Complete Equine Dental Maintenance

23/08/2021

Placing this here since it is proving too difficult to delete just my business page:

Time for a sea change. Just sent this to all of my clients. Onward! 💜

After 23 years of caring for your equine friends, I am retiring as of June 1st.

I am excited to announce that Dr. Kris Anderson [https://www.facebook.com/EquineMobilevVet/; [email protected] ] has purchased my mobile dental practice, Complete Equine Dental Maintenance. Dr. Anderson was my first choice for succession and I am thrilled to pass the torch to her. A native Texan, currently based in Santa Fe, Dr. Anderson is an established mobile equine veterinarian and will continue to come to you!. Most importantly, Dr. Anderson and I agree on the fundamental approach to the mouth and its care. This was critical for me to feel comfortable to move on. The sale of my practice includes my portable stock, all of my dental records, and the same business phone [713.864.7353] so that continuity of care will be maximized. You will hear more from me as Dr. Anderson and I prepare for the final transition.

I, along with my various four legged companions, Houdi, Woody and most recently Hudson, have been honored to care for your horses’ mouths over the past two decades. You have welcomed us into your lives, a true gift that has made this journey so rich. Now is the right time for me to shift gears. Twelve years ago I developed chronic fatigue (CFS) after a routine viral infection. As I get older, and with longer and hotter summers, (heat exacerbates CFS), I am having a harder time recovering from my daily routine. I look forward to heading to cooler temperatures in the Northeast coast and spending more precious moments with my parents.

Thank you for your business and friendship, I will miss you!

Carrie

Primarily equine veterinarian, with focus on equine dentistry and soft tissue surgery in the field. 100% mobile. Emergency and after hours services.

10/01/2021

Dental Fun Fact: When managing the weight of an older horse (over 20), I recommend following the motto: a good offense is a good defense. Regularly monitoring body condition so adjustments can be made before your horse loses too much weight.

As horse's age they naturally lose grinding surface area (due to wear of the enamel on the chewing surface). See photos of individual teeth. Even with some wear, older horses can still chew and grind grass. These horses will look healthy (Body condition score (BCS) 5/9: don't worry about the number: ask yourself: can you see ribs) Assessing the BCS at Halloween or Thanksgiving (depending upon where you live) is a recommended check point. The summer grass is dying off/or is gone and now the older horse is more dependent on the long (and stemmier) hay. This will take them longer to chew (if they can grind it at all) so their additional energy needs will come from their skeleton.

If ribs are seen at this fall checkpoint, the diet should be adjusted (increasing the calories per bite) so your horse can gain weight before the cold/wet winter days. The goal is to prevent your horse from coming out of the winter having lost several hundred pounds which will take months to regain. (see photo below)

23/02/2020

Dental Fun Fact: Horse's teeth are classified as being radicular hyposodont teeth. They form a root after eruption and have a tall reserve crown. The tooth is held into its respective socket by a complex combinations of fibers, for this discussion, simply referred to as the periodontal ligament. The picture below shows how the periodontal ligament changes in structure as the tooth ages: develops a root and then gets shorter and shorter.

06/12/2019

Dental Fun Fact: Horses do not get all of their permanent teeth until they are 5 yrs old. So, if you have a young horse, especially one less than 3 yrs of age, please take the time to examine the incisors so you are not caught off guard when the new permanent teeth start to appear. It is not uncommon for me to get a panic call/txt from an owner about a possible fractured tooth, when in fact the horse is just losing a baby tooth.

The first photo shows a horse with all baby incisors (front teeth). They are smaller and whiter than the permanent teeth.

The middle photo shows how the baby tooth is lost, with the permanent pushing from behind. This normally starts when horses are 2.5 yrs old.

The last photo shows the complete eruption of the upper central incisors. The lowers two central teeth should erupt shortly.

24/11/2019

Dental Fun Fact: It is important to always remember that horse's teeth, unlike their feet, erupt and wear over time. They do not grow. Newly erupted cheek teeth are approximately 3 inches long. With age these teeth will get shorter and shorter. And when horses are in their late teens and twenties, their teeth will get smoother and smoother as the enamel on the chewing surface wears. These horses will continue to eat hay but it will take longer to consume the same amount. So, they lose weight. [see photo] These horses need their mouths examined to make sure nothing is sharp or loose but that dental work will not allow them to eat hay better. Owners often think that because the dental didn't take very long, their horse's mouth is in good shape. The reality is that the dental examination and correction are short because there are very few teeth left. For example, in the photo shown, the main objective of my work is to remove the pain caused by the tooth remnant cutting into this horse's left cheek. Removing pain will certainly help the horse feel better but it will not gain weight if the diet is not changed. This horse needs a diet that offers the forage and calories in a manner it can digest and in enough quantity (lbs) to meet its caloric needs to gain weight. Horses eat roughly 2% of their body weight, so 20 lbs of feed for the average 1000 lb horse.

21/10/2019

Dental Fun Fact: In this entry I wanted to remind everyone that there is a horse attached to the teeth being examined and that soul needs to be respected. Which is why, if a client has more than one horse to be examined, I take the time to determine the right order of go.

Most clients want to do the hardest horse first. But if that horse is scared of my stock or the noise, and the other horses see (or hear) the commotion, they are going to be much more wary when it is their turn. This may translate in the need for added sedative.

So, instead of the most difficult horse, I want to start with the easiest. The one who will take all of the change I am bringing to them to process for that day in stride. This sets a positive, relaxed tone for the rest of the group.

Most often my clients have two horses which are quite bonded to one other. In those situations I will, whenever feasible, have the buddy within sight of my stock when I am working on the other. And I will sedate and examine the horse that gets most anxious about being left first so he/she is sleepy when the other is worked on.

20/07/2019

Dental Fun Fact: Horse's teeth are normally stained (referred to as extrinsic staining). Unlike humans, the exposed crown (the part we see) is covered with a living tissue called cementum. Cementum is critical to the life of the tooth and is porous so it picks up the stain from the grass and soil.

Intrinsic staining (ie when the tooth is darker on the inside) can indicate damage, especially if the tooth is much darker than its pair on the other side of the mouth.

13/07/2019

Dental Fun Fact: Horses don't need brushing or flossing (both of which can be actually harmful), They need range of motion. Horses chew side to side and the larger the distance they move their jaws side to side (range of motion) the better. A large range of motion allows them to 1) lose their baby teeth in a more natural way and in the right order, 2) keep their upper and lower cheek teeth erupting at the same rate, and 3) minimize the formation of the sharp enamel points that have to be filed off.

And horses achieve the best range of motion by chewing grass.

11/04/2019

Friday Fun Fact: Examining young horses is important. Case in point. This baby tooth fragment was found wedged in between the newly erupted tooth and the adjacent tooth. Normally the roots of the baby tooth are resorped as the permanent tooth erupts from underneath. The picture of the baby tooth often found (commonly referred to as a "cap") shows the loss of the underlying roots. The long roots on the fragment are perhaps one reason why this portion of the baby tooth was retained in the mouth. Left in place this fragment will cause local infection, pain and often chewing issues.

11/04/2019

Complete Equine Dental Maintenance

01/03/2019

If your horse gets the gift to live long enough it will invariably lose weight sometime during its 20's. The natural age related loss of grinding surface will force your horse to take longer and longer to eat the regular amount of long stem hay. The difference in caloric intake will come at the expense of the horse’s body and suddenly the horse will appear to have lost a lot of weight. While in fact it has lost weight a little bit at a time. These horses can regain weight.

The keys are to offer a diet high in fiber but also one that contains enough fat to allow for weight gain. Feeding multiple times a day while first being more physiologic will allow the horse the opportunity to digest small amounts at a time and will also prevent the horse from being presented such a large amount of feed that it takes too long for it to eat. Clinically I have found that if horses are asked to eat more than 30 to 45 minutes at a time they won’t finish it.

01/02/2019

Friday Fun Fact: Horse's teeth do not grow over time. Permanent incisors, canines and cheek teeth contain a tall crown, most of it residing below the gum line (reserve crown). Incisors and cheek teeth erupt and wear throughout the life of these teeth. Canines do not. They minimally erupt and thus maintain a long reserve crown.

25/01/2019

Friday Fun Fact: There is common confusion between wolf teeth and canines.

Canines, as shown in last week's post, are fully formed in males. Wolf teeth can be found in stallions, geldings and mares.

Canines are positioned right behind the incisors. They are therefore easily seen if you part your horses' lips. Wolf teeth are not.

Wolf teeth are similar to our wisdom teeth as they represent vestigial forms of an additional molar horses used to have. But unlike our wisdom teeth, these teeth appear in the front of the rest of the cheek teeth.

Wolf teeth are commonly extracted to minimize any potential interference with the bit. That will depend on the location of these teeth. Canines are not routinely extracted but they are commonly shortened, something that needs to be done very carefully to prevent exposing this tooth's pulp system (blood vessels and nerves).

25/01/2019

18/01/2019

Friday Fun Fact: Horse's canines are located just behind the incisors. These teeth are testosterone based teeth so they are fully formed in stallions and geldings. ([Left photo]The upper and lower canines do not touch one another so they do not have any chewing function. Rather they are present for fighting. Small vestigial canines can occasionally be found in mares. [R photo]

16/12/2018

Friday Fun Fact (last of 2018): The horse's facial crest [line of bone running down the side of the face] is a common landmark for radiographs since it marks the approximate middle/center of the arcade (row of six teeth).

07/12/2018

Friday Fun Fact: While imaging techniques have certainly improved over the years, understanding the complex anatomy within the horses' head is still difficult. Standard procedure should be to radiograph the "normal" side as well as the affected side (side with the potential tooth issue). The unaffected side serves as a baseline for what is normal for that horse.

Case in point. I was asked to evaluate a horse that had drainage near it's left eye. An abscessed tooth with a draining tract extending out the side of the face was suspected from the initial radiographs. Below are the follow up films I took. [And yes, the right side is blurry but was diagnostic enough so not re-taken]. The pronounced line of bone extending from the tooth was thought to be the draining tract. However, the same pronounced bone was found on the unaffected ( right) side. So, this is normal for this horse. Most likely a pronounced suture [joint between the facial bones]. The lesion on the horse's face in question healed with antibiotics.

02/12/2018

Friday Fun Fact: Horses have several sinuses (air filled sacs) within their head. Their function is really unknown. Making the head lighter is one possibility. Most of the time these sinuses are ignored, until a tooth, whose roots sit in one of these sinuses, gets infected and the infection spreads up the root into the sinus. Once the sinus fills up with pus/fluid it will start to drain out of the horse's nose. This drainage is one sided and will have an odor that you can smell once you enter the barn. The schematics below show the orientation of the teeth with two major sinuses: rostral and caudal maxillary sinuses. Infection in either one of these will lead to a nasal discharge.

24/11/2018

Friday Fun Fact: Miniature horses have two common dental issues: 1) An underbite: where the upper jaw is shorter than the lower jaw and 2) Crowding: Miniatures have the same number and size teeth as an adult horse. The third cheek tooth, which erupts last (at 4 yrs) is often the one that gets into trouble since there is not enough room for it to erupt properly.

17/11/2018

Friday Fun Fact: As horses teeth erupt and wear, they deposit additional dentin to protect the underlying pulp and nerve tissue. This secondary dentin picks up stain making identification of the various pulp horns feeding each tooth easy. Each dark area on the images below represent a pulp horn/canal. Maxillary or upper teeth are wider than the mandibular or lower counterparts.

11/11/2018

A terrific tribute.

Happy to all , current/former faculty/staff members, and Community members who have served! Exactly 100 years ago today, World War I officially ended. Sixty-nine Mount Hermon alumni gave their lives for their country in The Great War, from 1914-1918, and will be honored today (alongside several family members) at 11:00 am at Memorial Grove; the grove of 69 trees planted by the Class of 1928 in their honor. This will include a reading of their names, bagpiping, bells rolling and brief remarks.

📸: Jay Merrill (top)
Northfield Mount Hermon Archives (bottom)

09/11/2018

Friday Fun Fact: Unopposed teeth naturally super erupt in an effort to make contact with the opposite arcade. Since crowns/implants are not possible in horses, regular and perhaps more frequent examinations are needed to adjust the eruption of any unopposed teeth (most commonly secondary to extractions). Reductions are done carefully to avoid any pulp exposures but the surface grinding mimics naturally chewing, setting off intrinsic mechanisms within the tooth to slow eruption. The photos show examples of very tall teeth that have been left to super erupt.

02/11/2018

Friday Fun Fact: Unlike people, dogs and cats, horses' teeth do not need to be cleaned. Cleaning will actually be harmful. The exposed crowns of horse's teeth are covered by cementum, which is a live dental tissue critical for supporting the internal enamel. The cementum is porous, leading to normal staining from grass and soil pigments.

25/10/2018

Friday Fun Fact: It is normal for the masseter muscle, the large muscle found on the each side of the horse's lower jaws/face to atrophy as the horse ages. The grey horse pictured is older than the bay.

14/10/2018

Friday Fun Fact: The last permanent cheek teeth erupt at 4 yrs of age and have to navigate a space in between two established permanent teeth. Oral examinations are therefore recommended every 6 months until these teeth are safely in place to identify any issues that may hinder their eruption.

05/10/2018

Friday Fun Fact: Horses have 12 baby (deciduous) cheek teeth that are lost between 2.5-4 yrs of age. Retained baby teeth can cause chewing issues as well as abscessation of the underlying permanent tooth. These "caps" should only be removed when the underlying permanent tooth is visible and the "cap" is loose.

28/09/2018

Friday Fun Fact: Careful attention to the normal eruption of permanent teeth is critical to identify and correct problems early. The owner of this 3 yr old noticed something wrong. Radiographs confirmed the existence of an extra incisor that needed to be extracted.

07/09/2018

Friday Fun Fact: Permanent incisors are naturally wider and yellower than the baby [deciduous] precursors. In this photo the upper central (middle) incisors are permanent, while the rest of the incisors are baby (deciduous).

03/09/2018

Friday Fun Fact: Older horses are at a higher risk of developing an impaction due to their diminished grinding ability. [Photo shows how smooth the upper cheek teeth have gotten in this horse]

Any change in the quality or quantity of manure produced is an early indicator that the feed is not moving through the horse's intestines like it should.

03/08/2018

Friday Fun Fact: Horses younger than 5 years old can develop swellings in their upper or lower jaw. These eruption bumps occur as the bone is responding to the eruption of the new permanent teeth. Eruption bumps should be symmetric and not painful or warm to the touch. An oral exam and radiographs should be scheduled if the swellings are not equal left and right as shown in the photos below.

27/07/2018

Friday Fun Fact: Horses eat approximately 2% of their body weight daily (ie A total of 20 lbs for the average 1000 lb horse). The grain portion should not exceed 50% of the total. Do you know how many pounds of grain your horse is eating each day?

20/07/2018

Friday Fun Fact: Horse’s teeth do not grow. Horses are born with a finite amount of tooth that erupts and wears over the course of their life.

13/07/2018

Friday Fun Fact: These before and after photos illustrate that even older horses can improve body condition and top line scores if offered sufficient ( in pounds) forage in a form that correlates with their grinding ability.

07/07/2018

Finally resurrecting the Friday Fun Fact series: The length and width of the corner incisor is a useful indicator to establish an age range for a horse without any papers: 1) The tooth is wider than it is tall when horses are between 5-9 yrs old. 2) The tooth is square in shape when the horse is 9-10. 3) The tooth is distinctly taller than it is wide once the horse reaches 15yrs of age.

22/09/2017

Friday Dental Fun Fact: As horse's teeth erupt and wear, the pulp cavities retract and the tooth lays down more dentine ( called secondary dentine since it is produced after the tooth has erupted) in between the chewing surface and the tip of the pulp cavity. This prevents regular exposure of this pulp cavity. The secondary dentine is quite porous so it picks up the stain from the grass and soil, thus making the distinct dark spots that can be identified during the oral exam.