What is it about?
Mouth lesions were very common in trotting horses. Of all the horses 84% had lesions and 20% of the lesions were graded as severe after a race. Blood was visible outside the mouth in 2% of the horses, but additionally 10% of the horses had blood on the bit or inside the mouth.
Featured Image
Photo by Mat Reding on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Lesions in the mouth cause pain and compromise equine welfare. The majority of lesions do not bleed outside the mouth. So lesions are easily unnoticed.
Perspectives
I hope this article increases the avereness of this horse welfare problem. Writing this article was important since there is not many studies about horse welfare in harness racing.
DVM PhD Kati Tuomola
University of Helsinki
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Oral Lesions in the Bit Area in Finnish Trotters After a Race: Lesion Evaluation, Scoring, and Occurrence, Frontiers in Veterinary Science, July 2019, Frontiers,
DOI: 10.3389/fvets.2019.00206.
You can read the full text:
Resources
Oral examination video
Video about oral examination for bit-related lesions.
Oral lesions in the Bit Area Finnish Trotters after a Race
Open Access article
Oral health guide for trotters (in finnish)
Oral health guide for trotting horses. How to examine the mouth, typical lesions, dental anatomy, dental diseases in horses, symptoms, pain, conflict behaviour, learning theory, practical tips in education, bits (in finnish).
Contributors
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