Posted by Geoff Tucker on Fri, Jul 31, 2009
The opinions and views of this blog is for information and entertainment only and should not be used as a substitute for seeking advice from your veterinarian about your horse and your situation. Specific advice may only be given after a valid veterinary - client - patient relationship is made.
Teeth in horses younger than 5 years old go through very dynamic changes. When you start to float a young horse, it becomes a commitment to continue floating that horse every 3 to 4 months because in that short period of time, new teeth erupt, floated caps are ejected, and soft teeth become sharp again.
This video explains this paradigm and replaces the old saying that only older horses need to be floated. In addition, I add a description of caps, cap remnants, wolf teeth, and jaw lumps. More detailed descriptions of these can be found in individual videos on the subjects.
FAQ by Geoff Tucker, DVM is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.theequinepractice.com.
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Geoff Tucker, DVM is licensed under a
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Posted by Geoff Tucker on Fri, Jul 31, 2009
The opinions and views of this blog is for information and entertainment only and should not be used as a substitute for seeking advice from your veterinarian about your horse and your situation. Specific advice may only be given after a valid veterinary - client - patient relationship is made.
Teeth in horses younger than 5 years old go through very dynamic changes. When you start to float a young horse, it becomes a commitment to continue floating that horse every 3 to 4 months because in that short period of time, new teeth erupt, floated caps are ejected, and soft teeth become sharp again.
This video explains this paradigm and replaces the old saying that only older horses need to be floated.
FAQ by
Geoff Tucker, DVM is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at
www.theequinepractice.com.
Blog by
Geoff Tucker, DVM is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Posted by Geoff Tucker on Mon, Jul 06, 2009
The opinions and views of this blog is for information and entertainment only and should not be used as a substitute for seeking advice from your veterinarian about your horse and your situation. Specific advice may only be given after a valid veterinary - client - patient relationship is made.
An abscess in a horse tooth is very rare. Long term antibiotics and diligent floating resolve most cases with surgery as a last resort.
Abscesses can occur within the tooth or along the side penetrating down to the tip of the root. While removal of the tooth has been the traditional and effective treatment, I have found a less dramatic solution.
The question is, what caused the abscess in the first place? Often, it is a genetic defect in the tooth so removal is usually the end result. However, in most cases, I find that the tooth has become unhealthy and this has allowed a disease process to occur. How does it become unhealthy? If every tooth needs stimulation to remain solid in the jaw, it is the lack of stimulation that allows ever present bacteria to infiltrate the opportunity area.
To stimulate the tooth, two things are necessary. First, the tooth needs to have pressure applied to it. Second, the tongue needs to push it around and clean up the attachment area. If pain is present, the horse will avoid chewing in that area. He will even pack food there to prevent the sore cheek from touching the sharp tooth. In addition, the tongue will avoid these sharp areas. The result is lack of stimulation with subsequent disease formation.
FAQ by
Geoff Tucker, DVM is licensed under a
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Based on a work at
www.theequinepractice.com.
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Posted by Geoff Tucker on Mon, Jul 06, 2009
The opinions and views of this blog is for information and entertainment only and should not be used as a substitute for seeking advice from your veterinarian about your horse and your situation. Specific advice may only be given after a valid veterinary - client - patient relationship is made.
As a horse dentist, I commonly find broken teeth while doing an equine dental exam. They are usually incidental findings. On occasion though, a small chip hangs at the gum attachment and irritates the opposing cheek creating pain and a training issue. On the other hand, I have found horses with the tooth split down the middle like you would split a log for the fire place. And these horses display no indication that there is something wrong. Either way, the fracture site is a source of impacted feed and local infection as well as an area with razor sharp edges. Removing the piece often requires pain medication by a veterinarian.
FAQ by
Geoff Tucker, DVM is licensed under a
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Posted by Geoff Tucker on Mon, Jul 06, 2009
The opinions and views of this blog is for information and entertainment only and should not be used as a substitute for seeking advice from your veterinarian about your horse and your situation. Specific advice may only be given after a valid veterinary - client - patient relationship is made.
In terms of horse teeth, caps are what we humans call our baby teeth. Technically, they are called deciduous teeth because they fall of like leaves of a deciduous tree. They sit like a cap on your head over the permanent tooth erupting below it. They are located over the incisor teeth (also known as the nippers directly behind the lips - 6 on top and 6 on the bottom) and the premolars (the first 3 cheek teeth counting from the front to the back - top and bottom, both sides = 12 teeth). Between the age of 2 and 1/2 until almost 5 years of age, these caps are jettisoned from the mouth.
Often, the break away from the mouth is uneventful. However, on occasion, two problems can occur. First is during the maturation, the tooth loosens but does not come off. The tell tale sign is a foul odor coming from the young horse's mouth. Second is an attachment of the cap breaks off leaving a hard piece located between the permanent tooth and the gum (like a kernel of pop corn stuck between your tooth and gum). This can become a source of localized infection and pain and must be removed. They are more easily discovered with fingers than with eyes.
FAQ by
Geoff Tucker, DVM is licensed under a
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Posted by Geoff Tucker on Mon, Jul 06, 2009
The opinions and views of this blog is for information and entertainment only and should not be used as a substitute for seeking advice from your veterinarian about your horse and your situation. Specific advice may only be given after a valid veterinary - client - patient relationship is made.
Cavities do occur in horses, but they usually resolve by themselves either by self repair or a piece of tooth breaks off with no harm to the horse. There are some equine dentists "filling" horse cavities saying that the horse will live on average 5 additional years because of the treatment. This is just a play on your emotions based on your fear of cavities in your own mouth. Just as a reminder, these are HORSE teeth and not HUMAN teeth. They are completely different. Since 1983 I have not had 1 horse come to me with a complaint of a cavity causing him not to eat or causing any other issue. Filling cavities is Drama. Won't happen here in my practice.
FAQ by
Geoff Tucker, DVM is licensed under a
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Posted by Geoff Tucker on Mon, Jul 06, 2009
The opinions and views of this blog is for information and entertainment only and should not be used as a substitute for seeking advice from your veterinarian about your horse and your situation. Specific advice may only be given after a valid veterinary - client - patient relationship is made.
There is no effective way to determine that your horse has beenfloated well. This is why so many bad equine dentists exist. Modernequine dentists use a light and a jacked open mouth to show you an issue, but using sight is not a complete way to evaluate the mouth.
The best way to determine if a job is well done is to listen to your horse. How does he respond to the floating process? Without pain medication, the horse will often demonstrate relief right there. Does the horse carry the head and neck with symmetry when ridden and does he accept contact from the bit without resistance?
In this video I suggest other problems outside the mouth that may cause what looks like teeth issues on the bit. Another video will discuss this in depth.
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Geoff Tucker, DVM is licensed under a
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Posted by Geoff Tucker on Mon, Jul 06, 2009
The opinions and views of this blog is for information and entertainment only and should not be used as a substitute for seeking advice from your veterinarian about your horse and your situation. Specific advice may only be given after a valid veterinary - client - patient relationship is made.
Excessive tissue laying in front of the bottom first cheek teeth can become extremely irritating to some horses. Here is where a picture is better than words. I have one on my web site in the article called "Flabby Cheeks". Rounding the first cheek teeth is commonly called the bit seat. The purpose is to smooth out the edges to prevent the trapping of this excessive tissue. Flabby cheeks is actually in some horses the primary cause of bit pain.
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Geoff Tucker, DVM is licensed under a
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Posted by Geoff Tucker on Mon, Jul 06, 2009
The opinions and views of this blog is for information and entertainment only and should not be used as a substitute for seeking advice from your veterinarian about your horse and your situation. Specific advice may only be given after a valid veterinary - client - patient relationship is made.
These are definitions used in modern equine dentistry to describe issues seen inside the horse's mouth. These dentists evaluate the movement of the jaw and adjust this movement through filing off edges in a manner that aligns the jaw. I feel that there are three issues that invalidate these procedures. First is that the primary cause is not directly addressed (the removal of pain); however, the sharp points are removed so it is addressed secondarily. In other words, it is the removal of pain that the horse is responding to, not the equilibration procedure. The second issue is that a horse chews 10,000 to 40,000 times in a day so all the work done by the equilibration process may be gone in a week or two as the horse equilibrates by himself. And third, if the jaw has been out of equilibration for a while, is it possible that correcting it in one procedure may injure the horse? We certainly would not abruptly change hoof angles without worrying about creating lameness. So why do so many horses after being floated using these modern techniques stop eating for days or weeks?
FAQ by
Geoff Tucker, DVM is licensed under a
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www.theequinepractice.com.
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Posted by Geoff Tucker on Mon, Jul 06, 2009
The opinions and views of this blog is for information and entertainment only and should not be used as a substitute for seeking advice from your veterinarian about your horse and your situation. Specific advice may only be given after a valid veterinary - client - patient relationship is made.
Horse teeth erupt throughout their life and it is worn down by the opposing tooth. If nothing is there to wear down this growth, it becomes excessive and that is what we call a hook. This video describes various types of hooks and what problems they cause in your horse. Removing these hooks is the most aggressive procedure I perform but the results are worth it.
FAQ by
Geoff Tucker, DVM is licensed under a
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Based on a work at
www.theequinepractice.com.
Blog by
Geoff Tucker, DVM is licensed under a
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