Advice regarding a kick to the teeth. Calling all EDT's, vet's and know it alls ;)

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amycov

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Right. Today when Kao was brought it she was acting funny with her mouth. Waving her tongue around and opening and closing her mouth. We thought she had something stuck, so I had a look. Then I noticed that she's taken half a front tooth off and cracked/snapped the other leaving the top half of it wobbling and the bottom still in the gum. She was unfomtortable with me touching it. I rang the emergency vet number to see what they said. The advice was to giver her 2 bute and see how she is in the morning as the bottom of the tooth is still staying put. She's managed to eat her dinner and I've left her hay on the floor rather than in a net. I'm just worried now where I'll go from here. Surely I can't leave the tooth just broken? But who should I call. The vet or the dentist. Obviously the vet can provide pain relief and dental care but the dentist should be much more familiar with this and much more thorough. Advice please?
 
I would say vet or have a vet working in conjunction with equine dentist as this sounds like it will require sedation and follow up as the important thing will be to manage how the teeth develop after loosing a bit. (if that makes sense?!).

If it is sore for her then just getting a dentist will limit the work that can be done.
 
Scary thing to find I know. My pony with no obvious swelling or cut to his mouth about 4 years ago came in from field with one of his top front teeth broken in half horizontally and the corresponding tooth below on the bottom jaw was split vertically in half with a loose bit of tooth (about a third of it) wobbling. I got vet and she sedated him to remove loose bit as she thought the crack to that tooth might go below the gum line and wanted a clean look at it in case it would get infected. He was put on a course of antibiotics. I was told to keep smelling his mouth as would be able to tell immediately if any infection set in either top or bottom but all was OK. He had no problem eating though preferred to pull hay out from one side of his haynet rather than the other for a while. She said they prefer not to take whole teeth out in such cases as some healthy tooth is better than none. She did say the teeth would grow but obviously would take years to grow back as they were.

About a year and a half later he lost a side bit of the top one that had been damaged and vet came again to check and said that was because as it grew down there had been a crack upwards in the tooth which we couldn't see originally and it had just weakened the tooth. So now Gappy has his top tooth with a chunk out the side but length OK and bottom tooth is getting there to replace the bit that had to come out but is still missing about a third of it. all it's done is ruin his cheesy grin! And to this day both vet and I perplexed as to how he did it unless he bit down on a stone or made contact with fencing with his mouth open or something but as I said his lips, chin, etc all fine and no injury. When he has his teeth rasped every 9 months she just has to even things up a bit at the front as obviously he has a bit of uneven wear. Hope your mare is OK.
 
MochaDun said:
Scary thing to find I know. My pony with no obvious swelling or cut to his mouth about 4 years ago came in from field with one of his top front teeth broken in half horizontally and the corresponding tooth below on the bottom jaw was split vertically in half with a loose bit of tooth (about a third of it) wobbling. I got vet and she sedated him to remove loose bit as she thought the crack to that tooth might go below the gum line and wanted a clean look at it in case it would get infected. He was put on a course of antibiotics. I was told to keep smelling his mouth as would be able to tell immediately if any infection set in either top or bottom but all was OK. He had no problem eating though preferred to pull hay out from one side of his haynet rather than the other for a while. She said they prefer not to take whole teeth out in such cases as some healthy tooth is better than none. She did say the teeth would grow but obviously would take years to grow back as they were.

About a year and a half later he lost a side bit of the top one that had been damaged and vet came again to check and said that was because as it grew down there had been a crack upwards in the tooth which we couldn't see originally and it had just weakened the tooth. So now Gappy has his top tooth with a chunk out the side but length OK and bottom tooth is getting there to replace the bit that had to come out but is still missing about a third of it. all it's done is ruin his cheesy grin! And to this day both vet and I perplexed as to how he did it unless he bit down on a stone or made contact with fencing with his mouth open or something but as I said his lips, chin, etc all fine and no injury. When he has his teeth rasped every 9 months she just has to even things up a bit at the front as obviously he has a bit of uneven wear. Hope your mare is OK.
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you need to find out if the break is into the pulp chamber as if it is can quite easily cause an infection that could travel to the root and cause a big infection and swelling ect,,,plus it will not erupt at all and will die(teeth dont grow) if it hasnt then the loose part may need removing and leaving for it to erupt back to normal rather like a black finger nail ect.... its opposing tooth would need reducing too so as not to cause problems as it will have no oposition...... a decent dentist should be able to answer most questions but the pulp chamber one either need a xray or time as then you will soon see what is what.....
 
How old is ur horse? If it's young then it may be a baby tooth which has been damaged in which case the adult teeth will hopefully grow through ok. If it's an adult tooth then as Chris says it's a bit more worrying. Best to get the vet to have a look as it may need xraying to see how much damage has been done.
 
amycov said:
She'll be 3 next month so could well be a baby tooth.
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she should of shed her 4 central incisors at 2 and a 1/2,,,,,but they dont have a wobly bit and a firm bit ect as its a THIN CAP THAT COVERS THE TOOTH AND IS PUSHED OFF AS ADULT ERRUPTS,,,,FIRST JOB RING A DECENT DENTIST THEN GO FROM THERE oops sorry bout caps lol
 
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