Many people don’t see a need to do dentistry in young horses unless a major problem arises. But until a horse is 4 ½ to 5 years old, they are cutting teeth, which means their mouths are in a constant state of change. From about age 2½ to age 4½ permanent teeth are in the process of replacing ‘’baby” teeth that are called caps. Caps that don’t fall out on schedule create pressure and pain and can cause permanent teeth to divert from their intended paths of eruption. Imbalances can occur during that process set up problems that can plague a horse for the rest of his or her adult life. Since balanced mouths are comfortable mouths, it is imperative that horses receive regular dental check ups during their early years.
Jillie was just turning 4 years of age when she arrived in my care. I learned long ago that before starting to train a horse, there are many things to address, including bodywork and the balancing of teeth and feet. With Jillie’s body and feet on their way, I took her for what we expected to be a routine, first time dental exam and float and to check for retained caps.
The vet gave her a light dose of sedation and we waited for it to take effect. She was fine, so we put the speculum on to exam her mouth and begin the dentistry. There was no reason to anticipate any problem, but suddenly she fell down, collapsing in an oddly graceful way. The vet asked her to get. She popped up without a problem and was less rattled than rest of us. After her fall, we decided not to do much besides quickly run the float over her molars to remove sharp edges. By then, we figured Jillie had had enough and so had we.
For a long time, I was puzzled by that fall. It was so out of the ordinary and unlike a drug reaction. She had not hung her head, as a matter of fact, she held her head up as she buckled to the ground and sat there eyes open and unperturbed. I remembered that Jillie had occasionally acted like she might fall down while I was holding a foot of the ground to clean or trim it and how difficult leg circles were for her in the beginning. I wondered if those incidents might have anything to do with her fall at the vet office and it was some time before any light would be shed on that situation.
Jillie was just turning 4 years of age when she arrived in my care. I learned long ago that before starting to train a horse, there are many things to address, including bodywork and the balancing of teeth and feet. With Jillie’s body and feet on their way, I took her for what we expected to be a routine, first time dental exam and float and to check for retained caps.
The vet gave her a light dose of sedation and we waited for it to take effect. She was fine, so we put the speculum on to exam her mouth and begin the dentistry. There was no reason to anticipate any problem, but suddenly she fell down, collapsing in an oddly graceful way. The vet asked her to get. She popped up without a problem and was less rattled than rest of us. After her fall, we decided not to do much besides quickly run the float over her molars to remove sharp edges. By then, we figured Jillie had had enough and so had we.
For a long time, I was puzzled by that fall. It was so out of the ordinary and unlike a drug reaction. She had not hung her head, as a matter of fact, she held her head up as she buckled to the ground and sat there eyes open and unperturbed. I remembered that Jillie had occasionally acted like she might fall down while I was holding a foot of the ground to clean or trim it and how difficult leg circles were for her in the beginning. I wondered if those incidents might have anything to do with her fall at the vet office and it was some time before any light would be shed on that situation.