Veterinary Q&A for Kids
by Dave Sauter, DVM
Q. How many teeth does a horse have, and what kind of care do the teeth need?
-Hailey, age 7
A. Unlike other domesticated animals, the number of teeth horses have varies. The number can be between 36 and 44. Think of the horse’s mouth as having four rows of teeth: left upper, left lower, right upper, and right lower. Every horse has at least 9 teeth in each row (three incisor, three premolar, and three molar) so every horse has at least 36 teeth (9+9+9+9). All male horses have canine teeth, one in each of the four rows. This means all male horses have at least 10 teeth in each row, or a total of at least 40 teeth. That brings us to the one last possible tooth in each row, the infamous wolf tooth. The wolf tooth is not always present. Both male and female horses can get wolf teeth. Usually, they only get upper wolf teeth; lower wolf teeth are rare.
Regular dental care helps promote healthier horses. Horses should have their teeth checked once a year. Their teeth are different from ours--they continue to grow throughout the horse's life until they finally wear out. As they grow, they get very sharp edges that cut into the horse's gums and make it painful to chew or wear a bridle. Their teeth can get very uneven, creating more serious problems. Nowadays, we “float” or grind their teeth with power tools to smooth out the sharp edges and make them more even again.
Q. Do horses have four stomachs like cows, sheep and goats?
-Grace, age 10
A. No. Cows, sheep, and goats are ruminant animals, which have four parts to their stomachs. These animals have a “true” stomach, kind of similar to ours in some ways (it produces gastric acid and enzymes to help digest food). In front of this true stomach are three other large chambers, specially designed for digesting plant material we humans cannot. Because these three large chambers are before the true stomach, they are called forestomachs. Thus, ruminants are foregut fermenters. Deer, elk, camels, llamas and alpacas are also ruminants.
Like ruminants, horses are herbivores and can digest plant material like grass and hay. Unlike ruminants, horses have only one stomach, a “true” stomach. Horses also have large chambers for digesting plant material but theirs are a long way downstream from the stomach. The horse’s large fermentation chambers are the cecum and large colon. Hence, horses are “monogastric” and are hindgut fermenters.
Q. How much hay should a horse eat?
-Kameron, age 8
A. An average 1000 lb. horse will eat about 20 lb. or so of hay per day. That will vary some depending on what the horse does for exercise and what other food it gets. Just for comparison, a horse might eat up to 60 to 100 lb. of lush green grass per day to get the same amount of food found in 20 lb. of hay because so much more of the green grass is water.
Q. What are final examinations like prior to graduating from veterinary school?
-Kate, age 16
A. You are challenging my memory a bit with this question, since I graduated long before you were born, but I’ll give it a try. All veterinary schools have fully equipped hospitals for all species, staffed with a full gambit of clinicians, residents, interns, and students. These are teaching hospitals. Veterinary students spend their entire senior year rotating through the various departments (small animal medicine, small animal surgery, large animal medicine, large animal surgery, pathology, ophthalmology, etc.) developing their knowledge, skills, and experience. Senior students are allowed some time away from school for private practice preceptorships. In a sense, senior year is like one long practical exam, testing you on everything you learned the previous three years.
Senior students also are required to sit the National Board Examination, which covers all species, even wild animals like you might find in a zoo. It covers all subjects, from medicine and surgery to ethics. This is a written test and it takes all day to finish. Each individual state also requires sitting a state examination. Generally, these state examinations cover the laws and regulations concerning the practice of veterinary medicine within that state.
Q. What should I use to deworm my horse?
-Frances, age 11
A. Internal parasites are nasty creatures that compete for nutrients, damage internal organs and cause health problems such as weight loss, respiratory disease and colic. Unfortunately, the domestication of the horse and the necessary confinement it imposes allow parasite numbers to grow way beyond what they do in the wild. Periodic purge deworming is necessary to cope with the problem.
Today’s dewormers are safe, relatively inexpensive, and so far, effective; your vet can help you choose the kind that is right for your area. Parasitologists are concerned that parasites could develop resistance to our current products if they are used too much; in fact, this problem has started to happen in small ruminants.
Consequently, we need to be conservative with our use of these products. The schedule our clinic recommends includes four purge dewormings per year and is outlined on our website (www.kulshanvet.com). Twice yearly fecal tests for parasite eggs can help determine if your program is working. Good manure management also helps control parasites since many of the parasite species pass their eggs in feces.
Q. How do you properly wash a horse?
-Bella, age 5
A. As long as it is 40 degrees Fahrenheit or warmer, it is warm enough for a horse to have a bath. Warm water lathers better, cleans better, and feels better. If you don’t have a warm water faucet, try a sponge bath with 5 gallon buckets of warm water. Make sure to thoroughly rinse the shampoo off. For specific bathing products and techniques, I’d prefer to let the show horse experts comment.
Q. How many gallons of water do horses drink in a day?
-Brittany, age 8
A. Water is essential for horses and the amount they need is affected by weather and the amount of exercise the horse is getting. Because horses come in different sizes and shapes, one way to describe the amount of water they need per day is in terms of their body weight.
In general, in cool weather the average horse will drink about ½ gallon of water per 100 lb. of body weight per day. So, a 1000 lb. horse would drink about 5 gallons per day. Hot weather, hard work, and milk production for a suckling foal will increase the amount of water horses need up to 3 times that amount, or 1½ gallons per 100 lb. of body weight per day. This is a fairly wide range, so the best advice is to provide free access to fresh, clean, and not frozen water at all times. There is an exception to this rule: if a horse has been worked hard and has finished working, do not provide free access to water for at least an hour, until the horse has cooled out. If the horse is walked to help it cool out, it can have a few swallows of water every five minutes or so. Horses that haven’t finished their work (for example, a hard trail ride) can be permitted to drink moderately.
Thank you for the wonderful questions!
Q. How many teeth does a horse have, and what kind of care do the teeth need?
-Hailey, age 7
A. Unlike other domesticated animals, the number of teeth horses have varies. The number can be between 36 and 44. Think of the horse’s mouth as having four rows of teeth: left upper, left lower, right upper, and right lower. Every horse has at least 9 teeth in each row (three incisor, three premolar, and three molar) so every horse has at least 36 teeth (9+9+9+9). All male horses have canine teeth, one in each of the four rows. This means all male horses have at least 10 teeth in each row, or a total of at least 40 teeth. That brings us to the one last possible tooth in each row, the infamous wolf tooth. The wolf tooth is not always present. Both male and female horses can get wolf teeth. Usually, they only get upper wolf teeth; lower wolf teeth are rare.
Regular dental care helps promote healthier horses. Horses should have their teeth checked once a year. Their teeth are different from ours--they continue to grow throughout the horse's life until they finally wear out. As they grow, they get very sharp edges that cut into the horse's gums and make it painful to chew or wear a bridle. Their teeth can get very uneven, creating more serious problems. Nowadays, we “float” or grind their teeth with power tools to smooth out the sharp edges and make them more even again.
Q. Do horses have four stomachs like cows, sheep and goats?
-Grace, age 10
A. No. Cows, sheep, and goats are ruminant animals, which have four parts to their stomachs. These animals have a “true” stomach, kind of similar to ours in some ways (it produces gastric acid and enzymes to help digest food). In front of this true stomach are three other large chambers, specially designed for digesting plant material we humans cannot. Because these three large chambers are before the true stomach, they are called forestomachs. Thus, ruminants are foregut fermenters. Deer, elk, camels, llamas and alpacas are also ruminants.
Like ruminants, horses are herbivores and can digest plant material like grass and hay. Unlike ruminants, horses have only one stomach, a “true” stomach. Horses also have large chambers for digesting plant material but theirs are a long way downstream from the stomach. The horse’s large fermentation chambers are the cecum and large colon. Hence, horses are “monogastric” and are hindgut fermenters.
Q. How much hay should a horse eat?
-Kameron, age 8
A. An average 1000 lb. horse will eat about 20 lb. or so of hay per day. That will vary some depending on what the horse does for exercise and what other food it gets. Just for comparison, a horse might eat up to 60 to 100 lb. of lush green grass per day to get the same amount of food found in 20 lb. of hay because so much more of the green grass is water.
Q. What are final examinations like prior to graduating from veterinary school?
-Kate, age 16
A. You are challenging my memory a bit with this question, since I graduated long before you were born, but I’ll give it a try. All veterinary schools have fully equipped hospitals for all species, staffed with a full gambit of clinicians, residents, interns, and students. These are teaching hospitals. Veterinary students spend their entire senior year rotating through the various departments (small animal medicine, small animal surgery, large animal medicine, large animal surgery, pathology, ophthalmology, etc.) developing their knowledge, skills, and experience. Senior students are allowed some time away from school for private practice preceptorships. In a sense, senior year is like one long practical exam, testing you on everything you learned the previous three years.
Senior students also are required to sit the National Board Examination, which covers all species, even wild animals like you might find in a zoo. It covers all subjects, from medicine and surgery to ethics. This is a written test and it takes all day to finish. Each individual state also requires sitting a state examination. Generally, these state examinations cover the laws and regulations concerning the practice of veterinary medicine within that state.
Q. What should I use to deworm my horse?
-Frances, age 11
A. Internal parasites are nasty creatures that compete for nutrients, damage internal organs and cause health problems such as weight loss, respiratory disease and colic. Unfortunately, the domestication of the horse and the necessary confinement it imposes allow parasite numbers to grow way beyond what they do in the wild. Periodic purge deworming is necessary to cope with the problem.
Today’s dewormers are safe, relatively inexpensive, and so far, effective; your vet can help you choose the kind that is right for your area. Parasitologists are concerned that parasites could develop resistance to our current products if they are used too much; in fact, this problem has started to happen in small ruminants.
Consequently, we need to be conservative with our use of these products. The schedule our clinic recommends includes four purge dewormings per year and is outlined on our website (www.kulshanvet.com). Twice yearly fecal tests for parasite eggs can help determine if your program is working. Good manure management also helps control parasites since many of the parasite species pass their eggs in feces.
Q. How do you properly wash a horse?
-Bella, age 5
A. As long as it is 40 degrees Fahrenheit or warmer, it is warm enough for a horse to have a bath. Warm water lathers better, cleans better, and feels better. If you don’t have a warm water faucet, try a sponge bath with 5 gallon buckets of warm water. Make sure to thoroughly rinse the shampoo off. For specific bathing products and techniques, I’d prefer to let the show horse experts comment.
Q. How many gallons of water do horses drink in a day?
-Brittany, age 8
A. Water is essential for horses and the amount they need is affected by weather and the amount of exercise the horse is getting. Because horses come in different sizes and shapes, one way to describe the amount of water they need per day is in terms of their body weight.
In general, in cool weather the average horse will drink about ½ gallon of water per 100 lb. of body weight per day. So, a 1000 lb. horse would drink about 5 gallons per day. Hot weather, hard work, and milk production for a suckling foal will increase the amount of water horses need up to 3 times that amount, or 1½ gallons per 100 lb. of body weight per day. This is a fairly wide range, so the best advice is to provide free access to fresh, clean, and not frozen water at all times. There is an exception to this rule: if a horse has been worked hard and has finished working, do not provide free access to water for at least an hour, until the horse has cooled out. If the horse is walked to help it cool out, it can have a few swallows of water every five minutes or so. Horses that haven’t finished their work (for example, a hard trail ride) can be permitted to drink moderately.
Thank you for the wonderful questions!
Labels: April 2008, dave sauter, Doctors Corner, Kulshan veterinarians
posted by NWHS at
6:09 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home