Does anyone have any experience with parrot mouths?
Until now all I had ever seem was about 5mm over hang of the top jaw and I thought that was quite bad. Today someone I know asked what I knew about it and I said not much, she said that she had bought a weaned foal, 5 months old (warmblood x new forest)as she had felt sorry for him, from a sale. She went on to say that he was parrot mouthed and showed me photos, OMG!!! I have never seen anything like it, the bottom teeth are completely inside the top by quite alot! Does anyone know if it might grow out to become better or is this it? She is hoping to keep him as a family pony and eventually ride him?
Oh dear, well she will just have to go with 6 monthly rasping. Otherwise pony should be grand. As he gets older she will have to be really hot on the dentistry unless he is on alot of hard feed as it will affect the amount of grass he gets in from grazing. Should be fine as an allround do anything pony.
Goodness, that is severe! I agree with Kimzi; on short grass he'll find it really difficult to graze so will need supplementary feeding; I'd recommend Lucerne and/or Grass nuts rather than cereals as a substitute for the forage.
Caryn PS I'm assuming he'll be gelded - it goes without saying that he should not be bred from.
Kharidian (Prince Sadik x Khiri)........ Alkara Cassino (H Tobago x Rose Aboud) aka "Roger".................................... aka "Chips" The first image is from an original painting by Pat Shorto.
My friend had a Tb filly born with a parrot mouth she is now 5 years old and the bottom teeth now touch the top teeth at the back (if that makes sense) When she was a foal you would of thought there was no way that she would ever managed to eat grass or that it would of corrected it self.I was at her place this morning and she showed me. This filly has always been fat is out all summer with no extra feed other than grass.
I have also seen a standard-bred (trotter) mare that had one session with a good dentist and ended up with a functional mouth, she put on condition and did better racing ( obviously!)
Girl i knew hers had a severe parrot mouth and to be honest with correct care the mare was great in every shape and form and she competed in several diciplines with no problems.. When i first saw the mare i was shocked as had never come across it before and this mare as said was severe. So proper care and feeding no problems..
My old mare lived to the grand old age of 38 with a parrot mouth. It wasn't quite as extreme as you are explaining but with regular dental work and careful feeding, she was fine.
Parrot mouth!
England
Posted - 11 Nov 2009 : 8:49:40 PM
