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  Discussion on "Yearly" power floating necessary?
Author Message
Member:
lindac

Posted on Friday, Feb 8, 2008 - 10:12 am:

DrO,
For the last couple of years my horse has been having issues after having his teeth done (power floated). He eats his grain normally, but does not want to eat his hay, and when he does, he quids. (Note: he's always been fine before having his teeth done) When this first happened a couple of years ago I spoke to the dentist and he was quite surprised that my horse was having these issues. I have used this dentist (he is not a vet) for about 10+ years and this is the 1st horse out of 3 horses that he's done regularly who has ever shown a problem. Anyway, the dentist said to just give him some time and he should be fine. Well, my horse did finally come around, but it took weeks. The next year, the same dentist did a "less aggressive" power float due to the previous year, but my horse still had the same issues once again. So, last year the dentist did what he referred to as a very "light power float", but the same issues re-appeared again and it seemed to take forever (4-6 weeks this time). I had to increase his grain ration to make up for his lack of hay consumption .... thank goodness I had spring pasture to put him out on later on. He had no issues with eating grass. I have since spoken to another dentist (who is a vet), who was adamant that a horse should not have issues like this after having the teeth done. She said that every horse is individual in terms of their teeth and some may not require a "power float" every year, a simple manual float may be all that is required. She also said unfortunately "power floating" became a bit of a fad in the early years, but now research is beginning to show that too much of this type of floating can sometimes be more harmful than beneficial. Obviously, I'm going to change my horse over to another dentist but I would still like to hear your thoughts on what I've been through and what you think of yearly "power floating" in general. As well, if there are other owners out there that have been through a similar experience as myself, please feel free to add to this thread.
Thanks.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Friday, Feb 8, 2008 - 8:14 pm:

Hello s.miley,
We can not judge what has been done to your horses teeth without examining them. The owners of the horses teeth I float do not report problems at anytime following the procedure unless major work has been done on a pathological bite. I have many horses that go several years between hand floats with no reported problems. I do have an in-depth discussion of equine dentistry that addresses your general questions in detail on floating: in particular how much, how often. You will find that discussion in the dentistry article associated with this discussion under the Overview section.
DrO
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