Jethro still had an appetite and carried his Jolly Ball with him everywhere, so I figured it must not have been too extreme. The soonest the vet could see him was one week later.
Fast forward to yesterday. He goes to the vet, gets sedated, the vet tech opens his mouth, and I see the reality:
Not good. |
The cut is pretty deep, as you can see in the above picture. The front part of his mouth was torn open, pulling his teeth forward. He had to have three teeth extracted.
Jethro actually does not have any of his permanent teeth yet. The three extracted teeth were all baby teeth. I found it surprising how long the roots were.
The poor little man will be spending two nights at the vet's barn. Luckily, the vet thinks that it should heal quickly.
Youch, poor kid! Should the adult teeth grow back in normally now?
ReplyDeleteI hope so! The vet is optimistic, though said it is difficult to know until they actually start to grow back in.
DeleteOh no, poor baby! I'm glad they were just baby teeth.
ReplyDeleteMe too! Would not be fun to have three adult teeth missing at such a young age.
DeleteHoly wow, that's one gnarly accident Jethro! Poor baby, sending jingles for a quick recovery!!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteI had a horse that did that! On a holiday weekend of course ($$$). The 2 lower left teeth apparently got caught on a piece of chain holding a door latch clip and he jerked back. The resulting injury looked very much like your pictures with the broken piece hanging down loose. It shattered the tooth sockets involved but he didn't lose any teeth.
ReplyDeleteHe promptly went to UC Davis vet school for surgery to clean it out and wire everything back together. He had "braces" for about 8 weeks. No grazing. No biting into a compressed hay flake, his hay had to be hand-fluffed into bite-sized pieces! The braces were checked weekly and tightened as needed.
His mouth healed beautifully. There were definite scars on his gum line but the teeth were solid and perfectly straight. I hope your horse does as well!
Glad to hear your horse recovered fine! Gives me more hope for Jethro.
Delete