Horse mouth cleaning.... struggling!

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poiuytrewq

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As some may know, horse had a tooth out and gum damage repaired a few weeks ago (accident will be two weeks tomorrow, surgery Monday)
He's such a lovely well behaved, tolerates most things horse but this is becoming a daily nightmare and any suggestions will be gratefully tried out!
I have to basically blast the area out with a hose to remove grass and food. I can wash his head with the hose so he's not scared. It hurts. (Well it did)
I had to resort early on to a twitch, me and a helper can get it really clean like this fairly quickly.
However getting a twitch on is becoming very difficult, getting him near the hose is a challenge and today getting him out of the field was the latest fun. Once out I started the rigmarole of getting the twitch on (kindly helped by o/h friend who suggested I just hold his head down 🤣😫. )
He's 16.3 and quite an upright chap with it. I'm 5'3 and he is able to lift me off the ground easily!
I'm getting a bit worried I may ruin his easiness at this rate. I don't want to make him head shy, difficult to worm/bridle etc or scared of me which seems to be the way it's going.
Any easy way?
 
I found an old washing up bottle very useful when I had to wash my youngster's mouth out after an injury. Fill it was tepid salted water, put it in the corner of his mouth and squirt.
 
eggs said:
I found an old washing up bottle very useful when I had to wash my youngster's mouth out after an injury. Fill it was tepid salted water, put it in the corner of his mouth and squirt.
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A much more sensible and effective approach than blasting with a hose, if only done once a day it will be filled up again in no time so using salt water and possibly doing it quietly a few times a day to my mind makes far more sense, sometimes I wonder whether vets actually think these things through.
 
We were doing it at first with a large syringe but they said it needs more pressure and to do it with a hose. I may just ignore that bit and go back to trying something gentler
 
If you can get him to accept it you should be able to get a fair bit of pressure with a syringe or bottle because you will be able to put it right where you need it rather than taking aim from a distance with the hose, little and often should get it cleaner and allow you to keep a close eye on it.
 
Maybe ring up the vet and check? As horses can get dry socket just like humans so I was always told no pressure just gentle rinsing when Atty had teeth out. His were front incisors though. We did the syringe with an iodine solution option.
 
The couple of horses I have known that have needed cavities flushed post dental work have always had big specialised syringes left by the vets and it has been done using salt water and with the horse cross tied.
I'm failing to see what a hosepipe brings to that party and am not surprised the horse isn't humouring it either!
 
They did give me a syringe which I used at first then they came to do a check up and advised a hose was better.
How do/would you know if a horse had dry socket? I think that only occurs in the first few days? (In humans)
 
poiuytrewq said:
They did give me a syringe which I used at first then they came to do a check up and advised a hose was better.
How do/would you know if a horse had dry socket? I think that only occurs in the first few days? (In humans)
Click to expand...
For a different injury I was advised to use a hose. It was winter and 2 days later it was sub zero and the end of hosing. I had no choice but to use a big syringe and all was fine. It was also more pleasant for the horse because I warmed the syringe water.
 
poiuytrewq said:
They did give me a syringe which I used at first then they came to do a check up and advised a hose was better.
How do/would you know if a horse had dry socket? I think that only occurs in the first few days? (In humans)
Click to expand...

I really don't know how you'd tell? One very angry in pain horse and perhaps a raised temperature? Sounds like you're OK though, we just used a big gauge syringe that the vets gave us, but the drench things others have posted look good too.
 
Goldenstar said:
I got something very similar .
The knack with mine was to use diluted mint listerine he loved it then .
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We used Listerine in an irrigation syringe. Our mare liked the taste. You can get quite a lot of power behind the liquid and it worked well for us. I'm not surprised that your horse objects to the hose - whatever is the vet thinking of?
 
A dry socket is where the 'insulating' blood clot is lost (at least in humans anyway!) so leaves the socket exposed to infection etc. I guess if the socket looks empty, and horse v unhappy, it's likely to be a dry socket.
 
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