The vet came out to do a teeth floating on an underweight horse yesterday. This is a new vet for the practice group that we use, and it was my first time meeting him. Anyway he sedates the horse and has me come over once the speculum is in and feel all around. (i am like that annoying kid at the barn that wants to brush your horses tail... some vets like me and others i drive to drink!) Anyway we discussed WHY he was using a power float (sorry not very trusting of anyone new with that power tool in their hand) and then he went to work. MP was standing by the drugged horse and I was the dork with my face over the vets shoulder watching everything. He did a really nice job thus far.
So once the new vet was done (and we had "made friends") i asked him if he'd peek in Hondo's mouth for me. Hondo hasnt been done in a year, so i figured why not... especially with his acceptance of contact issues. Hondo is having an appointment set, poor dude. He's got a hook on his top left premolar about a centimeter long! I am waiting to see how this underweight horse does with his recovery before I make the appointment with the new vet. Of course I am out of town for the next 3 days, so i'll be a pest to MP about how the horse is doing...
Hondo is still lame (from being chased about a week ago) so now is probably a good time to have his teeth done since I cannot ride anyway til he's all better.
Full Version: Hondo Saw The Dentist
Poor Hondo - I'm surprised he hadn't told you about it, horses can be pretty vocal about mouth ouchies. I've never seen a power float before - (I'm envisioning an electric toothbrush w/ a rasp on the end 
) that would make me nervous - seems like it would be so easy to nick a horse's mouth....but then again if the vet isn't exerting himself trying to file w/ a hand tool then maybe they'd be paying more attention to where the tool was hitting...? I dunno - but Good Luck Hondo 
) that would make me nervous - seems like it would be so easy to nick a horse's mouth....but then again if the vet isn't exerting himself trying to file w/ a hand tool then maybe they'd be paying more attention to where the tool was hitting...? I dunno - but Good Luck Hondo
Power floats are the best,IF your vet dentist knows how to use them.
I have had quite an education in horse dentists as of late. To my ponies detriment
While most of the ponies have not been to bad, have had sharp teeth, ramps and some hooks, ulcerated cheecks and such like (I was getting people into do them over this time
)
Poor Ben had the worse suffering. He was always a weedy donkey, skinny over his bum and back legs, fat tummy type thing. Untill I got Kate to do him. Kate is a Aussie trained dentist and she was horrified with his teeth. He was missing a few and the tooth opsite had hyper urupted into the space. So other than the fact his teeth were sharp, hooked and pretty much everything else under the sun, he also could not move his jaw cause these hyper urutped teeth got in the way. Kate made a huge difference but she is not a vet so there is some things she cannot do.
Any way the local vet ran a seminar about dentrisry, I had used them before and they were not so good with teeth, but Dave has gone and got trained properly and freely admits that before he did this he did a less than satisfactory job. He spent 1.5 hours on Bens teeth, extracted 4 and there is one more that will probley come out next time. Poor Ben needed a top up of sedation, and morphine, BUT the difference now he has a BUM and his thiehgs might meet before summer
Mind you I have changed his diet a bit as well. Instead of using chaff and gum nuts (old horse feed) I am now using ezibeet (soaked low sugar sugar beet pulp) and gum nuts.
Dave is also very good and makes sure you DO get to look in your horses mouth before and after and if he is doing something like takinig teeth out he will show you why and such like.
Power floats are also very good for the older horse with less stable teeth. You can imange the forward and backward pull of the rasp.
And BTW Ben was done nearly once every year up till now. Just the people I found to do him were no good and I did not know enough to check their jobs or to see what they were doing wrong
I have had quite an education in horse dentists as of late. To my ponies detriment
While most of the ponies have not been to bad, have had sharp teeth, ramps and some hooks, ulcerated cheecks and such like (I was getting people into do them over this time
)Poor Ben had the worse suffering. He was always a weedy donkey, skinny over his bum and back legs, fat tummy type thing. Untill I got Kate to do him. Kate is a Aussie trained dentist and she was horrified with his teeth. He was missing a few and the tooth opsite had hyper urupted into the space. So other than the fact his teeth were sharp, hooked and pretty much everything else under the sun, he also could not move his jaw cause these hyper urutped teeth got in the way. Kate made a huge difference but she is not a vet so there is some things she cannot do.
Any way the local vet ran a seminar about dentrisry, I had used them before and they were not so good with teeth, but Dave has gone and got trained properly and freely admits that before he did this he did a less than satisfactory job. He spent 1.5 hours on Bens teeth, extracted 4 and there is one more that will probley come out next time. Poor Ben needed a top up of sedation, and morphine, BUT the difference now he has a BUM and his thiehgs might meet before summer
Mind you I have changed his diet a bit as well. Instead of using chaff and gum nuts (old horse feed) I am now using ezibeet (soaked low sugar sugar beet pulp) and gum nuts. Dave is also very good and makes sure you DO get to look in your horses mouth before and after and if he is doing something like takinig teeth out he will show you why and such like.
Power floats are also very good for the older horse with less stable teeth. You can imange the forward and backward pull of the rasp.
And BTW Ben was done nearly once every year up till now. Just the people I found to do him were no good and I did not know enough to check their jobs or to see what they were doing wrong
This is a great discussion...how often should you have your horses checked? At the moment, Asia is checked twice a year. I'd love to hear your input on power floats.
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