Healthy As a Horse
For help understanding some of the more technical terms go to the dental dictionary.
Often times the stories I tell you will be about neglected animals. But this story is about a mare who was anything but neglected. The man had purchased her as a 3 year old. Trained her, loved her, and cared for her, she was his pet. She had her teeth floated regularly, and received regular veterinary care, as well as a proper diet and clean fresh water. She came to me at age 6 to receive her annual floating. As always I evaluate the animal from the outside first. She appeared to be approximately a condition 6 on the Henekee Body Condition Scale, 1 being emaciated and 9 being obese. She seemed to be in overall good health. I examined her incisors and determined that they were wearing nicely. Then I put on the speculum to exam her mouth. She was head shy, so she was lightly sedated.
I flushed her mouth and noticed a lot of excess food coming out of her mouth. I began my exam by feeling for any abnormalities, and sharp points. I first noticed laceration to both sides of her cheeks, caused by extremely sharp buccal points. Then I realized something wasn't right with her entire upper left arcade. I found a large perio-pocket in her palate packed with decaying food. It reeked of infection. I also observed a large diastema between the 208 and 209. The 209, 210, and 211 we all buccally displaced, and it was also apparent that the 209 was fractured. The veterinarian was called in at this point to take radiographs (x-rays).This brings up a very important point, the equine dental technician can only do so much with out veterinary assistance. It is very important that veterinarians and technicians work together as a team!
The radiographs revealed extensive damage to the 209's root and reserved crown. Dr. Ray Hyde and Hanina Van Wyk, EqDT/C came to do the extraction. Dr. Hyde is the head of the American School of Equine Dentistry and Hanina teaches there.
After Dr. Hyde sedated her, the group effort to extract this tooth began. From start to finish it took less than 40 minutes to extract the problematic tooth, and Blacky is doing well. She ate breakfast the next morning and happily eats her hay. With proper after care and frequent floatings to account for the missing tooth she will make a full recovery. Check out the photos below to see Blacky's mouth before the extraction. And at the bottom of the page there is a link to view video footage of the actual extraction!
Click here to view the extraction!
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