meet the newest member of our family! (mini horse!)

[wdwfan16]

He is cute!!!! I have wanted a miniature horse for years.

 

[Abbie]

Ok I can't stand it anymore.....what does it mean to "float" the teeth??

 

[bballmom56]

Ok I can't stand it anymore.....what does it mean to "float" the teeth??

Horses chew with a side to side grinding motion. That leads them to getting sharp, uneven edges on their molars which can cut into their cheeks. It can also be painful for them when the bit is in their mouth. Floating the teeth means using a rasp-type tool to file down the sharp points making it easier for them to chew their food properly.

 

[Jennasis]

Horses chew with a side to side grinding motion. That leads them to getting sharp, uneven edges on their molars which can cut into their cheeks. It can also be painful for them when the bit is in their mouth. Floating the teeth means using a rasp-type tool to file down the sharp points making it easier for them to chew their food properly.

My vet uses a power float. It's awesome! Essentially it's a power drill with a quarter size grinding disc on the end. Gets those points, ramps and waves cut down to size in no time, and is less damaging to the gum and surrounding teeth.

My first horse back when I was a kid, LOVED to have his teeth floated. He'd see the vet coming with a rasp in hand and open his mouth up for him.

 

[bballmom56]

My vet uses a power float. It's awesome! Essentially it's a power drill with a quarter size grinding disc on the end. Gets those points, ramps and waves cut down to size in no time, and is less damaging to the gum and surrounding teeth.

My first horse back when I was a kid, LOVED to have his teeth floated. He'd see the vet coming with a rasp in hand and open his mouth up for him.

wow, that's cool. I would think that would be so much easier on both the horse and the person! My #1 vet had to stop doing teeth because his shoulder couldn't take it anymore. I will ask the equine dentist about it when he comes next time.

 

[Jennasis]

wow, that's cool. I would think that would be so much easier on both the horse and the person! My #1 vet had to stop doing teeth because his shoulder couldn't take it anymore. I will ask the equine dentist about it when he comes next time.

My vet was out last week to float three of my boarders. She brought one of the vet techs with her whose job it is to let the (sedated) horse rest it's head on the techs shoulder while the vet is working. Works well until you have a really short one like the Haflinger they had to do. The guy was having a really hard time holding up that great big head, so they used their hi-tech solution...a human crutch with extra padding on the top. Hilarious, but it works!

 

[ripburn]

What a cutie!!

 

[bballmom56]

Jennasis ~ Does your vet routinely sedate horses for floating? As I mentioned before, only 2 out of 17 horses I have to have done need to be sedated. (One actually GROWLED while sedated AND twitched! He really doesn't care for it!) Does the noise of the drill add to it?

 

[Jennasis]

Jennasis ~ Does your vet routinely sedate horses for floating? As I mentioned before, only 2 out of 17 horses I have to have done need to be sedated. (One actually GROWLED while sedated AND twitched! He really doesn't care for it!) Does the noise of the drill add to it?

They are all sedated for power floating, and a speculum is used. For hand floating, sedation is not always needed. The total cost for a power float with sedation for my vet is $85 (includes the farm call). I don't think even the best horse on the planet would tolerate a power float without the sedation (and we have a few who fight it even with the sedation). It is loud. Literally a power drill.

 

[kafitty]

he's so cute!!

i liked Rob & Big, but i felt bad for both of their animals...it's not that they didn't care for their pets, but they were too ignorant to really do it properly, i think.

and the reason why tiny url gets blocked out is because it can be used to shorten a website url and mask what it really is...theoretically, someone could link to a porn site or something malicious and mask it with a tiny url, so people would click on it thinking it was something harmless.

 

[Poppinsme]

They are all sedated for power floating, and a speculum is used. For hand floating, sedation is not always needed. The total cost for a power float with sedation for my vet is $85 (includes the farm call). I don't think even the best horse on the planet would tolerate a power float without the sedation (and we have a few who fight it even with the sedation). It is loud. Literally a power drill.

We sedate ours also. Just for comfort and safety of the horse. Would you want someone sanding on your teeth without a little pain killer?
By the way I love the power float.

 

[EveDallas]

He is beautiful!

 

[wildernesslodgelover]

Thank you for the info, kafitty, I had no idea!

Yeah, I get annoyed when people are ignorant and don't do a little research before they get an animal. I mean, you don't need to be a rocket scientist to know that a horse should not live in a house! LOL.

Jennasis, this power floating sounds AMAZING! I may look into it.

 

[wildernesslodgelover]

Thanks for all the nice comments about Bruno!

 

[Jennasis]

Thank you for the info, kafitty, I had no idea!

Yeah, I get annoyed when people are ignorant and don't do a little research before they get an animal. I mean, you don't need to be a rocket scientist to know that a horse should not live in a house! LOL.

Jennasis, this power floating sounds AMAZING! I may look into it.

Did you ever see that episode of Extreme Homes on HDTV where a guy built this mega size McMansion speficially to accomodate his pet mini? He built all the floors with marble and they slopped down to a drain for his "accidents". The horse wandered the house like a dog, and this was a multi-million dollar home!

Weird.

 

[wildernesslodgelover]

Did you ever see that episode of Extreme Homes on HDTV where a guy built this mega size McMansion speficially to accomodate his pet mini? He built all the floors with marble and they slopped down to a drain for his "accidents". The horse wandered the house like a dog, and this was a multi-million dollar home!

Weird.

yeah, I doubt a horse would even like living like that.

 

[merryweather20]

yeah, I doubt a horse would even like living like that.

I don't think I'd like clopping around on marble all day if I had hooves!

But, I did see a documentary where they had horses as service animals. Something about them being prey, whereas dogs were predators, meant they had a skill set that was more suited to be service animals than dogs. They went in houses, but made accommodations for them in the house. As other posters have noted they are so smart they did a good job and I think they liked the challenge as well

 

[Jennasis]

I don't think I'd like clopping around on marble all day if I had hooves!

But, I did see a documentary where they had horses as service animals. Something about them being prey, whereas dogs were predators, meant they had a skill set that was more suited to be service animals than dogs. They went in houses, but made accommodations for them in the house. As other posters have noted they are so smart they did a good job and I think they liked the challenge as well

Seeing eye horses are becoming pretty popular. They actually wear diapers.

 

[Katieinwonderland]

OP, he's so cute

We were a horse family when I was growing up! My father had two Shire horses, my sister and I both had horses we used to compete with, and my mom always felt sort of left out. So my father eventually bought her two little minature shetlands! OMG they were the cutest things; one was a palimino and one was piebald and they were called Snoopy and Charlie Brown. They were super friendly, we loved them.

One of my horses, Star, was totally confused by them and spent the first few days just staring at them, like "what the heck are they?!"