This message is from: Marsha Jo Hannah <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > When I had my girls' teeth checked this spring (at ages 3 and 4), > the vet (a equine vet of good reputation) found one wolf tooth in Riba > that had to be removed and two wolf teeth in Ida that were also > removed. He said the chances of finding 3 wolf teeth in 2 mares was > phenomenal, that mares rarely have wolf teeth.
Um, perhaps someone is confused.... "Wolf tooth" is the common name for a "vestigal premolar"---little tiny useless tooth, at the front of the row of "grinding teeth" (molars) on the sides of the horse's jaw. Most (but not all) horses have them, but I've not heard of it being sex-linked. Usually, they're just on one jaw (the top, as I recall---books are at home), but my female donkey had all 4 of hers! Some folks contend that wolf teeth "have to be pulled" (or they interfere with the bit); others leave them alone. Because they're poorly anchored, pulling them is relatively easy. "Canine teeth" are the "fangs" that male equines have in the middle of their bars---half way between the molars in back and the incisors in front. These are large, well-anchored teeth that don't cause problems, so are rarely pulled---unless the person doing the dentistry is ill-informed. (I once had a vet admit that, fresh out of vet school, she had pulled a gelding's canines, because the vet school dentistry course hadn't taught her the difference between wolf teeth and canines!) Very rarely will a mare have canine teeth. Marsha Jo Hannah Murphy must have been a horseman-- [EMAIL PROTECTED] anything that can go wrong, will! 30 mi SSE of San Francisco, Calif. -------
