Horse Dental Work

While our mililtary vet was floating teeth last week, she noticed that one of our horses had a cracked tooth. Not just cracked but physically separated in the jaw. We scheduled the horse, Kidd, for surgery up at Arizona Equine in Gilbert (near Phoenix). It takes three hours to drive up there and any treatment at AZ Equine is expensive so we don't make these decisions lightly. We took him up today with the intention of dropping him off and then picking him up again tomorrow but the doctor said he could get it done while we waited (only another three hours). Our military vet and vet technician showed up to observe the procedure, so Debbie and I went and found some place cool to have lunch and kill time and left Kidd in their capable hands. When we returned, the surgery was done and Kidd was waking up in his hospital pen. They had removed the tooth by cutting a hole through his sinus cavity and driving the tooth out with a center punch and hammer. Our vet tech filmed the procedure. They saved the tooth for us which will go into my museum of spare horse parts. Someday, I will be able to assemble a complete horse with spare parts. Frankenhorse.