Texas - Oklahoma - Louisiana
Equine Dentistry

Dr. J.D. Norris of Equine Dentistry writes a monthly column in Cowboy Times magazine. Here is the February 2009 column:

This is the time of year that water is at its peak and we begin to look forward to Spring.  You may have been “holed up” looking for a break in the weather, to saddle up.  You have thought about the horses and what they need.  Bot flies were late this year, so now its time to deworm with Quest or Ivermectin. 

     For the older horses, the hay they need maybe getting pretty tough.  Now is the time you could be giving them more help by floating their teeth.

     Dental work on older horses can be traumatic if they have not been routinely taken care of.  Often older horses are presented to us because they are getting “older” and have never had any dental care.  So many people think that this is when a horse needs to be checked.  When we look at these horses, the only thing we can do is make them more comfortable.  We can take off long hooks and remove sharp points but big waves in their arcades don’t allow much change.  If a person is too aggressive and tries to do too much (such as reduce waves), he can cause an older horse to go off feed for days of even weeks.  Believe me, this is not good.  When you try to correct some problems in a younger horse, you have a healthy erupture of new teeth and time to slowly make corrections.  You don’t have this in an old horse.

     We had an older stud presented the other day.  He had never had dental care.  Over the years his colts have really done well.  Now, the owner hopes he can use him another few years.  We worked on a horse his age the week before that we had performed regular dentals on for several years.  The 27 year old had a fantastic mouth.  The older stud,  is beginning to lose teeth and to really beginning to need some extra care to maintain body condition.  Annual dental care doesn’t always produce long lasting results but it sure helps you horse over the long run.

Please visit of website WWW.HorseDentalCare.com for  more articles of interest

Please call or e-mail with any questions or concerns to

Dr. JD Norris- Taking care of horses from the inside out

 903-348-5828,

 JDNorris@neto.com

Call us at 903-885-6551 to discuss your horse's dental care!