What would cause an over bite in a foal? Both stallion and mare have perfect teeth. Stallion has never thrown a foal with an over bite. Mare’s 2nd foal both by same stallion. First foal has fine teeth. Foal is by a paint stallion and out of a tb mare.
Any thoughts are appreciated on this, whether this is just a fluke thing, or if it is hereditary.
Sire and dam both being perfect doesn’t mean baby will be. Seen it happen many times.
Assuming the foal is not REALLY off (as in you can see it with the mouse closed) it may self-correct.
How old is the foal? If the baby is a newborn it’s possible they are just off from being pushed out and will re-align within a few days. Also, foals going off is normal as they grow- have a dentist out to make sure there are no hooks or what-not causing the bite to go off.
I was just having this conversation with my repro vet. She said that many will self correct (in non severe cases) by feeding on the ground through their youngster years. She also making sure to judge the “Overbite” when the horse’s head is lowered rather than lifting it’s chin and having a peek, which causes non severe cases to appear more severe because of the angle.
my one filly had an overbite - I do feed on the ground and it self corrected by the time she was 20 months. Vet though in her case it was an uneven growth pattern, not a genetic issue - she was a big girl with a long head.
ETA - her two full sisters with daintier heads had normal bites
Good to know about feeding on the ground. You can tell when her mouth is closed. She is just about 3 weeks old now. I had seen it but finally just lifted her lip to see what it actually looked like. I’m not going to worry a whole bunch. She is an event prospect for me so I am not looking to breed or sell her. She was tall when born but dainty. She has grown and filled out so much already and not so dainty now. Thanks for the input. Any advice appreciated. I will have her seen by the dentist when necessary.
Parrott Mouth…You should worry! (depending of course, on the severity of the defect). https://www.acvs.org/files/proceedings/2012/data/papers/151.pdf
What does your veterinarian say?
If the defect is severe enough you can see it with her mouth closed then it probably will NOT self correct and she is a true parrot mouth. However, it may be possible that it will improve some with age… it’s also possible that it will actually get worse with age, especially if she isn’t getting sufficient dental care. Good dental work can also help the situation- much like more frequent trims can help with limb issues.
In my experience with ponies with off bites (especially youngsters) you can be looking at 3-4 dentist visits per year. You really want someone in there making sure they don’t have anything going on that will make things worse, and they frequently will wear their teeth very unevenly.
Start working with a good vet-dentist. Look for one that has had additional dental training and even specializes in dental work. It’s sort of like going to a GP when you need a cardiologist. The GP is better than nothing but you really need someone with that extra layer of training.
A foal SHOULD have a slight overbite. That is normal. It evens in time. Not all vets know this.
A document I read had this interesting tidbit on parrot mouth:
“Parrot mouth has been reported to occur in approximately 5% of horses regardless of breed however the cause is not fully understood. There appears to be a genetic influence with the highest rate of parrot mouths occurring when mating horses with very different head types – in particular a long, lean headed mare crossed with a stocky, short, wide headed stallion (Liyou & Graney, 2005)”.
We had a parrot-mouthed foal born last year–sire and dam both normal, maternal grand-dam and paternal grandsire both normal (don’t know about other relatives). The genetic factors of parrot-mouth are apparently complex and not well-understood (or documented). The differing head type theory is interesting, but doesn’t really seem to apply in our case. However, the mare was bred in July of 2012, when we had such extremely hot weather, which makes me wonder if the heat caused some sort of stress early on that just happened to affect our girl’s mouth development. Don’t know for sure, but it makes me wonder.
I’ve had some pretty substantial overbites correct themselves over time. I think parrot mouth actually looks different in some way – it is not just a severe overbite. Am I wrong about this? Must go search online to try to confirm this. On my worst case, the overbite was the width of two of my (fat short) figures when the colt was about a month old. I could definitely see it with his mouth closed. It was gone by the time he was 10 months old. As I said I’m pretty sure vet will be able to tell parrot mouth from overbite – please correct me if I am wrong!
[QUOTE=Kerole;7616906]
A document I read had this interesting tidbit on parrot mouth:
“Parrot mouth has been reported to occur in approximately 5% of horses regardless of breed however the cause is not fully understood. There appears to be a genetic influence with the highest rate of parrot mouths occurring when mating horses with very different head types – in particular a long, lean headed mare crossed with a stocky, short, wide headed stallion (Liyou & Graney, 2005)”.[/QUOTE]
Thanks for posting 
Slight overbite in a foal and parrot mouth are quite different.
Your vet should know the difference. That is why I wonder, what is your veterinarian’s opinion? Have you had the foal examined?
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