The Dentist Cometh

One more thing to check off the list this morning. The equine dentist was out to work on a few of the boys.

Moon is an annual job...
Although I no longer get to call him a 'scissor' mouth. Yaayyyyy! The dentist says his mouth is plumb normal now and he just touched him up a bit.

Turk's teeth were done 2 years ago and last year when I had the dentist out, he said he still looked good and didn't even touch him...
This year, he worked on leveling his front teeth a bit and took off the beginning of a hook in the back. Other than that...not much to work on.

And then there was Frosty...
I had Frosty done by a local veterinarian...not the vet I use now...and I KNEW he did a shit job on the horse's teeth. I was so pissed over that deal, I have never used that vet for anything since then. First of all that vet decided he couldn't float Frosty's teeth at his clinic (because he does not have a large animal room), so he had me haul him up to where I used to board horses...for his convenience mind you...and charged me a farm fee. Jerk! Second...I warned him that Frosty's mother had been very susceptible to drugs and I suspected Frosty would be the same...Did he listen?

Oh hell no. He just gave him a 'normal' dose and about knocked my horse to the ground. The vet tech and I literally held the horse up so the vet could work on his teeth.

And he did a very piss poor job on Frosty's teeth.

The dentist I use now said Frosty had very sharp edges, his grinding action was off and the vet that did the work previously didn't even put in bottom bit seats. He put in top ones...but not bottom ones? What a maroon.

However, Frosty has a good mouth and good teeth, so it didn't take long to remove the shoddy work the vet had done. The dentist asked if he could come back and check him in 6 months to make sure there was no residual incorrect wear. He may or may not need a touch-up then.

And what do you know...this dentist actually listened to me when I told him the horse was susceptible to the drugs and only gave him a 1/2 a dose. He said next time, he probably won't even have to give him that much. Frosty is a light-weight.

While I knew these guys were due to be worked on anyway, one of the underlying reasons for having Turk and Frosty done was because both horses have some poll rigidity and the chiro recommended having acupuncture done on them to help relax those muscles so he could get a good adjustment. Well, poll rigidity can come from the teeth being out of whack as well, so I like to start with making sure the teeth are good before moving on to other stuff.

In about a week I will know if I need to proceed with additional work or if getting the teeth done relieves a lot of the poll tension. Moon and Turk's work was so slight that they will both be fine to ride by tomorrow. Frosty may need an additional day, but then it will be back to work as usual for him.