If you’ve walked by your horses feeding area or water trough and noticed slimy balls of half chewed food laying on the ground, your horse may be quidding. Quidding is a response to mouth pain in which the horse loses or spits balls of semi-chewed food stuffs out of their mouth.
The most common cause of quidding is teeth that are uneven or that have sharp points. This does not allow the mouth to close properly and makes chewing extremely difficult. There is a host of other mouth issues that can lead to this problem as well, including cavities, abscesses, and unseen injuries. This problem most commonly occurs in older horses, however all ages can be affected.
Besides the fact that quidding is an indicator that there is something wrong (and probably painful) in your horse’s mouth, this is an issue for a very simple reason: if the feed is falling on the ground, it is not being ingested and used by your horse. This can result in loss of weight and body condition as the horse may only swallow a fraction of what is being fed. In fact, one of the first things you should check if your horse starts dropping weight and losing body condition is the condition of the teeth and mouth.
The good news is that quidding can be greatly improved or even cured all together with regular dental care by your veterinarian or an equine dentist. Often a process called floating the teeth can help file down sharp or uneven places on the teeth. Dental exams should happen at a minimum of once per year, even on healthy horses with no known problems. For horses who have dental issues, the check ups and/or treatments may be prescribed more often.
In addition to regular dental exams, a horse with dental issues should be fed a feed that is easy to chew and digest. Make sure the ration is nutrient-dense to make the most out of what they do take in and, if necessary, consider switching the horse with severe dental problems over to a complete feed that may be soaked to soften before feeding.
