RE: [RC] Dental Equipment for horses - Susan E. Garlinghouse, DVM
All of which are good arguments to hire someone that knows what
they’re doing, regardless of whether they use manual or power
equipment. I’ve seen as many bad jobs with manual floats as I have
the power tools. Bad work is bad work, regardless of the tools used to
get there.
And personally, I wouldn’t let a “teeth floater”
near my horses (if I didn’t float their teeth myself, that is).
Hire a vet or a *certified* vet tech working directly under veterinary
supervision that has the training, interest and proper drugs and equipment to
do the job correctly, or don’t do it at all.
JMO.
Susan Garlinghouse, DVM
>It is my opinion that powered
floating devices are responsible for the early death of thousands of older >horses who would normally have
survived—healthy, fat, and happy—for years. I've seen far
too many >equine senior citizens whose
caring owners notice that the horse is starting to have a little trouble
keeping >their weight on using the same
rations as have previously sustained them.
>The concerned owner hires a teeth
floater who shows up with a drill-powered floater, looks in the horse's >mouth, shakes their head, clucks "shame,
shame," and promises to fix everything.
>The idiots then proceed to
"flatten" the bite and end up grinding away all the useful
masticating surfaces >until the horse can
no longer do much more than gum its food. A minor condition problem, easily
remedied, >turns into a serious decline
with the horse slowly starving to death.
>I won't let a technician near my
older horses with anything but a manual float, and strict orders to do nothing >more than "take off the points."
>It isn't that they are a bad
idea. It is that they vastly amplify mistakes to where a mediocre
technician >becomes a lethal technician.
