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Vikki Fowler - Veterinary Equine Dental Technician, Wigan (2024)

Based in South Lancashire, UK

31/10/2024

As promised, this is my geriatric post. This is another in the series of FAQs I have been working my way through. Scroll back to the FAQ post and comment a question if you have one I haven’t answered (though I have a few more to get through yet!)

Once I get down to feeds further in the post, I don’t want to get into brand names so I will use ingredients. I strongly believe owners should be looking at ingredients rather than the just what the companies want you to read in big writing anyway to be honest so please don’t ask me to name brands. It also makes it more useful for those overseas.

First and foremost I want to say that the earlier you start having your horses teeth routinely checked, the longer they will last. I despair when owners first call me when the horse is in their 20s and already struggling to eat. There is little I can do at that point. I can remove the pain but I can’t rewind time and fix/replace the teeth. I feel this needs to be absolute top of every geriatric dental list. Look after them every year, ALL of their lives and you will reap the rewards as they age. I have many horses on my books well into their 30s that still have all their teeth and eat a normal diet because they have had very good dental care all their lives.

Most owners know that horses “grow” their teeth all of their lives. This is true and yet not true. The teeth grow into the mouth all of their lives but the horse (this post is also relevant to all equines, pony and donkey too) does not have an endless supply like they do with their hooves. The roots of the horse’s teeth are all closed by 7 year old. After this they cannot create more. This presents two issues, firstly you cannot change the quality of the teeth after this. You cannot give a horse a supplement to strengthen their teeth after this. If their diet has been severely lacking in their youth then this impacts their tooth development as well as their joints/bones etc. Secondly - and to the point of this post - you must look after what is there because no more is forming. There is a fantastic visual of this in my favourite dentistry book “Equine Dentistry” by Jack Easley et al. I have shamelessly included an image from this book and I hope I don’t get told off for it 😳 but it’s such an incredible image to help owners visualise how a horse can continuously erupt their teeth without forming any more. They start out 10-15cm long (depending on size of horse/pony/donk) and slowly wear at the occlusal (chewing) surface whilst “growing” so the roots gets closer and closer to the chewing surface. Once the root has reached the mouth, the tooth does not have enough attachment to hold on and the teeth fall out. This is often a domino effect, once one goes, the next one loses its support and quickly wobbles loose too. We can’t stop this process but we can help get every millimetre of use out of those teeth.

To prolong the life of these teeth we want to maintain the balance. If you look in a horse’s mouth, all the teeth should be the same height all the way back. If one tooth is allowed to over grow and over power its opposite, that tooth will experience excess force in a side-to-side way. Consider a fence stump, the further it is in the ground compared to what is out of the ground, the stronger it is and the more likely it is to withstand external forces, like a horses arse having a scratch. The teeth need to have just a small amount of crown in the mouth and the majority of its length below the gum to withstanding the incredible chewing forces a horse needs to eat its food. A horse’s bite is more forceful than a pitbulls and they can do up to 60,000 chews in a day! If we, as dental professionals, make sure this force is spread equally across all of the teeth, all of the horse’s life, we can make sure the horse gets every bit of use out of them all.

However, no matter what we do, eventually the horse’s teeth wear closer and closer to the root and reach the end of their life. As this process progresses, a few things happen. Firstly the enamel lines that weave across the surface of the teeth are worn away so just the softer, smoother cementum remains. These enamel lines are necessary to grind their very tough diet of hay and grass. Our teeth certainly couldn’t manage! These lines fade away in the centre first and we say the teeth are “cupped out”. A year or two after this, the outside edge of enamel also fades and we say they are “smooth”. If you saw the video I shared last week, these teeth squeak if you rub your finger over them. Eventually the teeth wear right down and the root becomes visible, then we say the tooth is “expired”.

As these enamel lines start to fade, the teeth become inefficient and chewing their forage becomes much more labour intensive. Think about sandpaper as it is worn and becomes smooth, you have to put a lot more energy in to get the same sanding effect. They have to chew for a lot longer to make their food swallowable (if that’s a word 😅). They can’t get the same volume of forage down and often need help at this point with feeds to replace their calorie deficiency, even though they aren’t quidding or in pain. The sensible horses will avoid stalky hay or coarse grass and will pick out the finer softer stuff that’s easier to chew. I usually find they prefer finer, shorter hay over haylage at this point. Some may need their owner to add chopped Alfalfa, dried grass or straw chaff (or a mixture) to their diet at this point, if their weight is starting to drop. Not as a feed but as a hay replacer. This should not be tasty, they should not want to gobble it down. A bucket full should be left in the stable for the horses to pick at, as and when they need, as something easier to chew to fill their bellies. Owners often decide the horse doesn’t like it if they don’t gobble it but that is exactly the point. They should want to graze it like a haynet, not eat it like a meal so it shouldn’t be molassed or have anything tasty added.

While going through this transition of losing enamel, a few other issues can pop up. Often the generalised sharp points we see in young horses are no longer an issue but we often see little bits of enamel clinging on and forming very sharp points that dig way into the cheeks, like lone daggers. These cause pain and are not usefulness of enamel, they need filing down regularly. There is a fine example of this when not controlled in the photos.

As the tooth wear reaches the roots the teeth taper and become narrower. This opens up gaps at the gum line. These gaps trap food which then rots away and causes gingivitis (bleeding gums and gum recession). We called these gaps “senile diastema” which always amuses me 🤷🏼‍♀️ These are tricky to treat. Usually we widen diastema but these teeth are old and often prone to wandering due to their very shallow hold in the bone, I find widening these makes matters worse. They lose the support of their neighbour. Depending on the gap and the teeth around I personally either use a putty material to plug the gap or I visit the horse more regularly and flush them out (basically floss them!), I make these decisions on a case by case basis and may have to swap between the two. In these cases you would not feed chaff as that would get stuck in the gaps. Although usually the horse is well past the point of having senile diastema by the time they need a hay replacer so it’s rarely an issue.

I touched on a point there about teeth wandering. It seems a strange idea but when the roots in the gum are very short, the teeth are much more susceptible to the chewing forces. If the teeth aren’t perfectly balanced, they can start to lean. Eventually this leads to them falling out (or needing extraction due to being loose) or again forms gaps between the teeth. Regular check ups to maintain the balance is key.

As the horses starts losing teeth, either through them growing beyond their roots hold and being extracted/falling out, or due to them expiring, we must control the opposite teeth as they will over grow. I often hear people saying an old horse has no teeth left. But I am yet to see a single horse that has literally no teeth. What they usually mean is they have no ”useful” teeth left. Even if the teeth aren’t useful, they can still cause pain and need to be maintained to prevent the opposite teeth that remain from growing into the gums with no partner to wear them down.

To avoid this confusion, I always talk to my clients about their geriatrics having “useful pairs” rather than counting their teeth. They could have 12 cheek teeth in their head and not have a single useful pair (they should have 24 cheek teeth). The horse needs teeth that touch each other in order to grind their food. I find most manage very well until they are down to 50% of their useful pairs. After this they will start to lose weight and need help. Some need help sooner, depending on whether they are a good doer or poor doer to begin with but I always advise introducing a chaff hay replacer when they get to 50%.

What about when there are almost no, or actually no useful pairs? Then quite often they can’t even eat chaff. If they have good incisors then they will often still manage very short grass. Owners often put these horses in paddocks of the lushest longest grass and that is no use to them at all!! They will just ball it up and spit it out. You need to mow their grass or turn them out with sheep that will keep the grass as short as possible. This way the incisors do all the hard work and the short bits of grass can be gummed and swallowed safely. These horses will also need a mash diet to top up their calories. Where ever possible I strongly recommend short grass grazing alongside a mash diet to keep the horse’s gut ticking over and reduce the risk of colic.

When considering a mash diet remember the quantity of forage a horse needs to eat. Don’t think of their feeds, that is separate. The fibre mash or “soup diet” is to replace their hay. Pretty much weight for weight. Although the mash will be more calorie dense than the forage, it will also have a much higher water content that outweighs it. Each horse is different just as each horse’s hay and grass requirements are different but if your old horse is lean, it isn’t getting enough food. I know that sounds obvious but sometimes it needs stating! It is not normal for an old horse to be thin.

Often owners tell me their old horse with poor teeth nose dives in their little feed like they are starving. They are starving. It doesn’t matter if they are in a field of grass or stood in front of a haynet, they are starving. Imagine being at a banquet and not being able to eat a thing. The torture is unbearable to think about!!! Make sure you feed these old horses with enough fibre (that they can eat!) to maintain their weight and keep a constant dribble of food in their bellies like a grazing animal should have. If you have a genuine gannet that will eat and eat until there is none left then stand without for hours, you will need to be inventive. Use Puzzle bowls. Space the buckets around their area. Have other liveries drop a pre soaked bucket in a regular intervals. Go yourself for a last late night feed. However inconvenient that is. Many old horses with no teeth die of colic pretty quickly. The horse’s gut isn’t suppose to exist on large infrequent low fibre meals. These horses don’t just need conditioning mix or senior feeds twice a day. They need large buckets full of fibre very regularly (every 4 hours ideally). My personal choice of mash for these is a 50/50 unmolassed sugar beet/grass nuts. I find grass nuts alone to be too rich and causes them to have the runs although it may be suitable for some. Remember this is separate to their feeds which are there to provide calories, vitamins and minerals. There are countless of these senior feeds on the market and they’re pretty much like for like. Adjust those according to the horses weight and pick them according to their taste preferences but always provide fibre.

Which is another interesting subject. Old horses get bored of feed. They go off it. For no reason other than they feel like it. It is enough to drive an owner crazy! You often have to swap and change and be inventive to keep them eating. Luckily the feed market is so huge, this usually isn’t an issue. Also luckily, these feeds are so similar that you generally don’t need to worry about changing them quickly. Unless you are going from high oil to high cereal or vice versa etc. Make sure you check the ingredients!

If they get bored of their hay replacer soup then you can add in Alfa pellets, or meadow grass cubes (soaked) or even a bit of oatfeed, wheatfeed or soy hulls (cereal by products). These are readily available from feed companies as prepackaged hay replacer. Although they are very expensive when fed in the quantities required. Feeding these old toothy horses properly is always very expensive.

The last group of horses to consider is those with EOTRH. There is a post further down my page with a full explanation of this condition if you aren’t sure. These horses often don’t have any front teeth, or at least few useful ones. These horses need long grass to manage grazing and loose hay is preferable to avoid gum trauma on haynets. If the grazing is very short, they will need hay in the field. Usually these case should have good cheek teeth until they age significantly and then they require a soup diet as described above.

I’m trying to think of my take home message from this post but I have a few. Even if your horse’s teeth are old and not particularly useful, they still need dental care to prevent pain. The better you care for their teeth throughout their lives, the longer their teeth will last. And finally an old horse should NOT be skinny. They might lose muscle and top line and have a dippy back but they should not be skinny. If they are underweight then their diet needs adjusting. Be sure they are not sat at a banquet they can’t eat.

Feeding a geriatric horse is unbelievably expensive. If you can’t provide that to the horse, don’t let them slowly starve to death, do the right thing and put them to sleep. I know that’s harsh, and I am sorry, but sometimes it needs to be said.

On that cheery note, I hope my explanations help simplify what is quite complicated.

Remember routine dentistry is basic care, not a luxury.

25/10/2024

I have spent a few days this week at the fantastic Only Foals and Horse Sanctuary (https://www.facebook.com/share/g/5otFvdTLWL44FJhb/?mibextid=K35XfP).

I spend a few days here at least twice a year to keep the horses, ponies and donkeys teeth (Roughly 50 total!) in tip top condition.

The majority of their animals are Shetlands and Welsh As so my poor back and knees are suffering 😅 and most of them are over 20 years old so they give me lots of challenges. But it’s amazing to see how happy and long lived these guys are. They have so many over the age of 30. This little chap has been there since the sanctuary first opened. His name is Oscar, he’s an Exmoor and he’s the same age as me (38)! I thought I had reached an age where that is no longer possible but here we are 🤣 I always think these OAPs deserve an extra level of respect. Never underestimate or undervalue them when they’ve been around longer than you 🥹

The staff tell me he won the genetic lottery as he absolutely does not show his age. He isn’t stiff and shows no signs of slowing down. He lost his first tooth only last year (he’s now 3 down), he still clears all of his hay and doesn’t need any bucket feed, whilst looking fantastic, even a little chubby! But we’ll forgive him that at his age and at the end of summer. How incredible is he 😍

Always remember, routine dentistry is basic care, not a luxury, especially for these pensioners.

23/10/2024

As I’m gathering photos to do a post on geriatrics I thought you might like this video. You definitely want the sound up!! ⬆️ 📢

Horse’s teeth are suppose to be rough. We take the sharp edges away but as dental professionals we should always be leaving the horse the rough surface to chew food. Both the roughness and the sharp points are from enamel rims around the outside of the tooth and weaving their way across the surface. The surface enamel wears down over time but the edges often don’t due to domestication and conformation, this is what we file away.

But horses don’t have an endless supply of tooth like they do hoof for example. The teeth start out 10-15cm long, hidden under the gum inside the head (the teething bumps of babies are actually the tooth roots). Over the horse’s lifetime the teeth erupt into the mouth as the surface is worn down. When the tooth is nearing the end of its useful life we end up with the top of the root visible in the oral cavity. Just like in humans, the tooth root does not have any enamel. The roughness disappears with the enamel and the cementum and dentine that remains is quite soft in comparison. It’s very quickly worn smooth and ends up shiny and slippery. Hence the squeaking against my glove!

It helps to think of the teeth like sand paper. Once sand paper is worn down and at the end of its useful life, it’s smooth. This isn’t painful for the horse but it does make the teeth inefficient. This is the reason why old horses start to struggle eating their forage even when their teeth are seen regularly and they don’t have any pain related reasons to quid (ball up their food). It’s also why we must, as dental professionals, be very careful to never take more than necessary off the surface of the tooth. We should take just enough to keep the mouth in balance and not any more. We should not be flattening normal ridges, only those that are bigger than the others should be reduced.

It might seem counter intuitive but I actually love it when I’ve got an old horse to this point. This gentleman is 34 years old. And he lost his first tooth just 6 months ago. To get an old pony to this age and him only just start to struggle with his forage is a huge achievement. It requires a life long dedication to careful and appropriate dental care to do this, from both the owner and the professional. When teeth are lost prematurely then something has gone wrong. That might be something out of anybody’s control, like a tooth root abscess, or it might be a conformational defect like displaced teeth, or it might be a lack of dental care. Maintaining the dental balance to ensure no one tooth takes more force than the others (which makes them loose), making sure the small issues are nipped in the bud before they become big issues and making sure the diet doesn’t damage the teeth are so important to make sure an equids teeth last them their lifetime.

I will do a post on feeding the geriatric as soon as I have all the images I’m after, but I wanted to explain why they need a special diet even when they don’t actually have pain.

Remember routine dentistry is basic care, not a luxury! If you want your horse/pony/donkey to still have all their teeth at 34 years of age, look after them now, before it’s too late! It’s a heck of a lot cheaper in the long run than feeding a hay replacement for years.

22/10/2024

I’ve had a few interesting cases recently so I have been distracted from the FAQs series I’ve been working my way through. Rest assured though, I’m collecting photos and images and I will slowly get through them all.

The next question I’ll answer is how different food types affect the teeth. Quite a few asked this but in different ways and regarding different issues but I will answer generally and try to cover everything. As usual it will probably be a long one sorry 🤦‍♀️

I’m lucky enough to have a very stable client base which means I see the same horses routinely from being a youngster to old age. I’m also lucky to live in an area with a massively varying landscape (NW England). From well draining sandy soil to heavy water logged clay, from high altitude moorland to the richest flattest lushest green grass fields, from those in fields all year round to livery yards with restricted grazing to track systems with none. I see the same horses move around across all sorts of environments and I get to see how these environments affect their teeth over time and back again. However this post is very much my opinion and experience based on my patients. I can’t speak for the rest of the world or other professionals.

I think I will start with forage, we have grass, hay, haylage, silage and straw. In real life it’s never that simple though, is it 😳

Grass - there is a very wide variety of grass. From the “wild” horse’s natural diet of the coarse, tough moorland grass all the way through to the lush green dairy cow grass. Over the years I have regularly seen the feral national trust fells and a lot of native ponies turned out on the moors full time, and I can honestly say these ponies have the very best teeth (if we don’t consider those with conformational faults). This tough and sparse moorland grass wears their teeth as nature intended. They have little human interference and usually don’t get decay and hardly get sharp points. Most of the work I do on these equids are due to conformational issues (eg Welsh As bred for the pug face).
Lush green grass differs in that the horses do get sharp on this forage, I assume this is because it is easier to eat than the moorland grass. However any grass fed horses seem to have significantly better teeth than the dried forage fed. Horse with diastema for example do incredibly well living out on a grass only diet. I almost never find grass in diastema, it’s always dried forage. Despite the higher sugar of lush grass, it does not seem to cause tooth decay like refined sugars do.

Silage - by this I mean the very wet, heavy, smelly forage. Sometimes it is sold as haylage but the moisture levels are equal to that of silage. I hate this stuff and not just to handle but as a horse’s forage. I find this causes excessive tooth decay and very quickly results in diastema (gaps) forming due to the peripheral caries (decay) eating the outside of the teeth away. It’s also not good for the rest of the horse either! I would advise avoiding this like the plague. It’s cattle food.

Haylage - most of the horses in my area are fed haylage. We are a very wet area and it’s not often that we get the weather to produce hay (the difference is the amount of time the grass is given to dry before baling) so it is much more expensive. When a horse has normal teeth, with no issues and the haylage isn’t too wet, dental wise they do fine on haylage. When a horse does have dental issues like displaced teeth or diastema, haylage seems to get stuck far more than hay. It seems stickier and wraps around the teeth. I would advise against feeding haylage to anything with diastema. I have also found that older horses with worn teeth seem to struggle more with haylage than hay. Owners often feed haylage to try and bulk up old horses as it is higher in calories, but actually they do better on hay as they find it easier to chew and get more out of it. I find haylage and lush grass are about the same for producing sharp points.

Hay - for the most part I find it’s pretty similar for producing sharp points to haylage and lush grass, particularly when it is quite coarse. When it is short and soft, I find those with diastema and old horses tend to find it easier to eat. Interestingly, I see a marked difference when soaked. I can always tell when a patient has been fed soaked hay as they suddenly get far far sharper than usual. To the point that I often have to shorten their routine interval or they start to cut their cheeks! I can only assume it is much easier to chew after soaking and so doesn’t wear the teeth correctly. I tend to advise my clients to feed some good quality dry straw along side the soaked hay to help with the teeth as well as their gut and boredom. A 50/50 diet of soaked hay/dry straw has been shown to reduce weight without causing ulcers or any other health issues. When fed with soaked hay in particular, the risk of impaction is much less due to the increased water intake. Obviously it needs introducing slowly and to be of good quality.

Straw - I feel like I’ve already covered this now but I do find it wears the teeth very nicely, more so than hay or haylage. I do many donkeys that are fed a straw only diet and they don’t get as sharp as they use to on hay/haylage.

So then on to hard feed, there is such a wide range!! It’s hard to know where to begin.

Chaff - Straw seems like a good cross over. A lot of chaff is straw based but chopped shorter (it amuses me when someone tells me it isn’t safe to feed straw and yet they feed their horses straw chaff 🤷🏼‍♀️), or it can be Alfalfa based. When an old horse is very short on teeth so that even the soft hay is difficult to eat, I find they manage the soft straw chaff quite well. It can be fed in huge quantities safely and helps keep their guts healthy where mash can’t. Obviously once the teeth have worn beyond chaff then a soup diet is all that remains (I will write a separate post on geriatric equids to cover this). Things to consider when feeding chaff would be equids with diastema should not be fed chaff, it will get stuck in the gaps and can be spiky and painful. The other thing is check the ingredients as a lot of chaff is coated in molasses or cane sugar which should be avoided at all costs.

Cereals - mixes, cubes, muesli, mashes, most feed stuffs have some form of cereals. For a normal horse, this isn’t a problem. However it does affect the pH of the mouth, encouraging the growth of bacteria in the biofilm which can make peripheral caries (decay) worse in those that are susceptible. For this reason ideally cereals should be avoided for horses with diastema (gaps) or decay.

Refined sugars eg Molasses/cane sugars - I find it amazing how few owners consider the sugars they feed their horses. Heavily molassed feeds (some chaffs contain 24%+ molasses!!) and sugar based licks can destroy a horse’s teeth in a matter of weeks. Imagine you eat a boiled sweet every day (even if thats only for 10mins once a day) and didn’t brush your teeth, how long would it take for you to get tooth ache? Not long at all! I have had physios tell owners to use treacle licks for their daily stretches and within a matter of weeks they’ve required extensive and expensive dental work to try and manage the damage done. Which takes years to recover! I also regularly see horses on box rest where the owner gives a treacle lick as a boredom breaker, same thing. Some owners have a titbit obsession and give the horses a packet of polos a day, same thing. While some horses seem to manage and have teeth that can cope with this, the majority of horses cannot. Feed-caused caries is probably the most common pathology I see and it’s so infuriating to treat (I will do a post on diastema and peripheral caries separately). Feed companies can’t sell feed that horses won’t eat, so they add molasses and sugars to make them tasty in a cheap way. It is so damaging to the teeth so please check the label even if it says "light" or "lami/ulcer approved".

Apples/Carrots/Swede etc - I don't find natural sugars anywhere near as damaging for the teeth as the refined sugars. Just as I personally don't get that film over my teeth when eating fruit or carrots that I do when eating a boiled sweet.

Bread - this is a pet hate of mine. Particularly white bread. When a client has given their horse bread before I do their teeth, it is a nightmare to get rid of so I can visualise the teeth. It is so sticky!! I can’t say I’ve noticed these horses having bad teeth as a result, I assume they clear it fairly quickly, but it’s just annoying 😅

I think I’ve covered pretty much everything here but if I’ve missed anything, let me know below.

And remember routine dentistry is basic care, whatever the animal is fed on, it’s not just a luxury!

22/10/2024

Sometimes baby incisors need a helping hand too. It’s a very good idea to check your youngsters front teeth regularly. Firstly because you need to know if they have a loose front tooth before you put a bit in so you don’t hurt them by accident, but also because sometimes things don’t go to plan. Sometimes the adult tooth appears and traps the baby tooth. Usually once the baby tooth has been removed, the adult tooth moves into the correct position surprisingly quickly.

Remember routine dentistry is basic care for all equines, not a luxury!

21/10/2024

Just a little video of me popping a loose cap (baby tooth) off for this young horse. He is sedated and has had local anaesthetic ready for his wolf teeth to be extracted (this is the small blobs of blood you can see from the local needle), but this is regularly done with the horses awake and without local. When a cap is ready to come away there is minimal gum attachment and so it is not painful for them. Much like a child losing their milk teeth.

The cap was flapping in the breeze and ready to come out with the adult tooth visible underneath, when looking from the cheek side, and very little gum attachment remaining. Taking it out first made my life easier when it came to extracting the wolf tooth.

I will only ever take a cap off if it is this loose. The cap covers and protects the blood supply to the developing adult tooth underneath so for the adult tooth to develop correctly, it is important not to remove the baby teeth unless they are ready to come. This one would have been lost on its own within the next day or two. It can be uncomfortable for the youngster when a cap is this loose so removing them like this can help the horse be more comfortable. If this tooth was not ready to come out, it would not “pop” off so easily.

Remember, routine dentistry is basic care, not a luxury!

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Videos

As I’m gathering photos to do a post on geriatrics I thought you might like this video. You definitely want the sound up!! ⬆️ 📢 Horse’s teeth are suppose to be rough. We take the sharp edges away but as dental professionals we should always be leaving the horse the rough surface to chew food. Both the roughness and the sharp points are from enamel rims around the outside of the tooth and weaving their way across the surface. The surface enamel wears down over time but the edges often don’t due to domestication and conformation, this is what we file away. But horses don’t have an endless supply of tooth like they do hoof for example. The teeth start out 10-15cm long, hidden under the gum inside the head (the teething bumps of babies are actually the tooth roots). Over the horse’s lifetime the teeth erupt into the mouth as the surface is worn down. When the tooth is nearing the end of its useful life we end up with the top of the root visible in the oral cavity. Just like in humans, the tooth root does not have any enamel. The roughness disappears with the enamel and the cementum and dentine that remains is quite soft in comparison. It’s very quickly worn smooth and ends up shiny and slippery. Hence the squeaking against my glove! It helps to think of the teeth like sand paper. Once sand paper is worn down and at the end of its useful life, it’s smooth. This isn’t painful for the horse but it does make the teeth inefficient. This is the reason why old horses start to struggle eating their forage even when their teeth are seen regularly and they don’t have any pain related reasons to quid (ball up their food). It’s also why we must, as dental professionals, be very careful to never take more than necessary off the surface of the tooth. We should take just enough to keep the mouth in balance and not any more. We should not be flattening normal ridges, only those that are bigger than the others should be reduced. It might seem counter int

Just a little video of me popping a loose cap (baby tooth) off for this young horse. He is sedated and has had local anaesthetic ready for his wolf teeth to be extracted (this is the small blobs of blood you can see from the local needle), but this is regularly done with the horses awake and without local. When a cap is ready to come away there is minimal gum attachment and so it is not painful for them. Much like a child losing their milk teeth. The cap was flapping in the breeze and ready to come out with the adult tooth visible underneath, when looking from the cheek side, and very little gum attachment remaining. Taking it out first made my life easier when it came to extracting the wolf tooth. I will only ever take a cap off if it is this loose. The cap covers and protects the blood supply to the developing adult tooth underneath so for the adult tooth to develop correctly, it is important not to remove the baby teeth unless they are ready to come. This one would have been lost on its own within the next day or two. It can be uncomfortable for the youngster when a cap is this loose so removing them like this can help the horse be more comfortable. If this tooth was not ready to come out, it would not “pop” off so easily. Remember, routine dentistry is basic care, not a luxury!

Did you know, to be on the BAEDT membership list not only do you have to pass the BVDA/BEVA dental exam (which is split into 3 - theory, charting and practical), provide proof of insurance and complete the necessary compliment of CPD (continued professional development) each year. You also have to be reassessed every 3 years to make sure your work is still up to scratch. This includes the vets that hold the EDT qualification like myself too. We work in pairs to do our horses but we are encouraged to walk up and down the line (6 stables, 12 qualifieds and a few students coming for the experience too) and check out each others work too. This keeps us fresh, prevents complacency, keeps us on our toes and makes sure we stay up to date. Personally I think it’s a fabulous idea! It’s also a great excuse to compare equipment (nobody does this better than we do! 🤣🤣) and catch up with mates. No rivalry goes on in this profession. We are all in it for the horses. Thank you to the British Association of Equine Dental Technicians for organising these fabulous days and to every EDT and vet that came for making them so enjoyable. Remember, routine dentistry is basic care, not a luxury!

This little chappy is Bobby. He’s a Shetland and although we don’t know his age, he is well into his 20s based on his teeth. What we do know is he has lived in a field with no dental care for over 15 years prior to arriving at Pets in Need sanctuary in Lancashire. You can see the ulcerations and lacerations in his cheeks from the overgrowths, sharp points and impacted food material. You can also see the large overgrowths at the back, although from this angle you can’t see the resulting holes in his gums opposite. Surprisingly he was actually not particularly underweight although obviously quidding (balling up his hay). The end of the video shows the after photos, although it will take a few more visits to have him fully ship shape. Please remember dental care is a minimum basic requirement, not a luxury! Just because you can’t see the teeth, that doesn’t mean you can ignore them.

Wolf teeth are like ice bergs, you never know what is under the surface! These looked to be very small and I expected them to be easy to remove. How wrong I was! One had a large ball on the end of the root which was very infuriating as it was very loose and moving so freely but just would not come out 🤦‍♀️ The other wolf tooth had a root not much wider than a needle which snapped and was rather fiddly to get out independently. Although not as difficult as the ball rooted one! Never underestimate wolf teeth, they might be small and seem insignificant but they can be an absolute nuisance! To the horse, the rider and the dental practitioner 😅😅😅 As always, routine dentistry is basic care, not a luxury!

I feel like a broken record. How many images of horses and ponies in agony do I have to post before people start checking their horses dental providers credentials?!!! This 24 year old pony has just been taken on loan by a client of mine. She had her teeth done yearly with the owner by “the guy that does the yard”. I hear it all the time, everyone uses him therefore he must be good, right? No!! Obviously her owner is devastated to find out what has been going on in her mouth. Again to be clear, this pony was not quidding, or pulling faces. She is looking after her 7 year old jockey like an absolute saint. She eats every scrap of hay and feed like she’s never eaten before and has good weight. There were no signs at all that she was in so much pain. And yet every bite would be excruciating. I struggled to get a photo of the mouth to do the extent justice so I have taken a video instead. The after is at the end but bear in mind I couldn’t reduce the largest tooth completely so I will be revisiting in a few months to continue the work. At least she won’t be in pain now though. I am not taking on new clients unfortunately but check out the BAEDT website to find a qualified EDT in your area at https://baedt.com/members/ Always remember. Dentistry is basic care, not a luxury!