And my curse continues, new mare issues

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poiuytrewq

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I’m so p’d at myself for not checking her teeth. I just didn’t.
A dental was of course on my list of to do’s for her. The guy I use always has a long wait time but I managed to snag a cancellation this week.
She has serious problems.
Absolutely gutted. Her back teeth were bad, but normal can be fixed bad. So he sorted all that.
Her fronts, no idea what’s happened there. Lower incisors are really short, looks like a cribber but she isn’t.
Tops are over grown, looks normal but long.
I swore blind I’d never seen her crib and I’ve had her 7/8 weeks now.
On closer inspection the pulp and is exposed and he said she must be in pain. He thinks they may have snapped rather than worn. Her top incisors are also chipped on the inside so it looks like something has happened at some point rather than disease.

Dentist obviously can’t fix this, he’s just a regular horse dentist (qualified and registered)
He said she needs a referral to a specialist, took photos to send. Gave me the name of the dental vet he recommends

I spoke to my own vet, she agreed this guy recommended is good so I actually just contacted him straight away.
He charges £350 for initial consult and X-rays which I don’t have but thought was pretty good, better than expected. My vet agreed that I should get that done and make decisions from there once we know more.

I honestly cannot believe it. For the first time in years I had a horse that I really liked and was actually going ok with no issues at all.
Life is a bitch and it’s a good job I have a complete idiot dog and silly kittens to laugh at…..

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poiuytrewq said:
I’m so p’d at myself for not checking her teeth. I just didn’t.
A dental was of course on my list of to do’s for her. The guy I use always has a long wait time but I managed to snag a cancellation this week.
She has serious problems.
Absolutely gutted. Her back teeth were bad, but normal can be fixed bad. So he sorted all that.
Her fronts, no idea what’s happened there. Lower incisors are really short, looks like a cribber but she isn’t.
Tops are over grown, looks normal but long.
I swore blind I’d never seen her crib and I’ve had her 7/8 weeks now.
On closer inspection the pulp and is exposed and he said she must be in pain. He thinks they may have snapped rather than worn. Her top incisors are also chipped on the inside so it looks like something has happened at some point rather than disease.

Dentist obviously can’t fix this, he’s just a regular horse dentist (qualified and registered)
He said she needs a referral to a specialist, took photos to send. Gave me the name of the dental vet he recommends

I spoke to my own vet, she agreed this guy recommended is good so I actually just contacted him straight away.
He charges £350 for initial consult and X-rays which I don’t have but thought was pretty good, better than expected. My vet agreed that I should get that done and make decisions from there once we know more.

I honestly cannot believe it. For the first time in years I had a horse that I really liked and was actually going ok with no issues at all.
Life is a bitch and it’s a good job I have a complete idiot dog and silly kittens to laugh at…..

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Oh dear!
Dentist thinks she must be in great pain, or at least discomfort, and yet she shows no signs of this at all?
She must be some stoic.
But if you can possibly get to it with the treatment bills, sounds 100% worth keeping as a riding horse, not many would quietly persist with all that going on.
And can’t blame this one on her hormones, bless her! Really hope you get a better prognosis from the specialist, altho some of those EORTH(?) sufferers keep fat and well with almost no teeth in their heads - one lives near here, ‘Gummy’.
Cecil looks happy, at least!
 
Fingers crossed that the initial consult and x rays show up something that can readily be dealt with.

You might recall that my wonky mare had major dental issues but after two fillings and two extractions of dead and infected incisors she is grand. It wasn’t silly money, either.

Horses can be very stoic about dental pain, my mare must have been in agony 😬.

Since her teeth were sorted out her back and TMJ, which had needed regular treatments, have been super.
 
No, nothing that I’d noticed. Dentist said she wouldn’t be able to graze but I said her heads always down. Then that night went out and actually sat in the floor watching and she is definitely grazing, we have little grass but she doesn’t go straight to the easy hay piles.
She wolfs her feed down. I had a horse with EORTH though and he didn’t really show any obvious signs either. I think they are good at hiding dental pain.
 
Tiddlypom said:
Fingers crossed that the initial consult and x rays show up something that can readily be dealt with.

You might recall that my wonky mare had major dental issues but after two fillings and two extractions of dead and infected incisors she is grand. It wasn’t silly money, either.

Horses can be very stoic about dental pain, my mare must have been in agony 😬.

Since her teeth were sorted out her back and TMJ, which had needed regular treatments, have been super.
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I really appreciate this reply. Thank you TP 💕
 
Many years ago I was given a horse, didn’t look in his mouth (there’s a saying there).

When I had the dentist out weeks later, we couldn’t believe what we found. Half his bottom jaw at the front was missing. He had one bottom tooth, his top teeth were there but sooo long, and like I say his jaw just wasn’t there. We think he maybe caught it on something as a youngster and pulled it off? Or was born without it.

It was BIZARRE. But despite the dentist saying they couldn’t see how it was possible, this horse grazed, and grazed efficiently. We think he’d learned to use his tongue somehow.

Anyway the point is don’t give up hope. They can adapt to allsorts of things, and yours has already adapted. Just sounds like it needs a tidy up then carry on.

Really best of luck!
 
Patterdale said:
Many years ago I was given a horse, didn’t look in his mouth (there’s a saying there).

When I had the dentist out weeks later, we couldn’t believe what we found. Half his bottom jaw at the front was missing. He had one bottom tooth, his top teeth were there but sooo long, and like I say his jaw just wasn’t there. We think he maybe caught it on something as a youngster and pulled it off? Or was born without it.

It was BIZARRE. But despite the dentist saying they couldn’t see how it was possible, this horse grazed, and grazed efficiently. We think he’d learned to use his tongue somehow.

Anyway the point is don’t give up hope. They can adapt to allsorts of things, and yours has already adapted. Just sounds like it needs a tidy up then carry on.

Really best of luck!
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Totally agree. Sometimes you have to trust your eyes, not your ears.
 
Patterdale said:
Many years ago I was given a horse, didn’t look in his mouth (there’s a saying there).

When I had the dentist out weeks later, we couldn’t believe what we found. Half his bottom jaw at the front was missing. He had one bottom tooth, his top teeth were there but sooo long, and like I say his jaw just wasn’t there. We think he maybe caught it on something as a youngster and pulled it off? Or was born without it.

It was BIZARRE. But despite the dentist saying they couldn’t see how it was possible, this horse grazed, and grazed efficiently. We think he’d learned to use his tongue somehow.

Anyway the point is don’t give up hope. They can adapt to allsorts of things, and yours has already adapted. Just sounds like it needs a tidy up then carry on.

Really best of luck!
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Again thank you so very much
 
I hope so. It’s true they can do incredible things dentist wise, but having been there before know it’s not cheap.
I’ve calmed down slightly!

Had a look at interest free credit cards, she is insured, not for dental disease but would be for injury but again of course only if it’s happened here, since I’ve had her. I’ll know more once this guy has been and X-rays are taken but I strongly suspect I’m paying this myself. (And that’s scary!!)
 
poiuytrewq said:
I’m so p’d at myself for not checking her teeth. I just didn’t.
A dental was of course on my list of to do’s for her. The guy I use always has a long wait time but I managed to snag a cancellation this week.
She has serious problems.
Absolutely gutted. Her back teeth were bad, but normal can be fixed bad. So he sorted all that.
Her fronts, no idea what’s happened there. Lower incisors are really short, looks like a cribber but she isn’t.
Tops are over grown, looks normal but long.
I swore blind I’d never seen her crib and I’ve had her 7/8 weeks now.
On closer inspection the pulp and is exposed and he said she must be in pain. He thinks they may have snapped rather than worn. Her top incisors are also chipped on the inside so it looks like something has happened at some point rather than disease.

Dentist obviously can’t fix this, he’s just a regular horse dentist (qualified and registered)
He said she needs a referral to a specialist, took photos to send. Gave me the name of the dental vet he recommends

I spoke to my own vet, she agreed this guy recommended is good so I actually just contacted him straight away.
He charges £350 for initial consult and X-rays which I don’t have but thought was pretty good, better than expected. My vet agreed that I should get that done and make decisions from there once we know more.

I honestly cannot believe it. For the first time in years I had a horse that I really liked and was actually going ok with no issues at all.
Life is a bitch and it’s a good job I have a complete idiot dog and silly kittens to laugh at…..

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If hes the localish guy hes brilliant. A fellow livery was his nurse/admin person and had nothing but good things to say. Hopefully he can see her and find a solution. Theres all sorts of clever things they can do with teeth now, so fingers crossed.
 
I'm Dun said:
If hes the localish guy hes brilliant. A fellow livery was his nurse/admin person and had nothing but good things to say. Hopefully he can see her and find a solution. Theres all sorts of clever things they can do with teeth now, so fingers crossed.
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I was surprised to find out he is fairly local yes. I didn’t even check.
If surgery is needed apparently he works out of two very local places that have theatre space.
That was a huge relief as I had visions of having to travel hours to get her fixed up!
 
I had one with a snapped incisor - it eventually fell out on its own. Before it fell out, she preferred haylage over hay, but otherwise given the tooth did not actively do anything (the corresponding tooth in the other jaw did not reach) she wasn’t bothered. All we had to do was six monthly dental visits to keep the matching tooth from becoming too long. After it fell out, she could eat hay too. She lived a good life with no other dental problems.

I’m guessing they could cover the pulp or remove the teeth. I wouldn’t panic yet - see what the specialist says first!
 
The most stressful part of my mare’s dental treatments was that my vet dentist does not bring a vet nurse, so as owner I was entrusted with holding up and not dropping the £££££s digital x Ray plates high up against her jaw while he took the images 😳.

Well worth the x rays though, it showed just what was up. Two decayed molars worth filling and saving and two dead incisors (not EOTRH) that needed to come out.

She had 2 x 2 dental sessions at home under standing sedation and needed more sedation than any other horse he’d treated. She’s generally a saint, so that shows just how sore she had been.
 
Tiddlypom said:
The most stressful part of my mare’s dental treatments was that my vet dentist does not bring a vet nurse, so as owner I was entrusted with holding up and not dropping the £££££s digital x Ray plates high up against her jaw while he took the images 😳.

Well worth the x rays though, it showed just what was up. Two decayed molars worth filling and saving and two dead incisors (not EOTRH) that needed to come out.

She had 2 x 2 dental sessions at home under standing sedation and needed more sedation than any other horse he’d treated. She’s generally a saint, so that shows just how sore she had been.
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Do you know what the cause was? Although I did know you’d had dental something or other I’m not aware of the details but it sounds, on the surface similar. Is there a thread on here about it?

I’m happy and very used to assisting with X-rays and many other weird and wonderful things! When I was in racing I did a lot of helping vets, also grey horse recently had literally his entire body x rayed, I’ve absolutely done my share of holding plates!
 
poiuytrewq said:
Do you know what the cause was? Although I did know you’d had dental something or other I’m not aware of the details but it sounds, on the surface similar. Is there a thread on here about it?

I’m happy and very used to assisting with X-rays and many other weird and wonderful things! When I was in racing I did a lot of helping vets, also grey horse recently had literally his entire body x rayed, I’ve absolutely done my share of holding plates!
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It was April/May 2023.

The non vet EDT, who had been floating her teeth every 6 months for the 7 years I’d owned her, had noticed the decay in 109/110 and referred her on.

Turns out that while he had noticed the decay in 109/110 he had otherwise left an absolute mess behind with a wave and shear mouth, sharp hooks and two very dead and infected incisors.

Vet dentist was expecting to come out just the once to x Ray, do the fillings and also a routine float, but the first visit took so long that just the x rays and the fillings were done. Second time it was the floating and the extractions.

Where it mentions ‘neglected routines’ that wasn’t me as owner not getting the EDT out, I was getting him out every 6 months to her but he wasn’t doing a proper job 😬.

Mild EOTRH was present in the incisors but it wasn’t that which killed the two off, most likely it was a blood bourne infection of some sort which lodged there - apparently quite common..

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He’s worked wonders, the non vet EDT was sacked and the vet dentist now does the routine floating every 6 months. He’s very, very pleased with how she’s doing, she’s a real success story.

Checking the progress of the fillings with the camera probe - it was fascinating!

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Thank you! Isn't it terrifying how as owners we are completely putting our faith into the professionals and it can still go that wrong. Bizarre that he actually got himself called out in the end, He must have thought he was doing a good job, also a real worry.
Was all that done at home?

Thank you for finding that out for me, really interesting. I'm glad she is going well now.
 
I’m always amazed by how stoic horses can be. I hope your mare is sorted quickly and doesn’t cost too much. She sounds lovely, and I can only imagine how disappointing it must have been to discover this.

To add some more reassurance, at some point before I got it my chap sustained an injury to his jaw (my vet, who is a dental specialist, thinks he probably broke it). He’s missing one front tooth, and two of those that remain are very squint. It gives him a very unique look, but doesn’t stop him from grazing very effectively. He also needed a tooth out earlier this year, and recovered very well.

I hope it all goes well!
 
Tiddlypom said:
Yes, all done at home under standing sedation.

I am beyond disappointed with the original EDT. He was a long time member of the BAEDT so had all the qualifications and insurances etc, but has allowed his membership to lapse, so there is no professional body to report him to.
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It is very much the individual as in all professions. In our case two separate vets here and one in the previous home failed to notice that the cause of the extra large fluid filled pockets on pony’s face were caps that were stuck on. My EDT whipped them off and her comfort improved immediately, her face shape following in the weeks after as the adult teeth were finally able to drop down.
 
I didn’t make it clear that my vet dentist is an equine vet who, after a period of general practice (is that a thing with vets?), now only does dentistry. Mostly horses, but the occasional zoo animal too 😳.

He’s got the Certificate in Advanced Veterinary Practice (Equine Dentistry).

He is amazing, we are so lucky that he is local.
 
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