Durangogramma
Posted : 10/4/2012 6:24:12 AM
Usually a male horse thing but not as uncommon in mares as I'd thought. I found a paper on the web. Hopefully the part I copied will paste here.
The Canine Teeth The canine teeth (004) are specialized for fighting in male Equidae. They erupt when the horse is four to six years old and may be the cause of considerable pain during eruption. They are the most brachydont-like teeth in the horse and are spade shaped with a convex bump on the lingual side.
The conical dentin structure of the tooth is simple and covered with enamel unlike the incisors or cheek teeth which have infoldings of enamel and infundibula in the maxillary occlusal surfaces. Approximately 28% of females have rudimentary canine teeth which may be impacted (“blind”), unerupted, barely erupted or frequently mesially displaced1 (Fig. 1).
The deciduous canines do not usually erupt but sometimes can be palpated as soft tissue bumps on the bars of the mouth of juvenile horses. Those that erupt are replaced by a permanent canine. Perhaps it is because of the lack of a robust deciduous precursor that pain is common during eruption.
The deciduous tooth in other types of teeth aids in the formation of an “eruption tunnel” for the active Published in IVIS with the permission of the AAEP Close this window to return to IVIS eruption process of the permanent dentition. Without this tunnel, the erupting canine has to move coronally through the bone and soft tissue unaided.7 Painful eruption sites may be incised in a cruciate pattern after local infiltration of anesthetic to assist in this process.
Figure 1: Soft tissue mass over blind canine and female rudimentary canine. Photo by Lynn Caldwell, DVM. The canines do not occlude and the mandibular pair is mesially situated to the maxillary pair similar to the position of the canines of small carnivores such as dogs and cats. The canine develops in the maxillary processes unlike the incisors, which develop in the incisive bone. It has been said that equine canine teeth do not continually erupt, however, it is my experience that they do continue to erupt to a small degree in young to middleaged horses, eruption ceasing at the time of apical closure which occurs at approximately ten years of age.
Equine canine teeth are long and like an iceberg, only ten to twenty percent of their crown may be erupted. The apex is very long and deeply situated in the mandible and maxilla. In the dog, the canines extend to the mesial root of the second premolar.2 The equine mandibular canine extends its apex 5 to 7 centimeters distally past the erupted crown of the tooth into the interdental space almost to the second premolar, making removal of this tooth a surgical procedure in most cases. The maxillary canines tend to have an “L” shape (Fig. 2). Figure 2 Length of visible e in : mandibular canines
The pictures didn't post. The paper is by a Lynn Caldwell, DVM who practices in Silverton, Oregon. It evidently was a focus paper for the AAEP. There's lots more to the paper. This is just basic and mentions mares.