If The Tooth Fairy Visited Animals...

As an ESE teacher working primarily with elementary aged kids it seems like at least once a week some kid is enthusiastically showing me a tooth they lost, or at the very least a loose tooth that's just about ready to pull. I usually respond with the cursory "oh wow how cool!" " You'll have to put it under the pillow for the tooth fairy!... how much you think you'll get for it?" When I was a kid... and I'm not "That" old the going rate for a tooth was fifty cents maybe seventy five. Do you know what the going rate is these days!?!? I've had kids tell me anything from a few dollars to $20... really?!!!

If the tooth fairy were real... I wonder what she'd pay for the mammoth size tooth that came out of my horse's mouth this morning... I don't know what it is, but apparently I have bad luck with animals and their teeth. My dog Buster has had a dental every 2 years his entire life when most dogs have maybe one or two in a lifetime. Rio gets his teeth done on average every 18 months. My animals are better taken care of then I take care of myself... literally! I have not been to the dentist in at least 5 years! Though I do have plans to go this summer... but I digress.  I make sure they get routine care to AVOID more expensive problems in the long run and yet some how I've had both my pets crack a tooth that ultimately had to be pulled with in the last 6 months. Poor Buster had a tooth pulled when he was under for surgery to remove tumors a few months ago. The funny thing was that the vet said he probably didn't need a dental, but I had it done because he was already being put under... why sedate twice? And, they happen to realize the tooth was cracked and pull it. 

Apparently Rio's teeth are as stubborn as he can be (typical Appaloosa!) because the vet spent 2 hours trying to pull the tooth and was only able to get the cracked piece of tooth out of his mouth despite the the whole tooth being very loose. He'll be back in a week to re-check it. We're hoping it comes out on its own once it loosens up a little bit more. In the mean time he's on antibiotics to keep it from getting more infected then it already is. The crazy thing is I had know idea anything was wrong in either animals case. Both times they were supposed to be a routine dental. The only sign that maybe Rio's mouth was bothering him at all was his slightly crankier attitude about initially taking the which I had chalked up to a re-occurance of former bad habit. Once the bit was in he rode fine. In fact he's been collecting and coming into the bit better then every lately. And, of course nothing about my animals is ever ordinary. Apparently a lot of horses will have the fourth molar crack or rot  when they reach their teens and into early senior hood, but not Rio... nope it was his fifth molar which is almost always not a problem and which happens to have a longer root because of the order the teeth come in as babies and the age of the horse making it harder to pull. In both cases it is a good example of why routine care is better. Had I waited until I did know there was a problem it would have been 10 times worse. 

I am super lucky to have a great vet as well. A friend of mine opted to have a holistic equine dentist out for a third of the cost, but all I could think as I was holding my horse for the vet this morning was what if I'd had this sketchy dentist out (they don't sedate) and they'd had to deal with this issue... would they even have caught it? For sure there's no way they could have even attempted pulling the tooth with out sedation. Now mind you, I'm not cracking using a specialized dentist. But, a good one who has the proper tools and uses sedation is about as expensive if not more so then going to a good vet anyways. And, finding a good one with proper accreditation is hard. 

It was also, yet again, another example of why its so important to have an emergency fund set up...  Rio's non routine dental ended up costing twice what I had budgeted to have this done... and lets face I work my but off to be able to justify having him at all... totally worth it though! I'm just glad we caught it before it became a bigger issue. 

Poor Rio gets to have his feet done tomorrow as well... poor guy is going to hate me by the end of the weekend, but at least it will all be out of the way. And, he gets a week off with plans to be spoiled rotten so in the long run he'll be happy and feeling better. 

Hopefully next time Rio & I update our handful of readers we'll have had a lesson and be making good progress. Until then Rio sends hugs & asks for carrots!