What the heck is going on with this tooth???

[StarRidgeAcres]

I found this tooth in Scarlet's water bucket tonight. She lived with me from birth to about 18 months I never had her teeth floated. She's about 38 months now and she's back with me for a bit. When I went to see her before picking her up, since I was evaluating her for showing, I looked at her teeth/bite. I noticed a tad of an underbite (which I think of as the kiss of death conformationally), but could clearly see that her bottom front two teeth were just barely hanging in there and the adult teeth were already poking through behind them. The adult teeth looked like they were going to line up with the top once fully errupted. I also made the assumption she'd never had her teeth floated period so made a mental note to add that to the list.

So tonight when feeding I found the below in her water bucket. I'd already given her her grain so she was NOT interested in me looking in her mouth to see where I think this came from. What I'd like to know, because I feel like I know very little about horse teeth, is:

What part of the mouth did this come from?

Does it look to you like two rows of teeth fused together or am I just imagining that?

Do the pointy things that I'm assuming are the roots look normal? I don't personally recall seeing any that pointy before.

The "wavey" part is the actual grinding surface, correct?

This image is taken straight down on what I believe is the root side:

This pic is taken straight down on what I believe is the chewing surface:

This is showing a side view of the tooth:

Thanks in advance for your thoughts. I'm sure I'm going to learn a lot of new things by the responses!

 

[ClickMini]

Looks like a cap to me! Just shedding her molars.

 

[Equuisize]

Yep, it is a cap.

I have many many of them I've found over the years

or had them drop them in my hand.

I've given them to school age kids to take for show

and tell.

Curiously, they are the nearly identical in size to

my big guy's caps when he dropped his first one

in my hand, many years ago and scared me to death.

We'd just bought him, he was about 26 months and

I sure wasnt' prepared to have his 'teeth' fall out.

My vets office got a big kick out of my query.

 

[chandab]

Looks pretty much like the caps I've found.

Here are four caps from my silver mare:

I know they are all hers as she has her own pen and I found them in her pen or feed or water tub. The caps shed at different times so not all will have the same amount of wear.

 

[Riverrose28]

I agree with everyone else, it is a molar cap, she is losing her baby teeth and getting big girl teeth. Not to worry. I find them every where, in feed dishes, on the ground in a stall you name it I have a whole collection. I thought some day I would make a necklace!

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

Oh my, what a relief!

I am so glad I am not the only one who saves her horses 'baby' teeth. LOL My family thinks I'm nuts but I save every one I've found and also have quite a collection.

 

[Margo_C-T]

Agree with all others...a molar cap. Now would indeed be a good time to have her mouth evaluated, worked on if needed. Good that she shed this one on her own but if molar caps are retained beyond when they should be 'shed', it can cause problems. Persistent 'tooth bumps' are often blamed for retained caps; a tooth bump is actually the ROOT of the permanent tooth(because a horse's molars continue to 'grow'(advance) as it ages, tooth bumps should eventually disappear, if all goes as it should); if a permanent molar is somehow prevented from erupting when it should, it can mean that the tooth bump may persist, even through the horse's life...which is unsightly if nothing else!

Margo

 

[StarRidgeAcres]

Thank-you all very much! The whole tooth thing has always been an area I've lacked a good understanding of, but I had such quality vet care available I was able to rely on them to know the what and when. But now at the new place things are different and my new vet expects me to take a much more active role. Which will be good for me but there certainly things I need to educate myself more on...teeth being one.

It's interesting to me how common it seems to find these caps, yet this is my first. 100% of the other tooth pieces I've seen have all come with the vet during floating. This is the first on my own. And that's a lot of years with horses, big, small and donkeys!

Thanks everyone!

 

[chandab]

Thank-you all very much! The whole tooth thing has always been an area I've lacked a good understanding of, but I had such quality vet care available I was able to rely on them to know the what and when. But now at the new place things are different and my new vet expects me to take a much more active role. Which will be good for me but there certainly things I need to educate myself more on...teeth being one.

It's interesting to me how common it seems to find these caps, yet this is my first. 100% of the other tooth pieces I've seen have all come with the vet during floating. This is the first on my own. And that's a lot of years with horses, big, small and donkeys!

Thanks everyone!

I never found any caps/teeth until the minis; and I too have had big and small for a number of years (adults and youngsters). But, with the minis, they are on drylot, so I'm more likely to find caps/teeth with them, as I'm not looking over as large an area. Most of the ones I've found were in my silver mare's pen; the few others were in feed tubs and one was packed in a hoof when I cleaned it.

 

[Helicopter]

I have a nice collection of caps too.

The things we do.