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  Discussion on Excessive Salivation
Author Message
Member:
lsweeney

Posted on Saturday, Sep 28, 2013 - 7:01 pm:

A few years back I had a vet use a rasp to float my horse's teeth. Ever since then she has had a problem with too much saliva.

When she was under anesthesia at UC Davis getting a pigeon fever abscess lanced, I had them look at her teeth and they couldn't find anything. That was about 1.5 years ago.

I'm noticing it more lately.

If it was poisoning, she would be dead by now.

In the AM when I feed, she will walk across our pasture, and when she takes her first bite of feed, a bunch of slobber will come out. She doesn't seem to be in pain, or have any problem eating.

I found this on the internet:

"Older horses losing teeth and suffering compromised jaw motion often require creative methods of hydration to keep them going, e.g. soaking feeds to pre-wet them and sometimes even IV support. Competition horses can also become quite prone to impaction if their jaw motion is compromised during competition, such as having the mouth tied shut with a flash or tight noseband. Dental balancing of the motion of the mouth, from the incisors (front teeth) through the back of the jaw is necessary to help the horse maintain their perfect chewing motion, thus stimulating all of the salivary glands equally, with none receiving too little pressure as not to produce, or too much as to become inflamed and the ducts close and become painful. Overproduction of saliva is possible by excess pressure of even as little as one tooth, which can also cause dehydration and lead to colic.

Given the history, I am wondering if she has some imbalance in her mouth somewhere.

Also, this horse gets the thumps with a little more than normal exercise. So I have to watch her closely for dehydration.
Member:
rtrotter

Posted on Saturday, Sep 28, 2013 - 7:45 pm:

She may have an imbalanced mouth. Is she floated on a regular basis?

Also, do you have a lot of clover in your paddock, sometimes the clover, especially if it is alsike clover, that causes horses to have the reaction you are seeing. If you are seeing this in the morning after she's spent the night out in the field, that could be the cause. Does it go away, if she stays in for a few hours? I had several horses that did this and the clover was the culprit.
Member:
lsweeney

Posted on Saturday, Sep 28, 2013 - 7:56 pm:

She's on a dry lot. Definitely no clover. There is really no feed out there. She has also been on the same property for 15 years, and she only started this after the teeth floating. And it isn't just in the AM. It really is anytime that she has not been eating, waiting for feed, and then opens her mouth. Saliva will then pour out. She doesn't DrOol. It's after she has been quiet, and then I give her something to eat.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Sunday, Sep 29, 2013 - 6:04 pm:

Hello Laurie,
During the exam under anesthesia, it is unlikely that they would have missed a tooth problem so severe that it would cause excessive salivation. Throw in that there are no other signs of tooth problems this seems very unlikely. I see horses with many out of align teeth that do not salivate heavily. Neither do I find it likely the floating is responsive for much the same reasons above. However I do not see a likely reason other than your horse having a very wet mouth that he keeps closed and does not swallow the accumulated saliva frequently. I have seen a few other horses like this.
DrO
Member:
lucyc1

Posted on Monday, Sep 30, 2013 - 10:00 pm:

Hi Laurie:

We had a horse that salivated excessively (understatement). There was no clover in his pasture, and his teeth were checked and all seemed fine. But he hadn't salivated before he came to us, so it seemed logical that something here was causing the problem...

Then we noticed that the boards on the shed in his pasture were being chewed. No. Not chewed. Eaten. Disappearing.

We have no idea why he was chewing the boards - there was good grass in the pasture - but it turned out that he was getting little splinters in his mouth - and they were causing the salivation. We put chicken wire over all of the shed wood he could reach - and that ended the problem.

Seems unlikely that this would relate to your situation - but I suppose there is a chance there is something your horse has access to that might cause a mouth irritation.....
Member:
npo33901

Posted on Tuesday, Oct 1, 2013 - 2:21 am:

Does your horse get enough roughage ? - coarse hay ? This relating to your horse chewing on he wood .
I recently discovered my horse eating wooden shavings ! May be your horse eating the grass the whole day is asking or a bit of straw/hay = roughage .
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Wednesday, Oct 2, 2013 - 7:09 pm:

With the worsening recently Laurie perhaps another good examination of the mouth is in order.
DrO
Member:
lsweeney

Posted on Sunday, Oct 13, 2013 - 1:30 am:

Thanks for the ideas. Interestingly she has had hives over the last couple of days. So she is getting into something. I have some new orchard grass hay that might have something in it. Oddly, she hasn't been DrOoling as much the last week. I'm trying to remember if I saw any salivation issues when we were camping this summer. If she is ingesting something in the pasture, I might see it stop when we are camping. I'm going to try to really observe when she is doing this. I do have some star thistle in the pasture, but I have never seen her try to eat it.
Member:
lsweeney

Posted on Friday, Dec 9, 2016 - 6:15 pm:

Update - It's now the end of 2016, and this horse still slobbers. My husband said that he thought she was worse the last few days, so I thought I would revisit the subject. Since 3 years has past, it probably isn't some toxic, life threatening plant that she is getting into. There might be stuff out on our 3 acres that she eats that causes this, but I have also seen her do this when we are camping in a controlled environment. She is 20 now. I have had vets look at her during her inoculations with nothing profound coming out of it. Other than DrOpping a huge loogie on your back, or down your head when you feed, she appears to be fine. she otherwise bright, energetic, with a great appetite. I really think the holding onto saliva and not swallowing until she has to open her mouth for a carrot appears to be what she is doing. I thought I would report back that she hasn't DrOpped dead from poisonous feed so that someone wanting to know the end of the story would now know.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Saturday, Dec 10, 2016 - 7:58 am:

Thanks for the update and given the normal exams I have to agree. Has anyone ever carefully palpated her saliva glands, the are fairly superficial, mostly.
DrO
Member:
lsweeney

Posted on Monday, Dec 12, 2016 - 12:49 pm:

Nope. We are due for inoculations. I will suggest that.
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