Dead Tooth Extraction - Dental Surgery

All done!

Klein's surgery went really well yesterday.  I will warn you now, there will be graphic picture of the procedure in this post.  It looked very invasive, but it is a somewhat routine surgery.  I think that is why I could watch it.  That, and the fact I wanted Klein to know I was there with her.  After Super B's colic surgery last year, I think my nerves are deadened enough to put up with watching a lot more procedures on my animals.  People, that's not a problem.  Animals, I've always been the person that demands the channel be changed whenever the ASPCA commercials come on.  I have a really hard time looking at posts about abused/neglected animals or even just ones that need homes.  My heart breaks.  Yet, I am an MFS, am halfway through an MFM, and deal with the some of the worst of humanity on a daily basis.  I have held a decapitated human head, with absolutely no second thought.  But kind of like the saying "there's someone for everyone" it's the same for occupations.  

My vet warned me that this procedure is very bloody.  She also warned me about the hammer.  So I knew what I was getting myself into.  The left side of Klein's face was blocked and she was sedated.  That's why she appears to not really care in the video.  

The whole thing took about an hour and a half.  Basically, a bone flap was cut so they had access to the sinus and above the tooth with the dead root.  The appropriate term for the procedure is "Dental Repulsion of 209 through Maxillary Sinusotomy."  There was already a bone response going on where the bone was remodeling where the dead tooth was.  Some of that had to come out so that the dead tooth could come out.  The dead tooth had six roots too.  It was not loose at all either.  

Globs of pus came out of the sinus.  I cannot imagine the sinus pressure and headache my poor girl has been dealing with.  Through all of this her attitude never changed.  Beyond being a little lethargic she never once had any attitude about anything.  These types of horses can be in some serious trouble in the wrong hands.  If you aren't committed to finding out the actual cause, even though the horse is still just slightly out of sorts and won't refuse anything you ask, you probably don't need a horse like this to be honest.  Klein won't quit, if I asked her to go out and jump a course right now, she would.  

After the sinus was cleaned a bit and the additional new bone was removed the hammering started to essentially punch out the tooth.  They each area of the tooth start to give until it finally came all the way out.  It took quite a bit of hammering.  You could clearly see the little hole in the tooth too.  All of it came out when it let loose from the hammering, so that was great.  No little pieces were left, meaning no additional digging, poking, prodding.

After that was out they flushed and cleaned the sinus, put in a medicated putty where the tooth came out, put the bone flap back in place and closed it.  

Out!

Within a few hours she was allowed to have her hay again.  I went to see her that evening and took her for a walk and a hand graze.  She acted like nothing ever happened.  If you didn't see the bandage, you would have no clue what went on just hours before.  The putty will fall out on its own once the gum has healed where the tooth came out.  

Grazing like nothing ever happened.

My vet let me know first thing this morning that everything looked great and she had the green light to come home.  She will have a follow up I will take her in for on Friday morning, then her staples will come out in two weeks.  I can start riding her now as well.  Which, will just be long walks for the next couple weeks anyways.  She's out of shape, so we'll start back slow.  She did gain a little weight while she was on her vacation, so that needs to come off a little bit. 

Unicorn reunion!!  I took B on a little field trip this morning's ride anyway, so I just took her with me after we were done with our ride to go get her BFF.  She was SO happy to see Klein.

She has a VERY minor amount of drainage.  It is barely noticeable, and it will just continue to fade away.  It's already significantly less than when she had the infected snot drainage.  I am just so relieved it's over and done.  She already seems brighter overall.  She even did when I went to visit her yesterday evening.  The rest of the recovery seems incredibly easy, so I am thankful for that too.  

My happy girls!

Back to Normal

I have been home from my work trip for a few weeks.  The Super Mares are so happy to have something to do again.  They don't mind a little time off, but after a while they start to get a little bored.  They LOVE to work.  Both of them.  Oddly, even though they are complete opposites when it comes to their breeds, they are both bred to work hard.  It shows.  Combine that with being mares and you have two workaholics that don't know when to quit.

They will both come back to work gradually.  Despite the fact that I don't think it's possible for Super B to become unfit, she's going to come back to work gradually, for the sake of prevention.  Imagine if you hadn't went to the gym for months and tried to go in and go back to the workload you were at months prior?  Same concept.

Unfortunately, Klein mare has not been herself.  A couple weeks before I came home my ponysitter said she was eating, drinking, peeing, pooping fine but just wasn't her normal self.  She just couldn't quite identify what it was that was off, and she knows Klein extremely well.  She has known her for years and taken care of her many times.  She started to seem stiff in the mornings sometimes too, even a little lethargic.  Still, she continued on normally as far as appetite, water intake, bathroom habits.  Even when B would sass her, she would be like "Look, yeah, I don't feel good, but I still run this place.  Step off."  She never had a fever either.  

During this time she had a trim and was uncharacteristically lazy about it, leaning on him and just being fidgety.  That's not her normal.  She also had a bit of a snotty nose with clear snot, but it cleared up and could easily be attributed to the terrible air quality that lingered in the valley for weeks due to all the fires in California.  The smoke was THICK in the valley, so thick you couldn't see the mountain behind us that was only about 3 miles away.  

The snot cleared up on its own, still no fever, everything else normal except just not really herself 100%.  When I got home I noticed her eyes seemed somewhat puffy, like the horse equivalent of having puffy eyes from a cold.  I don't know that anyone else would have really noticed it, I only did because I have had her for 13 years.  I know her through and through, and can see subtle things in her.  I still couldn't quite figure out what was going on.

A few days after I came home she had a snotty nose again.  This time, it was yellow and had a slight smell to it.  By the second day it had an abscess smell to it.  It was FOUL.  The vet was coming out the next day anyways so she fit her in and took a look. 

The foul smelling snot.

The snot was only on the left side.  She checked her teeth, and examined a few other things.  Since she was still mostly normal (appetite, etc...) she did an injection of Excede to see if we could kick whatever was causing the snot.  We also did some blood tests which came back showing a mild infection, which we knew, everything else was normal.  She said it SHOULD clear within three days.  It didn't clear in three days so I picked up another injection of Excede at the vet's direction.  She said if that didn't do the trick to bring her in.

Well, that second injection didn't do the trick.  So, we went in for further investigation.  The plan was radiographs of her head and a respiratory scope.  Radiographs were first and in about 10 seconds the vet identified the problem, a tooth with a small hole in it and a dead root.  You could also see all the sinus congestion on the radiograph.  She said that tooth had to come out.  So, surgery was scheduled for a few days later.

Top radiograph:  tooth with the dead root in the square, congested sinus in the circle.  Bottom radiograph:  right side, normal.  Notice the difference in the sinus.  The sinus is much more clear, not so opaque with congestion (pus).

While the surgery was going to be pretty invasive, I was relieved that we had a concrete answer as to what was up with my girl.  I absolutely hate seeing her uncomfortable to any degree, and the fact she is so stoic about stuff just makes it worse.  It's ok not to be tough ALL the time, Klein mare.

Meanwhile, Super B has been back to work.  We started with long hacks on a loose rein for a week.  I got right back on her and it was like I never left.  That was a great feeling.  I wasn't sure if I would lose some of the training I put on her recently.  I feel stupid for even considering that may happen. Of course it wouldn't, she is SO smart, there is no way she would forget anything.

The second week we hacked some hills and did long trots.  We added in some slow canters and picked up more contact here and there.  On her days off I would still do some stretches with her and walk some ground poles.  She is SO happy to be back to work.  She hacked out on a long rein on the trails like she goes out every day.  She hopped right on the trailer.  I didn't expect any less.

Racing our shadow.

I can't wait to get Klein back to work, I know she's ready too.  I feel bad she sees me leave with B.  Klein LOVES to go out and about.  But, she needs to be 100% too.  

Both of the girls have had chiro adjustments and PEMF treatment since I've been home.  Just all part of the plan of getting them back to work.  They had great reports from the chiro, and they absolutely LOVED their PEMF.

Super B finding her zen.

Klein mare enjoying her PEMF.

Klein had her surgery this morning, and it went well.  The next post will be the full details on it.