reluctant to eat after dentist

debsflo

debsflo

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is this normal had equine dentist this pm no major problems but kept horses in and reluctant to eat. trying to eat hay but then spits it out almost as if its tender to chew. should i remove hay or just let her get on with it. tried to get hold of dentist but no answer as yet.
 
Apparently it is fairly common in the more sensitive types? One of mine is usually a bit tender for a day or so after then settles back down to it.
 
Dentists have to rebalance the teeth, which the horse can take some time to get used to, also if the horse has had quite major work or hasn't been done in a while this can be the case.
 
I think it just feels funny for a while- I guess once the teeth have been done, the jaw sits differently and just takes a while for the horse to get used to. When my horse had major work done, he was reluctant to eat for a while, then got back to it when he got used to his "new" mouth.
 
thanks makes sense but im an anxious mother.only9 months since she was done but must feel strange. my horse is the horse equivalent of a labrador so not eating doesnt usually happen
 
My mare was exactly the same - eats for England usually - but after she had her teeth done she spat everything out and just looked really forlorn! She was fine after a few days - felt awful for her though.
 
This happened with my mare about a year ago. Had routine rasp with dentist with sedation as she's naughty. When she came round from the sedation it was clear something wasn't right in her mouth as she couldn't eat at all. Called vet out immediately who had a good look but couldn't find anything. This went on for a few days and as she was getting colicky with it we took her in to the clinic. They did a thorough examination of her mouth and found that the dentist had chipped 4 of her teeth and totally ruined the balance of her whole mouth.

Had to have corrective dentistry to fix the mess and the stress of it all gave her grade 5 ulcers in 3 parts of her stomach.

Sure this wont be the case for your horse, but if you are worried and the not eating continues, might be woth calling your vet to discuss.
 
Feeding sugar beet more or less on its own (with a bit of chaff?) is supposed to be good for horses who have just had dental work so they can eat something, but they don't have much chewing they just need to slurp! Don't worry she will soon be eating normally again, I think it took my mare a week to eat normally, but that was the first time she'd ever had them done.
 
Mine had the dentist last week. He said that with the amount of work he'd done it would be quite normal for him to find eating a bit tricky, but he expected that he'd be OK in a day or two. Horse then set about a full size haynet and feed with gusto - no problems! Hay is soaked and feed is just Hi Fi and Speedibeet so all very soft.
 
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