Cob Jockey

"Hello, is this Jenifer?"

"Yes, it is."

"Hi Jenifer, this is Dr. Tanner. I have good news: Disco doesn't need surgery!"

Did you know horses can give themselves the equivalent of a root canal? I didn't either until Dr. Tanner called the morning after Disco's CT scan.

Thought I was dropping him off for an extended stay, but I would be back the next morning, who knew

Turns out, by the time we got Disco to Rood and Riddle (5 weeks after discovering the fracture), he had laid down enough new tertiary dentin to cover the pulp canals, which meant the fractured tooth didn't need to come out.

I was, in a word, relieved. Between closing on the farm (aka paying lawyers), getting under contract on the house (more lawyers), buying a Hay Hut (no lawyers here) and cancer treatment for one of the canine members of the family (just a vet, but damn this was pricey), October has been an expensive month even before you considered Disco's dental adventures. While I haven't received the final bill yet, it should be closer to $2k than $9k, which is a win. 

Fascinating

I also felt less bad about how long it took to get him in. I first called in mid-September, and between the surgeon's schedule and my schedule, the earliest we could get him in was mid-October. While I feel bad for the pain he must have been in for at least part of that, if we had gotten him in any earlier, he might not have had time to lay down that new tertiary dentin, and I assume (I didn't ask) we might have had to do the surgery.

It does leave me with some questions - does this always happen with fractured teeth? Should I always slow roll surgery on a fractured tooth if the horse isn't in immense pain? Did I just get lucky? - but overall, I'm just relieved to put this chapter behind us, even if it hasn't meant I've gotten back on him.

But more on Disco's winter plans later.

I've only ridden Disco once since the Kate clinic, but boy do I have a legitimate reason.

At least it was a good ride.

Just after the Kate clinic, he started not finishing his feed. Long story short, I thought we were either dealing with ulcers or teeth, and started out treating it like ulcers, although I knew he already had a routine dental coming up anyway since he's on a 6 month schedule right now, so we were covered either way.

WELL. Guys. It was decidedly not ulcers. 

Disco has a fractured first molar, tooth 309 in dentist parlance. We have no idea how it happened. We do know that it happened in the last six months because it was normal at his last dental in February. And we suspect based on when he went off his feed that it happened in the last month.

Healthy 409 shown in the lower right for comparison.

My dentist immediately referred me to Rood and Riddle. We are equidistant to Purdue University and R&R, but she said R&R is who you want for this one. Before they saw the photos, R&R quoted me a range of prices between $2,300 and $9,000, because depending on how it cracked, it could either be done under standing sedation and one overnight in the hospital, or it could require the "most advanced extraction type" which requires fully flat out sedation and 3-4 nights in the hospital.

Unsurprisingly, my man has expensive taste. After seeing the photos, Dr. Tanner suspects the that the tooth is fractured in just about the worst way possible, with the root likely still present across the entire tooth, but the above-the-gum part missing across half of it. He needs to go fully under for this procedure which they called a Lateral Wall Alveolectomy.

As you can imagine, that hit me with a big thud. We were supposed to be sending him off to Kate's soon, not dropping almost 5 figures on a surgery. But it makes it feel better to know it's worth it: since the dental we've been soaking his feed, and he immediately started cleaning his feed pan again, so I know he's in pain.

They can't get him in until mid-October, and I have no idea when he'll be able to wear a bit again at this point. So, we're in a holding pattern for now.

HORSES!