One teefs, two teefs

The ponies had their annual check-up and dental work done today. Everybody looks good! I do my own vaccinations, but the vet has to administer the rabies shot, so today Gabe, Chief and Calypso got rabies shots, blood drawn for Coggins and a visit with the tooth file.

Aside from some sharp teeth and a couple of hooks, everyone's mouth looked good. Gabe had his canines clipped and filed and his teeth were sharper than the other two, as I suspected. Chief, surprisingly for such an old dude (25!) had a really good mouth. He had one hook and three sharp points. That's it. He didn't even have any tartar buildup on his clipped canines.

Of all three, Gabe was the worst brat. Surprise, surprise. He had to have three sedation shots (0.5 cc Dormosedan and 1 cc Xylazine) before he was drowsy enough to cooperate with having his teeth done. What a snot. He wasn't even really that drowsy after all that, not even wobbly! He wasn't even out enough for me to be able to clean his boy bits very well and I wasn't going to ask for another hit just so I could clean the weenie. I did what I could but he was really threatening me and trying to hit me with that back hoof. I didn't feel a bean on him so I'm not going to worry about it too much.

Chief and Calypso were both wonderful and Chief was the drowsiest. He let all his boy bits hang right on out there for the world to see and I gave him a good cleaning. Poor old guy had a HUGE bean that I was able to pop right out. He should be a bit more comfortable with that nasty thing gone.

I just realized I'm blogging about washing horse penises/sheaths like it's no stranger than clipping dog toenails. Wow. Us horse folks are a strange lot I tell ya. Strange!

I talked to the vet a bit about Gabe's habit of grinding his teeth in some situations. He seems to do it when he's the most stressed or just really thinking hard ie. When I'm asking him to do something new/hard or when the farrier is out. He also does it when I brush him a bit too hard with the curry. She found nothing odd in his mouth that might be contributing to the grinding except for the sharp points. He does have a bit of cap left near his incisors but she believes it will fall out without help. She said if it's there in couple of months to call her and she'll come back out to check it again and possibly pull it if needed. For the moment, she is inclined to leave it as is. We talked about the grinding for awhile and she suggested he might have ulcers that act up when he's feeling stressed, which makes sense. I've never seen him grinding while he's just out in the pasture doing nothing, he only does it when I ask him to work or if he's tolerating something he doesn't really like. He is in good weight, eats well and doesn't crib, so if he DOES have ulcers that can't be terribly bad.

I opted not to have him scoped for ulcers right now because the teeth grinding is the only sign pointing to the possibility. I'm going to wait and see if the floating helps, and really pay attention to when he does it. We may also have to consider changing up the living arrangements if it's a stress thing causing him to grind. Right now he's by himself because Chief is quite aggressive towards him, not a normal "I'm the boss" aggressive but really, really aggressive, an "I'll KILL you!" aggressive. He's aggressive enough that I think he'd run Gabe through the fence or kick him hard enough to really hurt him. He actively goes after him, even when Gabe is WAY on the other side of the pasture minding his own beeswax, Chief charges him and chases, chases, chases Gabe although Gave is obviously trying to be the bottom horse and move out of his way.

Chief and Calypso share a paddock, but we might put Calypso in with Gabe and see how that goes. Chief doesn't really give a crap if he's alone or not, but it might make a difference for Gabe. OR, it could end up being a really bad idea and I wind up with a horse I can't take out alone because he's so attached to Calypso. See the conundrum? I keep trying to convince Robert that Gabe needs a little donkey, pony or sedate old retiree as a pasture buddy, but so far, he's not buying it!

Still too muddy to right..and it's cold and spitting rain. Ick. Come on, what the heck happened to spring! I guess I'll get the family room painted instead. I'm tired of looking at the half-finished walls!