Baby Teeth

Last night, a friend and I attended a lecture at TNT Equine in Dover NH.   The subject was "Managing Infectious Diseases", however, the speaker, David Pugh, DVM, MS, DACT, DACVN, Fort Dodge Animal Health, also spoke about general equine husbandry...   which includes, among other things, attention to dentistry.



Hearing about the importance of equine dental care was a quiet reminder that in three months time, a couple of my horses are due to see Deme Erickson, DMV, of TNT Equine again for a dental checkup.

Three months ago today, every horse in our barn was checked out by Deme and Super Tech Erin.   For most of the critters, only floating was needed.   However, some of the horses needed a bit more attention.   Especially the babies.



When Ben, 2 and a 1/2 years old, was examined, Deme was surprised to find 4 wolf teeth.   Usually 2 are seen, but he had upper and lower ones.   These little teeth, even if they have not broken through the surface of the gum, can be quite troublesome when training with a bit begins.   Ben also still had caps on his front upper teeth.   So, all of these were removed.   Throughout the whole session, at which these images were captured, Ben was extremely well behaved.   Of course, the mild sedation helped!

That night, Big Ben had 7 teeth to tuck under his pillow for the Horsey Tooth Fairy.   I hear he used the money to buy 35 pounds of carrots, which of course he shared with his pals.