Headshaking/Teeth help please

[Janah]

In January my boy had an ED remove a chip of tooth left behind from an earlier extraction. The chip had caused very bad headshaking. It was discovered that the chip was stopping the teeth on either side of the gap from moving across in a straight line and the teeth were leaning in on one another, the ED did take a little off of both teeth to stop them touching.

Wind forward to today, headshaking back. I have the vet coming out tomorrow.

My query is, has anyone any experience of gaps in teeth becoming impacted with food and causing problems? Or teeth moving together on a slant?

 

[CaptSensible]

My horse (who passed a 5 stage vetting less than 2 weeks ago when I bought him!) is currently undergoing treatment for this. He has several displaced molars which have led to impacted forage becoming lodged between his teeth resulting in a severe gum infection. He doesn’t headshake, but he is unable to eat haylage/hay without quidding very badly.

Treatment so far has consisted of the vet burring the worst tooth and rasping the rest (this took 2 hours and 2 rounds of sedation), and 2 weeks of antibiotics and danilon. He has been checked today and will need another 3 teeth burring as he is still in pain and the gum is still bleeding.

My only advice would to be get this treated sooner rather than later, because the longer it is left the bigger the problem becomes, especially as it can lead to ulceration of the gum and serious infection.
The vet told me if the problem in my horse had been picked up early on it would have been straightforward to treat, but as no one spotted it until I bought him, it has now become a major issue.

 

[Janah]

So sorry to hear of your horse's tooth problem. I thought mine had been sorted in January. The vet is coming out tomorrow and I envisage a flush out and antibiotics. He sees the ED every 6 months.

My boy's problem should have been spotted earlier as the chip was apparent on every ED visit but I was told wouldn't cause a problem!