Study: Dental Work Improves Feed Digestibility in Horses

Thehorse.com - Full Article

by: Kelleyerin Clabaugh, DVM
November 18 2011, Article # 19148

Many horse owners do not recognize signs of dental disease until a horse has obvious difficulty chewing, reduced appetite, feed dropping, and weight loss. Thus, even horses with mild dental disease benefit significantly from corrective dental work, according to recent research by a team from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich in Germany.

In the study, researchers evaluated voluntary hay intake, fecal particle size, and nutrient digestibility of nine adult Warmbloods--that all chewed normally, but had mild to moderate enamel points of the molars and premolars--before and after dental correction.

Because the horses selected for the study were not having any apparent difficulty chewing, the researchers were not surprised to learn that voluntary feed consumption did not change after floating the horses' teeth. The horses continued to ingest the same amount of food as before the procedure, indicating they were not any more or any less comfortable.

On the contrary, the team was surprised to find that fecal particle length did not change after treatment. Previous studies involving horses with more significant dental disease revealed that fiber length was shorter after flotation. Thus, fecal fiber length could be a good predictor of severe, but not subtle, dental disease.

In the current study chemical analysis of the fecal material indicated increased nutrient digestibility of dry matter, energy, and crude fiber. "Even the correction of moderate dental findings may increase apparent digestibility significantly," the authors noted...

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