Parrot mouth – why you should look a gift horse in the mouth

I came across my first case of Parrot Mouth this week. Thankfully I have never had a horse with a parrot mouth before but while the vet was here yesterday doing flu vaccinations, she spotted that a yearling has a mild case. Parrot mouth can’t be spotted in a newborn foal but appears between one and six months of age. It is definitely something to look out for if you are buying a horse or pony as a parrot mouth can affect the way an equine eats and it is also considered a defect when you come to sell the horse. Like windsucking, cribbing, weaving and sweetitch, it affects the price.

So what is parrot mouth exactly? It is when the top incisor teeth of a horse come out over the bottom incisors, much the same as buck teeth in humans. Apparently it is relatively common and occurs in 2-3% of horses, so 2 or 3 in every hundred horses have this defect.

The reason why parrot mouth is a bad thing in a horse is because it affects the way the horse grinds his food and how he digests it. A bad case will prevent the horse putting on condition and also cause problems with a bit in his mouth. It can make it hard for him to graze.

Mild cases are easy enough to treat with dental floating (rasping) and severe cases benefit from dental procedures, such as braces believe it or not! Mild cases are where the top teeth protrude slightly over the bottom incisors but still meet the bottom ones and a severe case is where the top teeth protrude so far over the bottom ones that they do not meet.