Dental Vet

17/11/2025

So lovely rechecking these infundibular restorations ('fillings') we did a year ago! They are looking great and more importantly, so is the rest of the tooth! The pulps are looking healthy and there hasn't been any further spread of the decay or any sign of fractures.

So lovely to be able to stop the progression of this condition and prevent it from causing major (painful!) issues and tooth loss. Prevention is definitely better than cure!

14/11/2025

Great post from our colleagues in the UK.
The only thing I would add is that sometimes in older horses that don’t have enough physical tooth left to effectively crush the hay into smaller particles they can also quid so it’s not always pain related but should always be assessed by a veterinarian to rule out a painful cause.

Q: What is ‘Quidding’?

A: A Clear Sign Your Horse Needs a Veterinary Examination

🍂 Quidding means a horse is dropping or expelling partially chewed forage. It is caused by ‘dysmasticaton’ — abnormal or painful chewing — and is one of the clearest signs of oral pain in the horse.

⚠️ But quidding is not always dental, and it must be distinguished from:

🧠 Neurological disease
🥤 Dysphagia (swallowing disorders)
🦴 TMJ disease
🩸 Soft-tissue injury or oral masses
🐴 Jaw pathology
🪾 Foreign body lodged - oral cavity, pharynx, sub-mucosal

All of these are clinical disorders requiring a veterinary diagnosis and treatment.

⸻

** Why quidding is nearly always serious **

🦷 By the time a horse is quidding, if it’s dental related, the underlying cause is often:

• Severe periodontal disease
• Fractured, mobile, or displaced cheek teeth
• Pulpal disease, abscess
• Bilateral dysfunction / disease
• Soft-tissue trauma
• Advanced occlusal disease
(and occasionally lack of dental structure in very old age - but always worth a thorough check - don’t assume!)

These conditions cannot be diagnosed or treated with a visual check alone.

🚨What your horse actually needs

🩺 A proper veterinary assessment includes:

💉 Sedation
👄 Clinical oral examination
🔦 Oroscopic examination
🖥️ Further diagnostic imaging (X-rays or CT)

These are vet-only procedures, both legally and clinically.
This is why quidding is always a veterinary case, not a routine dental visit.

⸻

What to do if your horse is quidding:

📞 Book a full veterinary oral and oroscopic examination under sedation.
🔍 Ensure the whole mouth is properly assessed.
⏱️ Early diagnosis = less pain, faster recovery, better long-term welfare.

Your horse’s comfort and oral health depend on it. Trust us, we are specialists and we have equine welfare at the core of what we do.

13/11/2025

1 year apart for this patient, affectionately known as ‘little man’. Pictured at his mum’s dental at just 1 month old and now at his very own first dental with Dr Tory at around 13 months of age. How cute!

10/11/2025

A routine dental appointment at Dental Vet with Dr Tory in under 1 minute. A thorough dental examination with a mirror and an oroscope (peek the teeth on the tv), treatment of periodontal disease including removing feed, flushing the pockets and placing metronidazole antibiotics as well as annual vaccinations.

07/11/2025

Presence keeping a watchful eye on her bff Whiskey today during his dental appointment.

05/11/2025

Dr Kirsten has been continuing her ongoing learning from our human dental colleagues, this time with the specialist endodontist Dr Nilesh Jadav! It was incredible watching the level of detail- all done using a dental microscope to clearly visualise what is going on! Also some very cool toys- not all applicable to equine anatomy (or our budget!) but very cool to see! It is one thing to read about the theory and understand the concepts, but another to watch it in practice, especially done by a specialist with decades of experience.

A huge thank you to Dr Nilesh for being so generous with his time (and answering 1000 questions!) to help us better understand and be able to apply the knowledge to better help our equine patients! Thank you!

03/11/2025

So proud of how far this beautiful horse/ owner combination have come!

When we first met this sweet brumby, he was really scared. I believe he had had a stressful vet trip in the past and hadn't had a lot of handling and even getting close enough to be able to check his heart (let alone give him an injection!) was very scary and stressful for him. He was very needleshy and weary of new people.

We have always taken our time and used positive reinforcement and his wonderful, dedicated owner has done a lot of work using positive reinforcement and clicker training and wow, what a difference! His owner did a few desensitizations with food rewards before we started (as you can see here in the video) and I then did a few as well- holding up the vein, then stopping and patting when he stood still (while mum gave him treats!). Then when he was relaxed, I popped the needle in and he didn't even notice. He was an absolute model patient. ❤😊

It was just so lovely to see the change in this horse, so much calmer and happier, the sedation works better and so much safer for everyone. It may take a few minutes but we will always try positive reinforcement/ food rewards as our first line with needleshy horses. Forcing them/ belting them/ yelling at them is very unlikely to help and will make it 10x harder the next visit. Amazing work by his wonderful owner and we will always work with owners to use positive reinforcement for nervous horses.

If you are interested to learn more about the technique, the British Equine Veterinary Association (BEVA) did a series of you tube videos called 'Don't break your vet!' (if you google them you will find them). They are excellent and we highly recommend for anything your horse isn't fond of (oral pastes, clippers, injections etc.). Positive reinforcement makes it fun!

01/11/2025

It is with sadness that we say goodbye to our wonderful Tara this week. Tara has been with us for over 5 years and knows better than I do where everything is these days! We will miss this friendly face around the clinic and sincerely wish her all the best on her next chapter. Thanks for everything Tara, hopefully there aren't too many phone calls from us asking where something is! 🤣

31/10/2025

Happy Halloween to all our Dental Vet clients this spooky season 🦷🐴🎃👻🦇

29/10/2025

Star patient of the week award!

This beautiful boy wins star patient this week for doing so well at his dental!

When we first saw him we were warned that he could be 'challengeing' to do his teeth. As is usually the case- the reason for this was he was in significant pain. He had infected incisors from EOTRH and he had horrific periodontal disease in his cheek teeth- 7 periodontal pockets between 10mm-24mm deep below the gum and severely deviated teeth, some with mobility. Given the history of him 'being difficult', before we started he was given systemic pain relief, as well as very strong pain relief in his sedation, which was topped up during his dental. He was so sore when we first saw him and he wasn't overly happy about us cleaning all the rotten food out from the deep pockets of infection but with the additional pain relief we were able to treat him.

Well it has been 3.5 years of regular, proactive treatment of the periodontal disease and deviated teeth and 3 incisor extractions and the difference in the horse and the mouth are incredible! The deviated teeth are almost back in alignment and the periodontal disease has resolved- there was no significant infection!! Yay!!! 🎊🎉And he was so well behaved! He had less sedation in the initial dose than the first time we saw him, with no top-ups, he didn't toss his head at all and was quite happy for us to do his teeth!

In our experience it is extremely rare for horses to be 'difficult' for no reason- in the vast, vast majority of cases, it is pain related. If you have a horse that is 'difficult' for the dentist, it should really be assessed by a veterinary dentist who can provide adequate pain relief and properly investigate what is going on.

27/10/2025

This lovely girl had a bit of an argument with the cross ties and unfortunately her tooth came off second best! 12 months ago we treated it with a 'vital pulpotomy' ('pulp cap') where we sealed off the exposed pulp cavity to protect the underlying pulp and hopefully save the tooth.

12 months later it is still looking really settled at the root with no sign of infection which is great news! We will need to continue monitoring it but at this stage it is looking great.

26/10/2025

How lucky were we to have this amazing shed to park in on Friday! The weather was not very happy but we managed to dodge it thanks to this wonderful structure!