooth kicked out by another horse. Luckily it was a baby tooth and a new one came in to it's place.


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## Ryle (Jul 13, 2007)

Yes, it's most likely normal because horses loose all of their baby incisors between 2 yrs and 5 yrs of age and grow in their adult incisors.


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## jofielder7 (Aug 19, 2007)

I took a really close look today and noticed that they are very uneven along the bottom. Is this also normal for new teeth? I would imagine that they would be straight (along the bottom) if they were new teeth.


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## tim (Dec 31, 2007)

Not necessarily. Front teeth tend to grind themselves down to the flatness that you observe on a normal basis.


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## jofielder7 (Aug 19, 2007)

Thanks, Tim. Not only have you been helpful, but you are telling me what I wanted to hear


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## tim (Dec 31, 2007)

Yea, if they were really broken off, you'd probably be able to tell easily. There would be very swollen gums. Also, the horse would probably show clear discomfort. And on top of that, it's really hard to break a horses tooth. They're pretty big.

New teeth always tend to look kind of narly, even on humans. 

You can read about it some more here.


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## buckaroo2010 (Nov 7, 2007)

Yeah from what it sound like it just sounds like to me that he is just losin his baby teeth..my horse is 2 1/2 maybe u should check his mouth and check out his teeth and see if he has lost any yet :shock:


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## pinky (Feb 3, 2008)

Hi, This is perfectly normal. Do not worry. Horses lose their front baby teeth (incisors) at 2 1/2, 3 1/2, and 4 1/2 years of age. So if your horse is 3, he is either a little early or a little late losing his. Which doesn't matter one way or the other, that's just the way he is. He will lose the 2 middle front teeth first at 2 1/2, the next teeth over from those at 3 1/2, and the corners at 4 1/2, both top and bottom.

Keep in mind that he will also lose his pre molars (the big teeth in the back.) So if you see a rather large flat looking tooth (cap) in his feed bucket one of these days, don't worry. That is normal too. He will lose his premolars at 21/2, 3 and 3 1/2. There will be 4 teeth that he loses each time. One on each side, top and bottom.

In my opinion if your vet doesn't even know what baby teeth are, I think I would find another vet.


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## Harlee rides horses (Jan 13, 2008)

It's normal, horses have baby teeth just like humans and they fall out and are replaced by adult teeth.


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