Dentist Advice

[welshcobmad]

My boy is due his annual check up/float next month, he's just turned 7. He was done properly for the first time last year due to being very badly behaved with strangers - mainly vet & dentist. I have to twitch him for annual jabs just so the vet can get in the stable!

Anyway, last year we tried just to look & he loosened the wall between his stable & the next, he slams himself around & rears quite dangerously. So I had the vet out, I twitched him & he had an IV to knock him out, dentist got teeth done, sorted.

He seems good with the twitch on so was wondering if the dentist could do him whilst twitched & if I gave him sedaline prescribed by the vet before hand.

He's had sedaline before but its not touched him due to already being wound up on adrenaline but wondered if it would have more of an effect if slipped in some feed quietly beforehand?

He's had a nasty incident with a vet as a foal & 2 freak accidents over the years hence the behavior. Nothing will persuade him otherwise he just goes into full on fight mode.

Basically if the dentist could do it with sedaline & I'll twitch then great, otherwise its IV again. I just don't want him being knocked out unecessarily if there's other avenues & of course nobody getting hurt.

 

[Paddy Irish]

I can see your way of thinking but i guess safety first and all that . It costs enough to get teeth done , so i think i would go down the sedation route , just to make sure that the dentist can do his job to the best of his ability , with the minimum stress for the horse.
You wouldn't have anything to lose by trying out the twitch and sedaline combo if you think that your boy will only require a maintenance float and nothing more complicated. good luck

 

[BigRed]

I personally always have the vet sedate my horse and the vet does their teeth. They get done properly and no-one gets hurt. IV sedation, given by a vet does have some risks, but the risk of getting smacked in the face by a horse wearing a dental gag, pales into insignificance in my opinion.

 

[EventingMum]

It may be worth trying domesedan gel which is more effective than sedalin (you put it under the tongue). We've used it with good results on horses that didn't do well with sedalin.

 

[Brandy]

I had a recommended EDT do my horses for years. Then, I moved yards and the vet was coming to give my old horse a check up so I asked them to look at his teeth - he had a massive spike on his back tooth (lower) that was digging into his upper gum. He had been done by the same EDT for many years, every 6 months, and was no problem to do.

Vet had to come back twice more with a power tool to get rid of the spike.

So I would recomment having yor horse sedated, and havig the vet do it. My vets have done more than the usual small amount of training on teeth too so I woudl check yours have too.