Today I took Dustry to have his dental work, and what was suspected additional bone spurs or wolf teeth turned out to be wolf teeth! A year and a half ago Dustry had bone spurs (probably caused during his racing days by harsh use of a chifney) removed from his upper jaw (click here to read that blog entry) and every 6 months he has his teeth checked and rasped, this time the EDT detected something where the bones spurs used to be which needed further investigation. Today we drove to renowned EDT and dental expert Bob Livock to have them removed. On inspection it seems that the initial bone spurs had prevented his wolf teeth from dropping down and through the gum, and it has taken all this time (a year and a half) for them to come out! After a sedative and painkiller from the vet Bob removed the wolf teeth and also 2 small baby teeth from his lower jaw which should have fallen out of their own accord by now, but hadn’t. I was surprised by how small the wolf teeth were (approx 0.5cm long) but also when I felt inside his mouth prior to them being removed how flexible they were when you touched them!
Because the treatment was less intrusive than his previous bone spur removal he will only need to have a few days off to recover, as the small holes should heal quickly. Hopefully this will be the end of the invasive dental treatment he will need and everything should just be routine rasping from now on. It’s so crucial to have regular dental check ups for your horse. For more info on wolf teeth and what they are click here