A strange problem -- "ear tooth"

["Kathy Myers" <kathy@nvolve.com>]

Hi Mary Anne,

I have left your message at the bottom of this one for
reference.  I rarely do that.

I just asked my vet about pretty much the same thing.
Blue is mostly "Ansanta" bred.  He has a weepy ear
where the hair is constantly damp and matted.  I don't
know if he's ever had surgery or not.

I was told this is an "ear tooth" ... which was good
news for me seeing as he's grey and all.  I was told
it is a small amount of embryonic dental tissue that
migrated away from his jaw and teeth.  It is now somewhere
between his teeth and ear.  This area stays constantly
open and thus the leaking is intersticial fluid... normal
clear fluid found between cells in the tissue.  I was
told by my vet and his partner both it is not a problem,
would never be a problem, and I didn't ever need to do
anything about it.  He's cute, but he's not a show horse.
He's an ENDURANCE horse.  :)

Anyways, to remove it I was told I'd need to take him to
UC Davis... he'd need to go under a general anethesia,
and then they use a dye to locate the full length of
this open tube... the dental tissue is at the bottom of
this open tube.  Once curetted out completely, the whole
area would heal up.

My problem with this is putting him under the risk of a
general anethesia for something that totally benign and
will never cause a problem.  Even if it is UC Davis doing
the anethesia.  I was thinking of posting to the list
to see if anyone else was dealing with this, but put it
off since I'm not planning on doing anything at the moment.
Thanks for bringing this up.  I'd welcome input from anyone
out there.

It appears to be an Arab thing?  My next step was to buy a
rig and trailer him up for high-definition x-rays at UC
Davis (since I had such great luck with them and Magnum)
and see if we can identify exactly how far down this tissue
is.  I'm still working on the rig, and I don't see this as
an urgent problem.

Again, if anyone has input I'd love to hear it.  Thanks!

:) - Kat Myers
in San Mateo, CA with Magnum the TB ex-racer
and Mr Maajistic... aka "Blue" ... with ear tooth
***********************
Mary Anne wrote:
>I have a four going on five Kemosabi x Bay Sha gelding that was given to me
>in a trade. I first noticed  on his right side of his head below the ear (
>where the bridle  brow band may lie)  an oozing that left his hair matted.
>I had the vet out for something else and asked him to look at it. He was
>very intrested and asked to shave the area. When he shaved it it became
>apparent that there were stitches that ran from just in front of the ear
>down along to the bottom to below the ear. Approx four to five inches in
>length. He said that it was another fetus ( twin ) that some how didn't
>develop and was surgically removed when he was a foal. He said that often
>the tumors / growths when opened contained hair and teeth. He said that
>cases like this he usually sent to Davis because it is hard to remove all
>the tissue. My questions: Has anyone heard of something like this?  Also Is
>the fact that there is still fluid ( granted a very small amount and not
>alll the time) seeping a problem for this horse? And what is this fluid?
>The vet didn't seem very concerned but thought it was intresting.
>If this is something others would like to hear about please post openly or
>other wise email me privately.
>Thank you
>Mary Anne Maynard