The horses had their teeth floated on May 9th 2013. They had not been floated in two years. Before that, they had been floated once a year, using "powerfloat".
Dentistry is another one of those subjects were I had, until now, given away full responsibility to my vets. And they always performed powerfloats. Only recently did I become aware of the fact that there are also those who criticize powerfloats and advocate manual floats (see this website of further information).
So here is another one of those topics, where the average horse owner has to make a decision, based on very limited information and knowledge.
I personally contacted one of those "Natural Balance Dentists" but never heard back. This is the problem with rural Indiana and with just two horses. One does not have very many treatment options.
So I went with my vet who did a regular power float. Good thing about that was that I learned something new, about Molly, where I had no idea about before, namely that she has a "wave mouth".
A wave mouth can be seen here:
Because Molly was sedated I could have a long and detailed look in her mouth. My vet did not mind to wait for my to try and get some pictures. I had never before personally looked in her mouth. I noticed the wave immediately and said: "Oh, there is a wave"! My vet did not seem to be concerned about that and and I had no idea what it was and that it was a regular "condition". By the evening, I had forgotten all about it, but the next morning I typed in Google: "Wave, teeth, horse" and to my surprise found a lot of information on "wave mouth". It seems to be very common. Unfortunately, opinions differ on whether this is a normal condition or should be corrected. I have not done enough research to decide on that. The only problem I could see is that the horse would restrict its range of motion with the jars at chewing, but then, given I have never seen any problems on Molly with her chewing, I am not sure if it affects her at all. I actually think most of the chewing motion is sideways. But again, I need to read up on that some more.
Below is a picture of Molly's upper left teeth, the wave is visible if one knows it is there. It is not huge, but 100% there when looking in the mouth in person.
Unfortunately, I only had a very brief look in Gus mouth. He kept moving backwards and the Vet wanted me to stand by his bud to make him realize there is no way backwards. During the brief look I had I did not see the wave. But I really should have had a more detailed look at the end. Unfortunately, I was just happy that this whole thing was over and then forgot about it.
I just found this picture. A dead mustang in Nevada, having a wave mouth:
Dentistry is another one of those subjects were I had, until now, given away full responsibility to my vets. And they always performed powerfloats. Only recently did I become aware of the fact that there are also those who criticize powerfloats and advocate manual floats (see this website of further information).
So here is another one of those topics, where the average horse owner has to make a decision, based on very limited information and knowledge.
I personally contacted one of those "Natural Balance Dentists" but never heard back. This is the problem with rural Indiana and with just two horses. One does not have very many treatment options.
So I went with my vet who did a regular power float. Good thing about that was that I learned something new, about Molly, where I had no idea about before, namely that she has a "wave mouth".
A wave mouth can be seen here:
Because Molly was sedated I could have a long and detailed look in her mouth. My vet did not mind to wait for my to try and get some pictures. I had never before personally looked in her mouth. I noticed the wave immediately and said: "Oh, there is a wave"! My vet did not seem to be concerned about that and and I had no idea what it was and that it was a regular "condition". By the evening, I had forgotten all about it, but the next morning I typed in Google: "Wave, teeth, horse" and to my surprise found a lot of information on "wave mouth". It seems to be very common. Unfortunately, opinions differ on whether this is a normal condition or should be corrected. I have not done enough research to decide on that. The only problem I could see is that the horse would restrict its range of motion with the jars at chewing, but then, given I have never seen any problems on Molly with her chewing, I am not sure if it affects her at all. I actually think most of the chewing motion is sideways. But again, I need to read up on that some more.
Below is a picture of Molly's upper left teeth, the wave is visible if one knows it is there. It is not huge, but 100% there when looking in the mouth in person.
Unfortunately, I only had a very brief look in Gus mouth. He kept moving backwards and the Vet wanted me to stand by his bud to make him realize there is no way backwards. During the brief look I had I did not see the wave. But I really should have had a more detailed look at the end. Unfortunately, I was just happy that this whole thing was over and then forgot about it.
I just found this picture. A dead mustang in Nevada, having a wave mouth:
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