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What does teeth grinding mean? I
think there is a horse in our barn that does it sometimes.
Teeth grinding is one of those things
that is difficult to describe, but you know it when you hear it. The
sound is quite unique, a muffled rhythmic grinding, louder than the
loudest gut sounds. And if you look closely, you can see the jaws moving
in sync with the sound.
Teeth grinding is almost always
associated with physical pain or discomfort probably of a fairly high
degree. Teeth grinding can be associated with pain of various origins,
but is a fairly common with gastrointestinal pain (belly ache).
It has been suggested that teeth
grinding can result from psychological or social stress in horses. If it
does, it is likely fairly uncommon in otherwise healthy, pain-free
horses. So, whenever teeth grinding occurs, we should probably look long
and hard for physical pain and mention it to the vet.
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