Elegance had her third dental visit and second power tool dental procedure on March 1, 2016. She was ready for another adjustment as I saw her starting to avoid the long stem hay and searching for the fine stuff that falls out during their selecting what hay to eat. Also, washing her mouth out every 3 or 4 days showed more packing between her left upper dental arcade and her cheek. My equine dentist sent me a mouth washing tool, bless his heart. What is used is called a “drencher” for sheep and cattle if you care to look up what those look like. Here is what her mouth looks like after he finished. Please note how “short” her right side lower molars are. This is from years of over grinding on the right side. What he told both myself and my veterinarian, who was present for the special sedation she needs for this type of dentistry, is he isn’t trying to make both sides of her mouth look the same. He is balancing each side to itself. The two sides will never look “equal”. He said if this problem had been caught when she was young it could have…
What a difference a dental visit makes! Before I show pictures of Elegance’s teeth before and after her dental work, let me first show an equine dental numbering chart : The Triadan system in the horse. Based on an image supplied by David Crossley My previous post showed Elegance’s upper left premolars and molars having a 45 degree wear angle. Now, with her sedated and her head supported by a padded “Y” stand, I can show you pictures of her mouth before the equine dentist, Ron Panarelli EqDP, began his work. N Her condition is called “Shear Mouth”. This is a condition that develops over years. They are not born with this and it is preventable. Notice all the chewed hay stuck between her teeth on the left side and her cheek. Also notice how swollen the tissues on the inside of her left cheek look. This picture was taken AFTER a thorough rinsing of her mouth. Here is what her lower jaw on the left side looked at before Ron began his work. As you can see the angle of her lower molars and premolars is the mirror image of her upper molars and premolars. Because the teeth on the left had…
The equine dentist I have been using for the past 4 years, Ron (he was recommended by my previous dentist, Larry, when he retired), visited Elegance yesterday October 9, 2015. He palpated her entire jaw line on both sides, checked how much chewing motion she had, and checked her TMJ area before he looked inside her mouth. And what he found when he did made me gasp as I looked over his shoulder. Her left upper side molars were worn at about a 45 degree angle from the inside edge of the tooth to the outside edge of the tooth. You can see all the hay packed between her molars and her cheek because she can’t move her jaw cleanly to the left without running into those upper teeth. She lacks a level chewing surface so she gets very little masticated correctly and she gives up eating sooner than a normal horse because of the pain associated with eating. Needless to say the other molars, both lower left and right side upper and lower are affected. So you know what a normal left side molar area should look like here is the same picture of Fin DeSiecle CF 1999cm taken…
Meet the newest member of my little herd: Elegance CF 2001gm Darlene Summers graciously allowed me to acquired this mare from her after I fell head over heels for her the first time I met her in August of 2015. These pictures were taken the morning after I’d brought her to my place in September 2015. She looks pretty good in the left photo. She doesn’t look underweight to me based on the amount of fat (just right) covering her ribs. But the picture on the right shows a backbone that is somewhat prominent and hips that aren’t nicely rounded. You might think this is just an angular mare, however when you see her in person you are struck by the fact that she has no muscling anywhere except the underside of her neck (she’s big on the “listening horse” stance). And she is 100% Davenport and they tend to be nicely rounded Arabians. Elegance has been trained to ride and was ridden more than just occasionally before she delivered her first foal in May 2012. She has been ridden sporadically since and not at all in the last year. Still, she should have more muscle that she does. If she’s…