During the summer I had issues with my horse tossing his head, I chalked it up to irritation with flies as he is sensitive. Now that it’s colder and the flies are gone the head flinging is even worse so I took a look in his mouth and one of his incisors is chipped and broken. I messaged my vet and she said it’s up to me to remove it or not but he would need to go to an equine hospital to have it done. Has anyone else dealt with this? Would head tossing be related to the tooth? Is it better to keep the tooth or remove? Thanks!!
Seems to me that, depending on the severity of the chip, a veterinarian should make that decision.
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Vet said it’s up to me that’s why I’m asking
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Your vet is unwilling to deal with this, so I would take him in to the vet hospital and get it assessed, and potentially removed if they think that’s what is causing the problem.
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If it’s causing discomfort (head tossing) I think the decision is made for you.
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Had a young horse arrive with 2 damaged front incisors after a
Cross country trip.
Equine dentist suggested we remove one and just file/leave
The other. Extracted the one on the farm, no big deal.
Never had any further problems.
He could eat grass just fine.
Have you had a veterinary dental specialist evaluate? That would be my first step. Not doing anything doesn’t seem tenable given that it’s clearly bothering the horse. Get a vet dentist’s opinion, though.
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My horse ended up with a broken incisor as his EOTRH progressed. It broke while I was waiting for an appointment with the vet who specializes in dentistry. He was already uncomfortable before the tooth had a large part break off so can’t say how uncomfortable that tooth in particular was compared to the other problems but he was immensely more comfortable and less fussy with his head and eating when the painful teeth were removed.
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My apologies…I realize that. I wasn’t clear. I would get a second opinion, and if that means hauling to the vet school, that’s what I would do.
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I’d ask for a second opinion with dental xrays to assess the root for damage, especially since he’s reactive about the tooth.
We’ve had a couple here who have managed to break incisors playing in turnout. One actually pulled the tooth out completely, and needed xray assessment to ensure he hadn’t left any tooth behind in the gum. The other just cracked his tooth, and it has done well on its own left alone. The second horse had the option of going to a specialist for removal or just waiting, but as he wasn’t reactive, his owner chose to wait and see.
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If it was me, I would ask my vet for a referral to the equine hospital to get a second opinion on what the best coarse of action is.
It is never bad that someone admits that something is not in their field of expertise.
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I had a horse who was involved in a nearly terminal accident. There were numerous injuries, and two race track vets were keen to put her down. My own vet worked hard and saved her, and she survived. The broken incisor was the least of her issues, and we left it until we found out if she was going to live or die. She chose to live. When that became apparent, the “dentist” many of us used at our local racetrack and had the blessings of the veterinarians did the job of removing the broken tooth, dug it out. It was a non event. He did the job at the farm, and the horse recovered no problem. It was nearly 20 years ago now I guess.
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Can you get an equine dentist to take a look? My late ottb chipped off part of one of his front teeth, I trucked him out to an equine dentist (was a vet that specialized in dentistry). They checked the tooth (x-rays I think, it was quite awhile ago) and just ended up filing it so there were no sharp points etc. It never gave him any problems afterwards.
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