This morning dawned cold and rainy. The perfect day for the vet to come out and get down on his knees to do dental work on Sunny. It just couldn't be helped. Sunny had many sharp points on his teeth and the grain was falling out of his mouth faster than it was going in. Since the vet needed a dry place to run his power equipment and he needed power to run his power equipment Hubby was kind enough to move some of his motorcycles out of the way so we could do the dental work in the garage. Hubby restores vintage motorcycles and has about 15 bikes in varies stages of restoration so it was no easy task. This is another good reason to have a mini...they fit just about anywhere....in between the Honda and the Yamaha. Don't tell Hubby but after all that work we did it under the eaves and used the garage to keep the vet's tools out of the rain. There are a lot of tools in horse dentistry.
First Sunny was measured in order to find his weight. He is 165 lbs. Can you believe that! That gives you an idea of how tiny he is. Then he was sedated. As he fell asleep he was fitted with an attractive mouthpiece and his mouth was pried open. The better to see you with my dear.
The good news is..Sunny has a great mouth for a mini, who are prone to mouth problems. The bad news was he had lots of sharp points and hooks and too many teeth for his mouth. The vet filed all the sharp points and took down all the hooks. There isn't much we can do about too many teeth and luckily it doesn't seem to be causing any problems.
While the vet changed tools Sunny promptly fell asleep on the vet tech's shoe.
They were very impressed with him and said he is in perfect health and perfect weight and was just...well...perfect.
They said not to worry about the clicking in his joints that some horses do that and don't seem to have any problems. It could be from all his time in the kennel doing his figure eight and that caused the stiffness. He is no longer doing the neurotic pacing so with conditioning that should get better.
I guess I did good after all. When will I learn not to awfulize?
I paid my bill and they went on their way. I turned around to my sleepy boy and still had to clean his sheath. (Mom, now would be the time to stop reading) Sure I could have paid the vet to do "it" but how hard could it be? Besides I had Google. While looking up how to do "it" I found this very funny article. I like funny. So I put on my latex gloves and dove in...so to speak.
Sunny put his head on my shoulder and looked at me lovingly. He was having a good day.
21 comments:
Glad EVERYthing went well, Wendy! Gosh, that link does a thorough job of explaining! I presume you got the job done efficiently!
=;)
I'm here to educate Clare. Makes a good case for buying a mare..right?
And yes we got the job done.
darling,is his mouth sore afterwards? gret blog, unique for sure :-)
Joanna, He didn't appear to be sore. But that's the thing with animals, they really can tell you...like Hubby can. He had a root canal today and that's all I've heard about:)
I mean't "can't tell you"
I really need to proof read before I click on publish
meant...I give up
Heh!
That 'dental tool' looks suspiciously like a 9.6volt cordless Makita reciprocating saw... Of course, working horses' teeth probably ought to require power tools - Doing it by hand could be a bit slow.
Once again, yo've spared us the gory details - We thank you! but no doubt, Sunny is your friend for life now. As if he wasn't, already.
;-)
I had Baby Doll's floating done a few months ago and posted pics on my blog, too.
Did your vet use a drill rasp or the old fashioned type?
I was shocked at how long the drill rasp was, but it got the job done fast and easy.
I'm glad Sunny feels so much better now in his mouth. Is his grain staying in where it's supposed to?
And your experience with sheath cleaning just makes me even more grateful I have a mare. Eww
So I just have to know two things.
Why would anyone name a lubricant, used to clean a horse's sheath, after King Arthur's sword?
And, did you end up getting "The Bean"???
I have a newfound repect for you now, you know. lol!
~Lisa
New Mexico
Sunny weighs less than Thor did!! Incredible- my dog really was bigger than some horses! My neighbors had a mini named Mr. T, and we thought it was just hilarious to stand him next to Thor for comparisons on growth! (they were about the same age)
NICE WORK on the sheath cleaning- an icky job that nobody likes. Good thinking to wait til he was on drugs!=)
MaskedMan, The vet had a few different power tools. It made the job go fast. Now about the gory details...don't scroll down, Lisa has asked for them. I'll try to be as delicate as possible. Don't want to offend you...or my mom.
Lisa, The vet used a drill rasp. It was pretty interesting. I learned that a vet not only has to get the job done but he has to be a teacher to the owner that is hanging over his shoulder trying to get a look...and a picture.
I have a pretty good idea why they would name it after King Arhtur's sword:)
And I think I did find the bean but frankly Sunny is pretty short and I had a hard time seeing what I was doing. He was very dirty "down there" and almost capped off. Poor boy. I am sure he feels much better. And it really wasn't that big of a deal so not a good reason NOT to get an even tempered sweet gelding who wants nothing more in is life than to "just be" No raging hormones.
FoxMeadowFarmGirl, Thor was such a great dog. The gentle giant. Did you get your new dog?
Oh yeah. Lisa, Misplaced respect...I'm just cheap. That encourages you to do lots of things on your own.
Oy. That hurts just to look at. I sure hope he got some Peanuts afterward.
So glad I never have to go to the horse dentist!!!
OMG OMG OMG OMG!!! He has cycles?!?!? sorry to forgo Sonnys' dental date, but if your hubby likes bikes you know why I am being rude - its ALL about the bike baby!!! LOL Here are the questions you know are coming. What kind of bikes? Harleys, Indians, Victory's.... *waits with bated breath*
Oh and glad that Sonny is doing well too. :)
Heidi, Sorry to disappoint you but he is a DIRT bike guy. He does have a few street bikes but I think they are all Yamahas. He has some Bultacos, Hondas, Yamahas, Tiger Cubs (I forget what brand that is), Montesas etc. I'm sure he would love an Indian but so far that isn't in the garage waiting for me to bark my shin on the foot peg.
ROFL...I am so glad I don't have to do that to my camel! I am impressed the you decided to do 'it' yourself...true farm girl! Kim
Kim, I wouldn't want to do "that" to a camel. And why a camel? I am so curious how you ended up with a camel.
OMG - is it just me or are you getting FUNNIER?
Love the pic of Sonny sleeping on the vet's foot.
And I am so impressed that you did the sheath-cleaning on your own!
Well, alright, I've got a question. I just read the link on the sheath-cleaning procedure and I really need to say 1) yuck! and 2) whenever I read about invasive processes like this, I immediately wonder what wild male horses do when humans aren't around to help. Or did I misunderstand and this is specifically a gelding-only needed procedure?
(I'm even more impressed with you after having read that overview!) :-)
OK farmgirl at the risk of offending my mother and maskedman I will answer your question. I wondered the same and read that also while googling. In the wild there are only stallions that breed mares and it gets cleaned off that way. And yuck is right.
I hope I'm getting funnier because I LIKE FUNNY.
Oh, I'm not offended by gory details (I was a submariner - You're going to be hard-pressed to find a group more comfortable with gory details), but I was (and am) impressed with your ability to dance around the nasty details whilst still conveying the essence of the matter. That's a rather impressive variety of wordsmithery.
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