Grand Finale

Yesterday we had the grand finale for our dental visits. Since I like to go out with a bang the last two patients of the last day were Timbit and Sparky. I knew Sparky would be good because he's perfect every year for his annual float. Timbit is another story. With Timbit, life is like a box of chocolates and you never know which one you're going to get. We started with the last horses that needed to be floated and then moved on to Timbit.

I am happy to say that we had good Timbit yesterday. Everyone knows how Timbit feels about injections.  Some might remember that last year I clicker trained Timbit using toothpicks to simulate the needle stick of an injection. It worked like a charm and the last two rounds of annual vaccinations have gone well. I click away while Timbit stands for injections. I clicked away yesterday while Timbit had his teeth floated and was a star.

After we floated Timbit we moved on to Sparky. Every year Sparky is the last float of the year. Since Sparky thinks barns are not for donkeys we always float him outside. He is unrestrained except for a twitch. He stands like a rockstar and the dentist floats away.

I'm happy to be done with floating teeth for the year, but I know it won't be long until we start the cycle again in the spring.

the easiest way for the dentist to float Timbit is sitting in a chair

Bonnie watching Timbit have his teeth floated

While we floated the horses and Timbit Sparky wandered around the barn entertaining himself and letting the peanut gallery know they needed to start assembling. That's Silver behind him.

more of the peanut gallery; Renzo, Lofty, Cocomo, Flyer and Gibson

in the opposite pasture Cino and Remmy decided to pull up a chair and watch

Gus watching Sparky

Romeo and Lotus were also watching

Sparky, as always, stood like a champ and was oblivious to his legions of admiring fans staring at him

Miel, Quigly and Sam

Johnny and Happy with Miel behind them

the Breakfast Club; Apollo, Thomas, Homer and Moe

Rocky

Charlotte and Traveller

Convey and Revy playing

Hemi

Merlin, Remmy, Cino, Hesse and Baner

Sushi and Squirrel

Grand Finale

Today was our grand finale of 2016 with the dentist. Since we like to go big or go home we had Sparky the donkey as one of our final dental patients today. Sparky is actually a champ about having his teeth floated and he's great for the farrier. He stands like a statue to get his blanket on in the winter and he's generally a very easy donkey to live with. We should know since he's been in our family for 21 years and counting. 

Sparky really only has two things in life he doesn't do. He doesn't happily or willingly do needles/injections or go though gates and doors. You can generally do all of these things with some patience and encouragement. We can never forget the seemingly never ending adventure of getting Sparky onto a trailer so we could move him from my parents' farm (which was sold after my father's passing) to our farm. I told Jason during that multi-week exercise in frustration that Sparky's issue was not with the trailer but with going through the door of the trailer. I was right, after we finally got him on the trailer he stood quietly and was content. The door was the problem. 

Getting Sparky's teeth floated did involve his two "dont's" in life. I had to lead him out of his pasture gate and then through the gate to the barn yard. He actually did both of these things with minimal fuss. Then Sparky had to be lightly sedated via injection. He was pretty reasonable about this as well. He only drug the dentist, myself and the dentist's assistant around for about five minutes before he stopped and said "fine, just do it." We didn't even have to get Jason involved.  

It was fun leading Sparky from his pasture to the barn. Sparky's pasture is very long, and of course he and his pals were all the way at the back of the pasture when I went to get him. As I led Sparky along the driveway to the front barn we, as always, attracted quite the peanut gallery. He lives across from these horses every day and they see him multiple times every day. However, when Sparky is not in his pasture he goes from something not worth lifting a head for to something that must be stared at and stalked. We were escorted along the driveway by the peanut gallery which alternated between stopping and staring, walking along with us, and running along with us. Sparky ignored them all. 

Two gates and one injection later Sparky had his teeth floated and we were done floating teeth in 2016. This grand finale was brought to you by Sparky. 

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Sparky being attended to by the dentist and his assistant

Havana, Cino and Remmy doing the stop and stare as Sparky and I strolled past their pasture

Hesse joined them

Duesy and Bruno were also staring . . . 

. .. as were Walden and Fabrizzio

Duesy, Bruno, Merlin, Remmy, Baner, Hesse and Walden acting as the peanut gallery

the peanut gallery refused to abandon their cause

Timbit and Sabrina were following us on the other side

 Sparky was unphased by the staring groupies, he knows he is a rockstar 

if we got too far ahead they ran to catch up; Merlin, Duesy, Bruno,  Havana, Cino

 

Remmy, Cino, Havana, Lightning, Baner, Hesse

Dental Day

After enjoying a break of a few short months from the dentist we officially kicked off our 2016 dental days. Last year we started doing things a little differently. Instead of doing everyone in a few marathon days that left everyone tired, sore, cranky and dreading having a teeth floating day we decided to see the dentist more often and do only a few horses each time. 

We also had to develop a new routine as our dentist that we have worked with the last several years retired and moved to Florida. Now we see pictures on FaceBook of he and his wife taking their morning walks on the beach and floating on rafts in their swimming pool. The nerve of some people. He really had a passion for his work, however after a lifetime of floating teeth the wear and tear on his arms and shoulders was real. He referred us to one of his mentors who is a vet who does extensive dentistry work. 

Today was our first day breaking our new dentist in. The horses made us look good and were exceptionally well behaved. Even 18.1 hand Apollo only lifted his head up a couple of times. Apollo never does anything bad, but he is fully aware that he is very tall. He knows he can quietly lift his head as high as he wants and no one can reach his mouth. He only did it a couple of times so we knew that he could, then he kept his head down and stood politely.

This is the third dentist we've worked with over the years and they each have their own preferences in how they work. Our only requirements are that they are patient with the horses, do a thorough job, and let us have a look and feel in each mouth when they are finished. With our older horses it is imperative that they have competent and thorough work done in their mouths. Their is a fine line between over floating and under floating. 

The most common issue we see with a new resident is a hook(s) on the very back molars. From our experience of looking at the work of many dentist from around the country, some of them don't seem to be able to get all the way back in the mouth. The result tends to be large hooks. The worst case we ever saw was a gelding with three inch hooks on both sides. He had been floated every year.  For what it is worth he had been floated by someone who didn't believe in power tools and didn't use a speculum.

I generally expect to see a mess in the back of the mouth when I hear "my dentist doesn't need to use a speculum or sedation." I'm not on the power tools or no power tools bandwagon. Tools are only as good as the hands holding them. The most over-floated horse we've ever seen was done by a dentist that only used hand tools. The most under-floated horse we've ever seen had been done by a dentist that used power tools. Hence, I have no dog in the power tools or not fight. Every dentist we have worked with uses both hand and power tools.

On the other hand I have a very strong opinion about the use of a speculum. I do think a speculum is needed to properly address the back molars. I very much believe that it is almost impossible to properly address the very back of the mouth without a speculum. I'm sure there is a dentist out there that can do it, we just haven't seen their work yet. Instead we see horses with giant hooks in the back of their mouths.

The 2016 dental days are officially here. 

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Trigger decided to nibble on Jason while waiting for his turn to have his teeth floated

Jason saying "that tickled" and Trigger saying "I'm not sure that tasted very good." 

Convey, Tony and Chance

George and Asterik

Levendi and Elfin

Rip

Apollo and Thomas

Happy and Murphy

Toledo and Kennedy

Roho and Oskar

Traveller, MyLight and Maisie

Lucky and Lightning

Merlin, Walden, Fabrizzio and Remmy

Havana and Cino

Done and Done

The last couple of weeks have involved an almost non-stop stream of farriers, dentists and vets spending large chunks of time at the farm. It has felt like every day was a long marathon as we started very early (think 5am start time) and finished very late. Today was "only" a 12 hour day and it felt like we only worked a half day or something. 

However the good news about working an insane number of hours is you get a lot done. Yesterday we had our last visit with the equine dentist until late summer or early fall. Half the horses have now had their yearly dental. The rest of the horses will have their turn in the dentist's chair later in the year. 

Today we had Vaccination Day Part 2. All of the horses have now been vaccinated. We carried on with our routine of running a strand of electric tape in each pasture to pen the horses up by the gate. The horses carried on with being most upset about this new fence. As they did on Vaccination Day Part 1 the horses did a lot of pacing and walking along their new fencelines. They milled around, they stared, they marched along the temporary fence over and over, certain that with each pass they would finally find an opening that would allow them to escape this tragic existence they suddenly found themselves in. When that failed they tried to pull halters off each other. They came to the gate and stared at us with disgusted looks, then they went back to pacing. Staring and pacing and staring and pacing is the name of the game on Vaccination Days. 

Calimba, Maisie, Cuffie and Norman looking decidedly unhappy. Cuffie is looking at me saying "I would like to speak to somebody in management immediately."

Lily saying "This is not what I signed up for when I moved here. Where do I complain?"

Baby looking most unhappy while he and Levendi marched along the temporary fenceline

Thomas and Tony pacing

Apollo and Thomas walking along the temporary fenceline looking for a way out

Grand and Moe. "Keep walking Moe, there has to be a way out of here. Just keep walking."

While the horses used every possible method of non-verbal communication to show us their displeasure Jason and I smiled back at them.  As the Big Boys paced, stared and milled around at their new fence I said "sorry boys, there's nowhere to run this year." But I really wasn't sorry and they knew it. It was so satisfying to know that we had foiled the runners before they even had a chance to run. The horses felt so defeated no one even tried to walk away, apparently if you can't run away it isn't worth the effort.

Jason and I enjoyed the thrill of victory as the horses felt the agony of defeat.

We are happy to have two big items checked off our spring to-do list. Vaccinations are done and half the farm is done with the dentist for another year. Yay for getting things done.

Some of the horses that had their teeth floated yesterday included Silky

Calimba

Maisie

Cuff Links

and Norman