fao... victoria Edt

J

janet68

Well-Known Member
Joined
22 July 2009
Messages
389
Visit site
Hi victoria just wondering if you can give some info? story is my horse has gaps on his back teeth that pack up with food and give him toothache this in turn stops him chewing and swollowing haylage and he rapidly drops weight. At moment he is having to have them cleaned and flushed every 3 months @ nearly £100 a go. Is there any permanent procedure that could be done as he is only 5 yrs and i cant afford to keep paying this much on reg basis for rest of his natural?
 
Not victoria, but.....

There is an equine toothbrush, that came into the market last yr. You could use it on a regular basis, to keep the food from clogging up in the gaps. The website even has instructions on how to brush your horses teeth : )
see : www.equidentltd.com

I dont know how much they cost, but its got to be far better / cheaper than £100 every 3 months for a cleaning
 
The gaps are right at the back and my horse bites so this not really option. I was thinking more on extraction or filling gap permanently
 
The toothbrushes dont really work in my opinion as they only allow you to brush the first pre molar (there are 5 more behind that!) and only on one side. They dont allow you to remove impacted feed or treat the tooth on the palatal side - pretty pointles IMO!

However, they would be of use on the incsisors to try to keep gaps clear of feed but you can buy a face brush for them at 50p - much cheaper!

Any OP back to your problem.

Diastemata (gaps) flushing is v v important for a horse that packs feed between his teeth. I have seen some horrific things where feed has rotted and destroyed the gums all the way down to the alveolar socket (tooth socket at the bone). Icredibly painful to the horse.

There is an option of having diastema widening, where the gap is widened to effectively create a channel for the feed to flow through and not get impacted. This is a veterinary procedure only though and would only recommend a real veterinary dental expert do the work (Bristol Langford are great - Henry Tremaine and Mirium Casey also Rob Pascoe at Bell Equine in Kent, Paddy Dixon in Scotland and Chris Pearce in Dorset - Barn Equine)

This is the only form of treatment available but you horse will still need to be seen twice a year for flushings (if necessary) and the widening would have to be repeated approx every 12 months to ensure the gaps stay wide enough as the teeth grow
 
For everyones info though, there is a lot more to it than just washing out the horses mouth. Feed is very very tightly packed and has to be air blasted out from between the teeth. After this has been done, the damaged soft tissue needs to be debrided (with equine periodontal instrumentation) to ensure that the the tissue remain healthy. This is v time consuming but absolutely vital.
 
Cheers this doesnt sound any cheaper of an option. My vet always does the work as he needs to be heavily sedated due to his size and temprement. So would extraction not be an option then? The vet spends about hour and half picking all the packed food out then flushes with high pressure jet thing just thought there would be a more permanent solution. p.s If this was detected earlier in life would it have made a difference?
 
No unfortunately not, due to the shape of some horses jaw, this causes the teeth to errupt at odd angles so there wouldnt be anything you could do about it.

Extraction would do more harm then good as it would interfere with the integrity of the whole archade (row of cheek teeth) and would make the teeth either side of the extracted tooth move towards the gap - v uncomfortable for the horse.

We usually only remove cheek teeth as an absolute last resort!
 
oh no so i am stuck with problem for next 25 yrs then? Even when he has been done he is still quidding as i think he is scared of it hurting, i pick up more chewed up and spat out haylage off stable floor than anything else its a complete pain in arse really as i dont think he getting enough goodness out of what he actually swallows
 
diastima widening is not just performed by vets..there is a few very good dentists out there who specialise in this procedure,basically it makes more of a exit point for the feed so it goes in but also come out.as victoria pointed out tooth extraction will cause more problems and a lot more expense in the long and short term. why not see if your dentist is willing for a minimum charge to call by and clean them out for you say every month or so,,,, he should not quid though,maybe a thought but try getting a second opinion
 
trouble is i would still have to get vet as well for sedation as he is a angry man and fights all the way. Dont have a specific dentist for him as the yard dentist just kept saying he wouldnt even look at him till he was 4 and when he just turned 4 he dropped loads of weight and looked like rspca case over a couple of days so got vet and he said he should have been seen earlier, but tried every year since yearling and he always refused saying there was no need till he was 4
 
Diastema widening is a Catagory 3 procedure and should NOT be performed by an EDT

Vet would not allow an EDT to do the procedure and the horse would have to be sedated to do the widening as you certainly do not want to be weilding a diastema burr in a horses mouth unsedated.
 
There was a horse at my yard who had a similar thing to this. He had all the treatment you described, but eventually the gaps started to close up. He was NEVER fed anything that could get impacted into the gaps, such as hay. He had chopped grass I think - but it's not hopeless yet!
 
since the catagorys have yet to be determined they are a matter of personal interpretation unless you can show me where the law and vet act has been changed victoria.there is plenty of dentists out there doing this. i feel that on this site people are just given onesided views not actual facts
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top