Saturday, April 12, 2008

Day With the Dentist

I got a phone call last night at work... the horse dentist was in town, did any of mine need their teeth done? This was a relief, I'd tried to e-mail his wife a few weeks ago wondering when he'd be in town but had not heard back. The large animal clinic at the university is under quarantine, and I don't really like the "power float" method they insist on.
A quick conversation had our arrangements made and what do you know? Yup, another early morning for me!
Arrived at "the ranch" just before 9:30 and Mr Dentist was already there, hanging out at the corral visiting the horses while he waited for me to show up.
After a quick exchange of pleasantries we got to work (there were 6 head at our place and then we were heading to a friend's) Started with Kimfer's gelding (Baron, the injured one) and I was glad we did as he needed some sedation. As Mr Dentist said "he has definite ideas about what should and should not be going into his mouth". Baron didn't need a lot of work done but he had some sharp edges. While waiting for Baron to come out of the sedative I got Cessa and we had a look at her teeth. Mr Dentist decided that her teeth were doing much better this time around, and because of her age there isn't a lot of tooth left for him to float so he just evened out a few rough spots and gave her front teeth a better fit.
Next up was the Appy, now he was a bit of a handful! He was very well behaved for most of the float but when the time came to put the speculum on he became a bit less cooperative. No sedation was needed, just some patience and convincing. Then Kimfer's dad's two TWH gelding were next. One was just examined and needed no work, the other had just a few sharp spots to take off. Last of all was my dun gelding, and once again just a few rough spots. Mr Dentist wasn't making too much money here! He charged me $75 for the Appy, $20 for my dun and nothing for the old mare. Kimfer owed $100 for Baron and her dad owed nothing.
After watering the horses I showed Mr Dentist where my friend's place was and he was off to work again (hopefully making a bit more money there!)

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