Dinah goes to the dentist

Dinah had a great workout on Monday. I longed her and then rode her on the longe line. I rode her at the walk and trot, in a circle and around the arena. We worked on transitions and also turning around the arena. She was very well behaved about everything. The next day it was very windy and rainy, so Dinah got the day off. On Wednesday, Dinah had an appointment with a veterinarian to float her teeth. The veterinarian was named Chuck Kessenger and he arrived at 3:00 to take care of Dinah's teeth. He sedated her two times and then opened her mouth using an instrument called a speculum. Then he checked in her mouth and asked me if I wanted to feel inside her mouth. She had very sharp edges to her molars and when I felt inside her mouth, her gums were rough where her teeth were rubbing her. She also still had one of her baby molars, called a cap, sitting on top of her permanent molar. The vet removed this tooth as well, I will include pictures of her removed teeth. After he had her teeth all filed down, he removed her wolf teeth, which seemed to not feel so good. I commented in an earlier blog that I was concerned about Dinah's right eye, because it was consistently runny. I asked the vet about this and he said that potentially her tear duct was clogged. He used a saline syringe and a small tube to push the saline through her tear duct, and it was in fact clogged. He kept pushing the saline through until it went through easily. I waited about 30 minutes to let her come out of sedation and then I walked her back to her stall. I gave her some horsey aspirin and let her sleep it off. The next day Darby helped me work with her on the longe line. I was planning on riding her, but she seemed like her mouth was bothering her so I just worked her on the longe line. Hopefully more riding next week and a visit from the chiropractor!