Tooth Extraction Experiences

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DirtyCob

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Hello everyone. .. serial lurker as opposed to poster looking for your experiences of the above.

Had EDT out today and been referred to vets. Mare has buccal slab fracture of 209. He has told me not to let them suggest we "see how it goes" but to get x rays and suspects that extraction will be necessary.

Have Googled and have now got the fear of God in me... costs in the thousands for some!

Vets booked for next week and had quote for x rays, sedation and extraction however no discussion were had on which tooth so I known this is just a bottom line.

So anyone had any experiences..... good and bad?

Nb- we are insured and mare is very well in herself, no sign of discomfort, this was just a routine visit!!

Thank you
 
We had one done a good few years back on a small pony, they had to go through his cheek to remove the tooth. We got a written quote of £900...just as well as took much longer etc than vet first thought and he told us if it wasn't for the quote he'd given it would have been £2000!! Pony was a rescue and not insured. He recovered extremely well! From experience I'd get a quote beforehand! Hope all goes well.
 
My youngster didn't shed some of his deciduous teeth and they were impacting on his emerging adult teeth so he underwent an extraction as the roots were still in the jaw. He sailed through it and it's never been a problem since although they did leave a bit of root that they couldn't extract safely, that has just disappeared over the past few years by itself.
 
Just after buying horse about 7years ago he was found to have a broken tooth during a dental check up. Vet didn't want to go through cheek so did it through the mouth under local at the vets. Poor horse - it took hours. Cost £1500 and the insurance didn't want to pay up as they said he could have had it when I bought him. Vet wrote to them and persuaded them to pay half as it had to be done. I now have to get his teeth done every 6 months as the tooth opposite doesn't wear down due to having nothing to grind against.
 
If a horse has a broken tooth which is not causing it any problems at all, why is it necessary to remove it, can anyone explain? Depending on the age of the horse I think it would take quite a lot to persuade me to put my horse under a risky general anaesthetic.
 
My 17hh horse had an infected tooth which had to be removed because it had caused a sinus infection. It was done with him standing, under local anaesthetic. He stayed at the vet's for a couple of days and then came home with an armful of antibiotics. The procedure itself was simple but hard work because he was such a big guy. He was uninsured - it cost about £1000+ but that was about 7 years ago.
 
Mine has had both the 109 and 209 out with standing sedation. Both initially had a slab fracture but then food started to build up and tooth continued to break down. She was referred to vet hospital and xrays were done. Peculiar things happening in the roots - bizarre that same tooth each side had same thing. Both times she went back in for remaining tooth that could not be extracted to be taken from the outside of the cheek. I was told best case scenario (in my case) - tooth comes out in one sitting with standing sedation. second worse scenario they go back for the shards / fragments to be removed and worse case GA to be able to get it all out.

109 we had a lot of snots afterwards and about 6 weeks of antibiotics, hospital offered her to go back to have sinuses flushed but I didnt think (and my referring vet agreed) that it had got that bad and it suddenly just cleared up. 209 initially seemed fine with only 3 weeks antibiotics and then suddenly at 8 weeks we had snots again. went back for further xrays and sinus endoscopy - all was ok so a further 2 weeks antibiotics and it healed fine.
 
ycbm said:
If a horse has a broken tooth which is not causing it any problems at all, why is it necessary to remove it, can anyone explain? Depending on the age of the horse I think it would take quite a lot to persuade me to put my horse under a risky general anaesthetic.
Click to expand...

The way I understood it was that it was best to take it now in the hope it would be cleaner and easier to remove. It will break down more over time and end up being a very difficult procedure the more the tooth deteriorates. Hopefully too it will be done by sedation. Obviously won't know until the x rays but hoping for best case scenarios.
... really hoping
 
Thank you for sharing your experiences. Been taken by surprise as she really has been going so well and we've had a great summer. Was jusr expecting a routine dentist visit as normal.

Hey ho. That's horses for you .... Hopefully all will go smoothly
 
ycbm said:
If a horse has a broken tooth which is not causing it any problems at all, why is it necessary to remove it, can anyone explain?
Click to expand...

Remove tooth because of pain. Horses teeth do have nerves, and horses do feel pain. Just because horse isn't squawking 'ow my tooth hurts' doesn't mean its not in pain. Horses don't show pain like some wimpy humans do, so unless you spend hours and hours with your horse and know it inside out you might actually miss the fact that they are suffering from quite a bit of tooth pain. And then it can cause gum disease too which is also painful for them.
Vets generally remove teeth under standing sedation these days.
One of mine had two teeth removed at home in early 2013. It cost about £600 with the sedation, no X-rays or antibiotics were needed.
 
Mine had one out 7 years ago. Standing sedation, tooth punched out, lower jaw. One week of antibiotics, no complications whatsoever and a bill of £200. I still have the offending tooth!
 
Much depends on how old the horse is - the older the horse the less root. And a broken tooth could be prone to infection - my veteran mare had several over time that became loose and infected. They came out easily without even sedation because there was so little root left.
 
Had vet visit yesterday. Have what I think is best outcome for now.
Fracture had broken off cleanly and tooth already started to seal. Had a good pick out of food in pulp area and flush through. Xrays showed no root problems so extraction not necessary at this stage.
Revisit in 6 months to ensure all sealed fine and if so then just regular visits as opposing tooth won't grind down evenly.

Alternatively if it hasn't sealed well then will look at option of extraction.

Mare no worse for wear and am happy that I am now fully informed on what to look for (sinusitis etc) which would indicate a problem.

Purse strings crying slightly tho.. excess on insurance higher than I thought so lesson learnt there but any further works will be covered at least
 
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