Unerupted canine in 10 yr old gelding. Anyone had this issue?

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Sunnywilson

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My 10 year old gelding has an unerupted canine in his upper jaw. The other 3 canines are through and not causing difficulty, however the gum over unerupted one has become very sensitive to the point that he reared when I was leading out the stable after putting bridle on the other day. ( now not riding for safety reasons until I make my lad more comfortable ).
I have owned the horse for 10 months and he has never been completely happy with accepting the bit ( head tossing). After getting a bitting consultant out , new bit fitted and him still not settling in his head, i hot my equine dentist out who discovered the unerupted tooth in Feb however my lad did not seem to be as bothered by it back then.
My vet was out yesterday as I wanted someone to check asap due to sudden change of behaviour (rearing) . Vet is coming back this week to do rays of jaw but said the canine tooth may need to be extracted.
I wanted to ask if anyone else has had this issue with a horse this age ? Did the vet slit the gum to let the tooth through? If so, was that successful? Has anyone experience of getting horses canine tooth extracted? I don't want to put my horse through an extraction if there was any other way of helping him but also as he is only 10, I equally want to find a long term, pain free solution.
 
I had one not as old as yours who had his gum slit to allow it to come through which it did and caused no problems afterwards, he had been fussy before, I would certainly want to do this, it took no time, caused a minimum of fuss and he recovered within days, before putting him through what will be fairly invasive surgery, if it doesn't work then you can opt for extraction a bit later.
It may depend on what the xrays show in your case, with the one here the dentist just did it.
 
A friend had one where the vet slit the gum and everything was fine within days. I would not have x rays done until this has been tried of the point of the tooth can be felt, it could be a waste of a couple of hundred pounds.
 
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Hi, thanks you for your replies. Very helpful. I am beside myself with worry after reading up on canine extraction and this will be my
 
Hi, thanks you for your replies. Very helpful. I am beside myself with worry after reading up on canine extraction and this will be my absolute last resort. Given the tooth can be felt fully under the gum, I'm not sure why my vet is reluctant to do simple procedure and cut gum. Think I'm going to seek dentist advice again too.
 
Hopefully your dentist will be bold enough to do it, even though it would technically be illegal. But if not, then I think I would ask another vet before I would pay one for x rays who is already talking about extraction. If you couldn't easily feel the tooth, I wouldn't say this, but you can.
 
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