Post by Jenni on Oct 30, 2014 11:17:14 GMT -5
Took Smokey for his dentist appt yesterday. I knew it was going to be bad. He is thin and most of his hay comes back out in wads. He had started gaining some weight on senior feed but had dropped a bunch of weight when it got cold the last couple weeks and the grass quit growing. I could feel on the outside of his face how bad his teeth were. Vet got him opened up and said "I've got bad news - it's going to probably take a couple trips to get this done..." Poor little guy had somehow lost his last molar on the upper right and the lower right molar had grown into and beyond that space so it was creating a hole in the roof of his mouth back there. He showed me what was going on and I was amazed. It was like a tower sticking up in the back of his mouth!
So the vet went to work and after a few minutes discovered more bad news - the farthest back molar on the bottom left was very loose - had to come out. When he got it out it was only a partial tooth - somewhere along the way he had fractured and lost the other part. The rest of his mouth was a mess of sharpness and uneven surfaces due to his inability to move his mouth properly for the past couple years. The vet tech even took a pic of it for one of the other vets to use in his upcoming talk about the importance of equine dental care. She texted the pic to me but I can't figure out how to get it from my phone to my computer.
Vet wasn't able to completely get the tower tooth down - knocked it down about half way but was worried that anymore would kill the tooth. I have to take him back in 3-4 months to get it the rest of the way. I have no doubt he would have died before spring without dental care - either from starvation or from infection as that tooth wore through into the sinus. A week of antibiotics and rinsing out his mouth with salt water and he gets senior feed and fat supplements until he puts on some weight.
I got him home and we served up his supper laced with meds which he was more than happy to scarf down.
In other news, we took Smokey on his first overnight trail ride last weekend. When we got there our campsite was still occupied - check out time 4:00 and the people in that spot were using their full time. The day parking was in the middle of the campground and was packed. Finally I found someone who was in their truck waiting for their daughter who offered to move over a bit so we could squeeze in. I had expected to be able to pull into my spot and have electric so had brought a pizza and pizza pizazz to make for lunch. Hmm - Plan B - found some people who were already in a nearby spot and ask if I could use their electric. No problem they said..and I set up the Pizazz on their tailgate, lol. Then Kelsey and I went for a ride. My mom went with and Caiden decided he would stay with her. We went out for about 2 hours and when we got back our camping spot was open so we were able to get settled in.
Sunday morning it was COLD - 27 degrees. Heater in the trailer worked ok but to get out and go to the bathroom and get the horses fed was not very fun. It warmed up pretty quickly once the sun came out. We did some hiking and then I went out on the trail with both kids. Caiden sang during most of the ride. It was a super easy trail - wide, flat and sandy. I am pretty sure I could have just let Caiden go and Smokey would have followed right along perfectly. When we got back to the campground I let him ride all by himself back to the trailer. Smokey was unfazed by the whole situation and the 2 ponies and Izzie did wonderfully tied on the high line all night.
Then we had to clean up and go home. Caiden insisted on helping. I wasn't about to tell him no...but I also wanted to get out of there before midnight so I went down the row to a campsite to where some ladies were sitting at a picnic table and explained the situation and asked to borrow their poop fork. No problem. One of them had seen us out on the trail and wanted to know where I had found such good ponies!
So the vet went to work and after a few minutes discovered more bad news - the farthest back molar on the bottom left was very loose - had to come out. When he got it out it was only a partial tooth - somewhere along the way he had fractured and lost the other part. The rest of his mouth was a mess of sharpness and uneven surfaces due to his inability to move his mouth properly for the past couple years. The vet tech even took a pic of it for one of the other vets to use in his upcoming talk about the importance of equine dental care. She texted the pic to me but I can't figure out how to get it from my phone to my computer.
Vet wasn't able to completely get the tower tooth down - knocked it down about half way but was worried that anymore would kill the tooth. I have to take him back in 3-4 months to get it the rest of the way. I have no doubt he would have died before spring without dental care - either from starvation or from infection as that tooth wore through into the sinus. A week of antibiotics and rinsing out his mouth with salt water and he gets senior feed and fat supplements until he puts on some weight.
I got him home and we served up his supper laced with meds which he was more than happy to scarf down.
In other news, we took Smokey on his first overnight trail ride last weekend. When we got there our campsite was still occupied - check out time 4:00 and the people in that spot were using their full time. The day parking was in the middle of the campground and was packed. Finally I found someone who was in their truck waiting for their daughter who offered to move over a bit so we could squeeze in. I had expected to be able to pull into my spot and have electric so had brought a pizza and pizza pizazz to make for lunch. Hmm - Plan B - found some people who were already in a nearby spot and ask if I could use their electric. No problem they said..and I set up the Pizazz on their tailgate, lol. Then Kelsey and I went for a ride. My mom went with and Caiden decided he would stay with her. We went out for about 2 hours and when we got back our camping spot was open so we were able to get settled in.
Sunday morning it was COLD - 27 degrees. Heater in the trailer worked ok but to get out and go to the bathroom and get the horses fed was not very fun. It warmed up pretty quickly once the sun came out. We did some hiking and then I went out on the trail with both kids. Caiden sang during most of the ride. It was a super easy trail - wide, flat and sandy. I am pretty sure I could have just let Caiden go and Smokey would have followed right along perfectly. When we got back to the campground I let him ride all by himself back to the trailer. Smokey was unfazed by the whole situation and the 2 ponies and Izzie did wonderfully tied on the high line all night.
Then we had to clean up and go home. Caiden insisted on helping. I wasn't about to tell him no...but I also wanted to get out of there before midnight so I went down the row to a campsite to where some ladies were sitting at a picnic table and explained the situation and asked to borrow their poop fork. No problem. One of them had seen us out on the trail and wanted to know where I had found such good ponies!
