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  Discussion on My Mare's tooth was pulled 3 wks ago & still not healing
Author Message
Member:
Sean

Posted on Tuesday, Oct 10, 2006 - 9:10 am:

Hi guys,
I have yet another rescue mare, she was in very bad condition when I got her but turned out she needed a bad tooth pulled and this was probable the reason she had DrOpped so much weight on her previous owner, you could count her ribs and she is nursing a young foal. The situation at the moment is, the tooth was pulled almost 3 weeks ago. Our vet left her with a huge hole under your jaw, I was cleaning it every day and the bad smell coming from the cut was getting worse. Eventually I noticed it looked like a piece of tissue was stuck in the hole so I called my vet back, he came out and turned out he had left a hole tissue in her jay and pulled this out, he told me that sometimes they leave them there to prevent food going into the hole, which really I think the vet was covering up his negligence. He took the tissue out last week but the smell is getting worse, I'm unsure now if she has an absence on her jaw or if she has got an infection from the tissue. I have called my vet 3 times this morning and am now waiting on them to return my call. As you can imagine I paid €650.00 to have this tooth pulled, my equine dentist advised we were well overcharged for the surgery and have received sub quality service, for the moment I am more concerned about the mare. Has anyone ever had anything like this? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Member:
Mrose

Posted on Tuesday, Oct 10, 2006 - 10:07 am:

I've had two horses that had to have teeth pulled. One had a supernumerary tooth behind another tooth. She had to be anesthetized and the tooth drilled out. The other was a baby tooth that just wouldn't come out on it's own for some reason. Neither of these horses had any problems or excessive bleeding. The mare was on antibiotics for awhile, that is all.

Instead of packing the hole with a tissue (was it a gauze square?) normally, at least with people, if there is a large hole left from an extraction, the hole is packed with an absorbent gelfoam that sometimes has to be later removed, but if I remember right, it often reabsorbs on its own.

Does the mare have any fever or other signs of infection like puss? Any drainage from the hole would be mixed with food and wouldn't smell very good. IMO it would be a good idea for her to be on antibiotics for awhile. I don't know about the cost. It seems pretty high to me. Did he use a local anesthetic or have to "put her down" to do the job?
Member:
Sean

Posted on Tuesday, Oct 10, 2006 - 10:33 am:

Hi Sara
Thanks for your feed back, she was put to sleep alright and tooth was drilled out. My vet has finally come back to ask me to bring the mare back to the surgery to drain the wound and look inside for anything, there is a lot of puss coming out of it, he suggested maybe something may be still in the wound preventing it from healing, piece of tooth or tissue !! it was like a tissue as in one you would get from a box for yourself. As we have to bring her back would you think this is something I should pay additonal for?
Member:
Cheryl

Posted on Tuesday, Oct 10, 2006 - 10:41 am:

My 28 yo TB mare had two loose teeth that needed to be pulled. Vet found them when he was floating teeth. He didn't have his pullers with him so had to make a return trip. The total cost for removing both teeth was in the vicinity of $200 - which included the $50 farm call.
Lady was not given antibiotics - was eating hay and grain that day and had 0 problems. I don't know how long they had been loose but she's eating better than she has for at least the past year. She was not put down - just given a local.
You might want to talk to him about the bill - seems really excessive to me.
Cheryl
Member:
Sean

Posted on Tuesday, Oct 10, 2006 - 11:10 am:

From feed back to date i know i was well overcharged for the service, but not alot I can do at this stage really other than insist i am not paying another penny for any after care which i'm unsure if the cause if the necessary aftercare is due to the fact the vet left the tissue in her jaw which has lead to an infection. I suppose lesson learnt and I will now change my Vet but I just now hoping this poor mare will get on the right road to recovery soon.
Member:
Mrose

Posted on Tuesday, Oct 10, 2006 - 11:33 am:

If your mare was "put down" and the tooth had to be drilled out, this was not a simple extraction and I would expect it would cost a lot more than a simple extraction. Just the anesthesia alone is expensive; unless you mean she was just given a shot to sedate her for awhile.

I don't know about the tissue bit. That is kind of weird, unless it was some kind of packing material. Vets wouldn't normally use plain tissue for anything that I can think of.

I worked for people dentists for a lot of years and know that in people drilling a tooth out means the tooth has become what is called ankalosed, meaning it has bonded with the jaw bone itself. It's quite a process to get it out, and tooth/bone fragments are not uncommon.

I would ask the vet about putting the mare on antibiotics. Normally I don't think you'd be charged for the return visit, but would be charged perhaps for any materials/medicines used.
Member:
Sully

Posted on Tuesday, Oct 10, 2006 - 12:37 pm:

I would think IMHO that pulling a tooth from a 28 yr old horse would be much easier on the pocketbook and the horse due to the fact that she has probably used up most of her teeth by now. No long roots involved. I just had to have a tooth pulled out of a 6 yr old mare, and can only pray that my bill will be as reasonable as $650.00. They had talked with me about putting in a false tooth until the cavity created by the extraction started to granulate in, so maybe that is where the tissue comes in.
Sully
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Tuesday, Oct 10, 2006 - 6:47 pm:

Hello Sean,
I am trying to get a picture of what is going on here Sean. Which lower tooth was pulled and what procedure did they use exactly?

In the mean time I would go ahead and wean the foal so the mare is not nutritionally stressed, this should help markedly with the healing. Also if the wound is odorous I would flush it more often with water under pressure and then this is the rare case I would recommend using a peroxide flush. If I understand you correctly and the tooth was repulsed by drilling a hole in the mandible under the tooth, this wound could be packed with tissue that has been thoroughly saturated with betadine or chlorhexidine ointment. Do this often enough to control foul odor.
DrO
Member:
Sean

Posted on Wednesday, Oct 11, 2006 - 4:14 am:

Hi All

Thanks a lot for all your advice, I do feel better about the price now as she was put under anaesthesia and the tooth had grown into the jaw.

My vet finally got back to me yesterday evening and requested I bring the mare back to flush the wound out and check to make sure no fragments from the tooth remained or anything from the packing which was the tissue, I was supposed to take her last night but as it was dark when we got home I could not get the foul into the float with the mare, the mare was getting more stressed and the foul was disturbing our other horses so we decided to leave her until today in day light and get both into the box safely. The foul is small I think maybe due to the condition the mare had been in, the mare is putting on weight and I'm feeding both well now and both have unlimited access to hay. I was going to leave the foal with the mare a bit longer to try to build the foul up. I think the mare is nervous by nature and I think while she is sharing a field with my girlfriends head strong pony the foul is keeping her occupied and preventing her getting bullied to much anyway. I feel much better about taking her back to vets today and fell everyone's help was spot on again...

thanks a lot guys. I will let all know how it goes tonight.

We have had a bad few weeks vet bill wise as my jumping mare fall into an 8 foot hole 3 weeks ago, we had to have her lifted out by a tractor and she is now on the slow road to recovery, unfortunately she did her small hind leg tendon in and not looking likely I will ever be able to ride her again. She's a well breed mare and gave us a beautiful foal this year so once she is recovered at least she can still be a brood mare. We have heard some reports of laser treatment that has help to fully recover such injuries and taught we would look into that next, has anyone ever used this?
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