Upper Incisor removal experiences

[Irishdraughtx]

Hi all, I was hoping if any one could let me know their experiences with having a horse have one of their upper incisors removed under sedation at home. I recently got my newest horse at the beginning of August and following a dental check up it looks like his teeth hadn't been looked at or treated in around 3 years minimum sadly so he needed a lot of work done at that first appointment however one his front top teeth is discoloured/dead and the dentist has recommended having it removed because of the potential infection risk.

They are coming out in a couple weeks to carry out an X-Ray and then remove the tooth there and then if it's deemed it needs to come out. Out of the horses I've owned he will be the first one that needs to have a tooth out sadly so this is rather new to me. Just wondered if anyone can share their experience of having a tooth out at home and anything to help his recovery afterwards. They said he can resume turnout pretty much straight away after sedation has worn off however just a bit concerned about how bloody it may be! Thank you.

 

[poiuytrewq]

A horse I had had loads out! Poor boy. A few at home under sedation. Mostly at hospital as lots were more complicated.
It’s fine! Not much blood and they cope fine.

The actual equine dental place, I can’t think of the name finished the main part of the work and he advised with any front teeth removals to feed only nuts as they can be moved quickly to the back of the mouth and ground up with minimal getting into the socket.
My own vets had said mash. So that’s a top tip!!

 

[poiuytrewq]

Also I forget as it wasn’t done with me but Ziggy my current horse had one upper front missing! Not sure how or what happened but you’d never know. He is completely fine grazing etc

 

[Tiddlypom]

Not upper, but two dead and infected lower incisors removed safely at home under standing sedation by a qualified specialist dental vet. It was a bit bloody . Horse recovered well but the sockets poured rank smelly muck out for over a week afterwards as the long standing infection drained out. The EDT had completely missed the problem.

She must have been in so much pain before. Interestingly her back and TMJ which used to need a fair bit of attention from the chiro vet have been much better since then.

The vet is pointing to a drainage tube that she must have grown over time to drain the pus out.








She was out grazing less than an hour later.

I’m struggling to find the fully healed pictures, but the sockets healed over completely with healthy tissue and have not given her any bother. This was 18 months ago, she was 17yo at the time.

The vet dentist was initially called in to do a couple of fillings in her upper molars, and the x rays showed the problems in the incisors. Thank goodness for that.

Good luck.

 

[Irishdraughtx]

Thank you for your reply, that is a good point about the feed! I had assumed a mash type feed would be fine as he is mainly on a small amount of Speedi-beet at the moment but I hadn't considered how that could linger in the tooth socket! It's good to hear your current horse hasn't got any lasting effects from his missing tooth as well, I was a bit concerned if he'd have any complications with grazing as I forgot to ask the dentist when he was there last.

 

[Irishdraughtx]

Not upper, but two dead and infected lower incisors removed safely at home under standing sedation by a qualified specialist dental vet. It was a bit bloody . Horse recovered well but the sockets poured rank smelly muck out for over a week afterwards as the long standing infection drained out. The EDT had completely missed the problem.

She must have been in so much pain before. Interestingly her back and TMJ which used to need a fair bit of attention from the chiro vet have been much better since then.

The vet is pointing to a drainage tube that she must have grown over time to drain the pus out.

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She was out grazing less than an hour later.

I’m struggling to find the fully healed pictures, but the sockets healed over completely with healthy tissue and have not given her any bother. This was 18 months ago, she was 17yo at the time.

The vet dentist was initially called in to do a couple of fillings in her upper molars, and the x rays showed the problems in the incisors. Thank goodness for that.

Good luck.

Those pictures are really interesting thank you for posting them. That must have been so sore, glad to hear it was all done smoothly leaves me a bit more reassured that removing just the one will be ok! Did it take quite a long time for her mouth to heal?

 

[Tiddlypom]

This was her out grazing with vet approval just 30 minutes after the immediate post extraction pics in my previous post were taken!




This is at the first post extraction check up after a week, he had to rub out some new bone formation which is quite common, hence the fresh blood, then repack the sockets.



It took a few weeks to fully heal over, this is it 4 weeks post extraction. Lots of healthy new tissue filling in the sockets, no more crud draining out. The vet dentist came out a total of three times after the extractions to check up on her before he signed her off, but it was a straightforward recovery



She could eat hay from the ground from the off, but was not allowed hay from a hay net because of the tugging involved. No bit in the mouth for IIRC 2 weeks, though I’d have left it much longer. Bitless was fine.

 

[Highmileagecob]

Old Dobbin had to have a split tush chiselled out last year, and two loose molars removed at the same time. Advice was to turn him back out as soon as the sedation had worn off, and to flush the hole out daily with a salt and water solution. Flushing out was easy enough with a syringe and warm water, and he was back grazing within half an hour of the sedation wearing off.

 

[Tiddlypom]

Managed to grab a side on pic this morning of the site of the extracted incisors. This is 15 months on, it had fully healed up like this within maybe 3 months of the extractions? The empty sockets are fully filled in with heathy tissue. It doesn’t affect her adversely in any way.



She was given IV pain relief immediately after the extractions to tide her over, then a sachet of Danilon a day for a small number of days. She really didn’t seem sore, but then she must have been in significant pain before those dead and infected incisors came out.

 

[Birker2020]

Hi all, I was hoping if any one could let me know their experiences with having a horse have one of their upper incisors removed under sedation at home. I recently got my newest horse at the beginning of August and following a dental check up it looks like his teeth hadn't been looked at or treated in around 3 years minimum sadly so he needed a lot of work done at that first appointment however one his front top teeth is discoloured/dead and the dentist has recommended having it removed because of the potential infection risk.

They are coming out in a couple weeks to carry out an X-Ray and then remove the tooth there and then if it's deemed it needs to come out. Out of the horses I've owned he will be the first one that needs to have a tooth out sadly so this is rather new to me. Just wondered if anyone can share their experience of having a tooth out at home and anything to help his recovery afterwards. They said he can resume turnout pretty much straight away after sedation has worn off however just a bit concerned about how bloody it may be! Thank you.

The vet wanted to charge me between £600 to 2.4K to remove a previous horses tooth! It was an upper molar, right at the back.

It was spotted by the horse whisperer who said my horse was begging for a dentist to attend, I told her there was no way I was getting the dentist out when she'd only just had the dentist a few months before. However, I called the EDT the next day as I had great faith in the horse whisperer and low and behold she had a massive crack in a top tooth towards the back with food compacting in there spreading the crack upwards. No signs of eating weirdly, or bad breath. That's when I was quoted the price for tooth extraction between the EDT and the vet.

I was half debating whether to call time on my girl as she was 23 and had other issues and it was a huge amount of money to pay when she was probably nearing the end of her life, but I decided she could go for investigation and take it from there. Apparently at the vets they put pliers on the tooth whilst she was in the stall sedated, the vet then popped over to the cupboard to get more sedative or something, by which time she'd shook her head and the slab fracture had come off. That's hand on heart what I was told by the vet. The whole thing was really strange. The bill wasn't anything near that cost, I think it was around £700 in the end.

I think I would probably have paid the money, whatever the cost, I was just making it known that I wasn't happy.

There was no smell, no head shaking, no reluctant eating carrots or other crunchy treats, no reluctance accepting the bit, eating her hay as normal. But I saw the crack on the tooth and it was very much there.
I was told that horses are incredibly stoic when it comes to teeth.

Think it was 209 from memory.

 

[poiuytrewq]

The first horse I mentioned had problems grazing when he had no front teeth left, but to be honest once the gums were completely healed he grazed fine, He does need slightly longer grass.

The current one with just the one tooth missing, literally don't even think about it. He grazes as well as any horse, in fact by the size of him a little too well!