Cob Jockey

Equine dentists tend to be a crapshoot in America.  There’s a wide range of quality and styles, and I wanted to be there for Connor’s float on Monday to get to know this fellow.  I decided I liked this equine dentist almost immediately, because:

• He was wearing clean scrubs.
• He took my and Connor’s information on a laptop with a sophisticated software program that he was clearly comfortable using.
• He asked me what Connor’s temperament was like before he approached him, then extended a hand for Connor to sniff for quite a while, and took some time to pet him before he got started.  Connor was like "No sudden movements?  I like this guy!"
• His tools were in excellent shape and care was taken to sterilize everything.
• He was a very educated, cerebral type guy.  My favorite type of equine professional.

“He’s got a slow, athletic heart rate so I’m going to start him out with just a little.  He’ll probably need more, but I like to start horses like this out small, because they often surprise me by being really cheap dates with heart rates like that.”

Um, yeah, talk about a cheap date!  Connor struggled to stay on his feet and eventually braced himself against the wash rack and stayed there for the entire procedure.  Guy knows what he's talking about!

He explained things thoroughly to me as we went along, making sure I could see everything he talked about.  Connor did need a float but there was nothing egregious in there, so that’s good.  When I got home, he had emailed me a full report on the state of Connor’s mouth and notes on what he did, as well as a note on how much anesthesia he gave him so that I will know for future equine dentists and vets that work on him.  So cool!  Check it out:

Click to enlarge

After that was done and while Connor was still sleepy, I cleaned his sheath using a new-to-me method: liberal amounts of KY Jelly, bean removal and just a bit of scrubbing, then leaving it for 24 hours and letting the lube and body heat loosen the smegma.   KY doesn’t need rinsed immediately and thoroughly like soap does, and doesn’t affect the pH balance down there.  I rinsed it the next day, and I have to say, I was impressed.  About the same results and way less work!

The worst part was going to the grocery store on my lunch break, in work clothes, to buy lube and elbow length latex gloves.  I avoided eye contact with the checkout person.  Hawkward.

Hawkward.

But it's better than needing Regumate, right?