Anyone know what this is - gum?

[hopscotch bandit]

This is a cut on the lower gum on my horses mouth. The dentist I had out yesterday isnt sure but thinks it's going to cause issues with that tooth and the horse may lose the tooth. Horse is 23, eating wet hay, mashed feed (due to previous colic issues not teeth) and grass without issues.

Horse had abscess on gum (last photo) in May 2019 and this was cleared up with antibiotics and syringing Chlorhexadine - here is link :
https://forums.horseandhound.co.uk/threads/abscess-on-gum.775715/

Have consulted another more experienced dentist who is seeing my horse later this month. Sent photos and he's not happy and thinks the tooth needs extracting. The 'cut' if that's what it is is pink, doesn't smell and has suddenly come back (it appeared when the ulcer was present) and has been back approx 3 weeks although it may be longer as i only look in the mouth every now and then.

Anyone come across this before?? Getting very worried.

 

[ycbm]

I've not seen that before HB, but I have watched a dentist take an hour to extract a 'dead' tooth which looked to me as if it had a live root with a nerve and blood supply. The horse was eating fine. The tooth was in so solid that the hole spat out bits of bone that had been chipped off in the extraction for a couple of weeks.

The point of telling you that is that it has made me feel extremely uneasy about agreeing to the extraction of a tooth where the horse is having no problems eating.

And I would be doubly unsure doing it to a horse the age of yours, who doesn't have a whole lot of time left anyway.

Is yours eating OK with it? If she's OK, i would be asking what the risks are of not extracting.

.

 

[hopscotch bandit]

I've not seen that before HB, but I have watched a dentist take an hour to extract a 'dead' tooth which looked to me as if it had a live root with a nerve and blood supply. The horse was eating fine. The tooth was in so solid that the hole spat out bits of bone that had been chipped off in the extraction for a couple of weeks.

The point of telling you that is that it has made me feel extremely uneasy about agreeing to the extraction of a tooth where the horse is having no problems eating.

And I would be doubly unsure doing it to a horse the age of yours, who doesn't have a whole lot of time left anyway.

Is yours eating OK with it? If she's OK, i would be asking what the risks are of not extracting.

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Oh I totally agree with you YCBM. She had to have a slab fracture on an upper tooth removed in 2018 I think it was and that was a nightmare. I was quoted as between £600 -£1600 i think it was for removal of it in its entirety but then it was xrayed - the root was fine andtooth healthy so a slab was removed where it had split. In any case I had already 90% decided I wasn't going ahead with that due to the cost/her age/host of other issues which will eventually catch up with her. Sounds awful to say but you have to draw the line eventually. And it wasnt causing issues.

Trouble is with teeth horses can be incredibly stoic although I've been told by both vet and EDT that they don't suffer the dental pain that we do if we had the same issues.

Was also told that a front tooth is easier and cheaper to extract, wheras upper back ones have long roots, need long and complicated extraction and packing every day which is why its so expensive.

Just want to do right by her. Typically I have just paid off my vets bill, one of a long sucession of them over the past four years with only a few weeks space before another issue and raft of bills again. Been paying £20, £30, £40 every week for what seems like forever. Joked to friends that now it was paid off there would be something else bound to happen. Think I've managed to go about 11 days and now this problem!! Old horses - who'd have 'em! Lol

 

[ycbm]

The one i saw was the same tooth as yours, but in the upper jaw in a 5-6 year old horse. I'm shocked to realise, now I've read your response, that it was removed without an x ray. I was pretty concerned when I saw a bloody, white, complete and healthy, looking bottom half of a tooth come out. The dentist went to a lot of effort to convince me (and himself? ) that it really was dead and needed removing. I was thankful it wasn't my horse, and worried what I would do if it ever happened to one of mine. The answer is obvious, of course, x ray, so I'm really grateful you started this thread.

Good luck with yours, let us know what the decision is?
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[ycbm]

Total cost of that front tooth extraction, FYI, was about£1500 by the time all the follow up flushing had been done.

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[hopscotch bandit]

Total cost of that front tooth extraction, FYI, was about£1500 by the time all the follow up flushing had been done.

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Yes I think that's going to be out the question. Yes I think most vets would xray first to determineif the tooth has a good root /blood supply to it and also to determine how far down into the jawline a fracture goes and whether the tooth appears healthy.

Tbh teeth are my worst nightmare, I'm am terribly anxious with my own teeth and visiting the dentist and have always said I'd need to be hit over the head and K.O'd with a book before a dentist came anywhere near my mouth with pliers.

I had an horrendous experience when i was around 12 with a four tooth extraction (to make room for teeth and have brace fitted, not because they were bad) and I became extremely distressed with the assistant holding my legs down whilst the teeth crunched and creaked whilst being pulled. I was that traumatised I was speechless for the rest of the day and extremely quiet for the rest of the week, Mum was quite concerned about me at the time. So the fear is still with me.

Fortunately apart from a couple of fillings my teeth are good, but each check up fills me with dread. There is no way i want to be around my horse if she's got to have an extraction ??

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

Not quite the same but we had one with a longtitudinally cracked tooth, which our vet brought a human dentist to look at. We flushed it out daily with mouthwash and eventually the crack grew out. I would be very wary of a GA.

 

[hopscotch bandit]

Not quite the same but we had one with a longtitudinally cracked tooth, which our vet brought a human dentist to look at. We flushed it out daily with mouthwash and eventually the crack grew out. I would be very wary of a GA.

Oh I wouldn't put her through a GA and she wouldn't need that anyway. Besides the fact she's no longer insured (six exclusions made me not renew 3 years ago) I'd not be able to afford it. I've sadly lost my job after being furloughed since April as the client are making redundancies and I'm an agency contractor so first to go. Money is incredibly tight now - my furlough pay is one weeks pay per month. So I'm living off my savings. There's no way I can afford hundreds of pounds.

Glad you got your horse sorted in the end.

 

[Gloi]

I would leave well alone too if it isn't affecting her eating.

 

[Fransurrey]

Be very wary of tooth extraction if the tooth is ok. In humans it can destabilise the neighbouring teeth, so I imagine it's the same for horses.