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RE: [RC] Headtossing - Susan E. Garlinghouse, D.V.M.

I know teeth have already been commented on, so forgive me if this is
redundant.  When you have the teeth checked, ask (and pay for) a complete
dental exam--- not just poking a finger into the sides of the mouth to check
the first few cheek teeth.  I get a lot of clients that complain about
horses being fussy with their heads one way or another, and insist it isn't
the teeth.  And the first few cheek teeth may feel nice and smooth.  But,
sure enough, when you sedate, use a full mouth speculum and go all the way
to the back corners, there are almost always sharp points digging into the
soft tissue.  I can't even count the numbers of horses that supposedly had
their teeth done that still have sharp points way at the back.  One horse I
did two weeks ago had raw, bleeding sores in the roof of his mouth from one
inch spikes jabbing into them repeatedly, and this was after "annual dental
exams" from the local shoer that also carries a few float blades around with
him <insert sound of banging head against the wall here>.  Those back molar
corners are hard to get to and a lot of practitioners just don't make the
extra effort if they don't like dentistry, if they don't have the proper
equipment (pulling the tongue aside and going in with a normal float blade
doesn't cut it, no pun intended), or if they just don't know any better.

Don't even get me started on unlicensed "dentists", but in any event, ask
the horse be sedated and that the very back corners be thoroughly checked
out (as well as the rest of the dentition).

JMO.
Susan Garlinghouse, DVM


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Replies
[RC] Headtossing, Julienne