The Incidence of Colic Among Horses.

The American Journal of the Veterinary Medical Association reported about a study by Drs Traub-Dargatz, Kopral et al. about the US national incidence of and operation risk factors for colic among horses from 1998-1999.  It says:"The annual national incidence of colic in the US horse population was estimated to be 4.2 colic events/100 horses per year. Case fatality rate was 11% and 1.4% of colic events resulted in surgery."  That colic is suffered by so many horses is a cause for deep concern when one considers the pain and trauma to both horses and owners.  The report further states that it is costing the US an amount of AU$205.000.000 per year.  Especially in older horses correct dental maintenance and dietary planning can vastly reduce the incidence of colic.

A significant number of calls to this practice are made by people who suspect that their horse's inability to masticate feed properly may have been the cause of a past occurrrence of colic. It is especially important to be aware that a horse with dental problems is unable to grind grass or hay into short fibres and will often swallow long fibred tight packets of feed which may cause bowel obstruction.  There is also some concern that horses with decomposing feed lodged in abnormal cravasses between teeth may ingest large bacterial loads which may affect proper digestion and increase the likelihood of colic.

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Responsible Dental Treatment.

upper molar grinding surface lower molar grinding surface

The upper and lower molar tables meet together and are naturally rough to enable the horse to grind the feed into small particles.  They consist of materials of different hardness which cause higher and lower areas.  The objective of correcting molar bite abnormalities is to keep these grinding surfaces as intact as possible.  A horse without molar table roughness cannot grind its feed.  The Australian Equine Dental Practice promotes 'staged treatment'; this means bite abnormalities are corrected over a longer period of time.  This may be the case when a horse is treated for wave mouth or shearbite. page up

Our Policy -Drugs

It is the policy of affiliates of the Australian Equine Dental Practice not to break the law by supplying or administering 'supply restricted' drugs to your horse.  Rarely does a horse need to be sedated due to experienced handling and limited treatment duration.  However, if this is necessary an equine veterinary surgeon can be arranged on your behalf. If you want to report unlawful veterinary drug supply or use in Australia click here:

Our Policy -Equipment.

The reduction of tooth length with cutting forceps may cause deep tooth or bone fractures.  We do not use these forceps, nor do we use dremel type grinders to grind down the first molar teeth.  In order to provide bit comfort, the first molars are corrected by filing manually, thus preventing the need for tranquillisers except on infrequent occasions. More information on the Methods page.

Equine Dental Practitioners Board to be established. The Association of Equine Dental Practitioners (Aust) Inc. has put a structure in place to regulate those who operate as equine dentists. The Equine Dental Practitioners Board is currently being established to issue annual licences and to strictly regulate equine dentists who have to meet educational and practical experience criteria. The Code of Practice clearly defines many standards of horse care and practice management. The administration of sedatives is, and always has been, illegal; the association does not want this legislation to be changed. The use of non-watercooled power tools is prohibited as are excessive molar filing and routine incisor cutting. The EDP Board will also inform the public about its role, in order to direct the public towards licensed equine dentists. A regulation under the Veterinary Practice Act 2003 was recently introduced. A last minute public and industry response caused this regulation to be modified. However, it falls short of protecting horses from damage by devices such as industrial grinders which are not continuously water-cooled. There is evidence that as little as 2 minutes grinding may cause irrepairable harm to the tooth by destroying tissue in the pulp cavity. As well as that, the present devices lack tactile feedback and often cause excessive removal of material from the occlusal surfaces. More information below. Information in relation to the legislative changes, association submissions and response forms can be found via these links: Press Release from the Association of Equine Dental Practitioners (Aust) Inc.    PDF  9kB Submission to the proposed legislative Regulation from Association of Equine Dental Practitioners (Aust) Inc.     PDF 51 kB Submission to the proposed legislative Regulation by Peter Borgdorff, Australian Equine Dental Practice    PDF 55 kB Draft Veterinary Practice Regulation 2006 under the Veterinary Practice Act 2003  (only PDF 422 kB) Response form/questionnaire   PDF 26 kB Pro forma 'Letter to the Editor'   PDF 21 kB Link to information on DPI website Link to RIRDC survey "Australian Veterinarians Who Work with Horses" (only PDF 217 kB) page up

Equine Dentistry as a Career - Postgraduate and Certificate Training with the AEDP.

More information is now available on this site about training to become an Equine Dentist.  Whether you are a Veterinary Surgeon and would like to do a Postgraduate course or whether you are experienced with horses and want to train for a Certificate you will find more information by clicking the Career Choice on the navigation bar on the left. An extra course is planned for later this year in response to demand. Dates to be confirmed soon.

Training with the Australian Equine Dental Practice has been a stepping stone to a career as an Equine Dentist by a number of people.  Where consideration of the horse takes priority and the manner of treatment is widely respected, there are valid grounds to consider this training.  We endeavour to teach genuine candidates a caring approach that uses effective methods which respect the natural structure of equine dentition with the aim of correcting abnormal dental conformation.  No other persons are accredited by Peter to teach these methods. The word 'academy' or 'school' is not used, because there is no government accreditation for this training. The next training intake is closing soon. Check Career Choice

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Nutrition for Horses including the Older Horse.

David Nash BSc (Equine Nutrition) provides some useful information pertaining to equine nutrition on the Hygain Australia web site. The segment on feeding older horses is relevant to many who question their nutritional requirements. There is good reason for an older horse to have compromised nutritional uptake, as David writes:

"....The ability to manufacture or absorb certain vitamins also seems to decrease as horse's age. Researchers suspect that the decrease of gut microflora compromises the ability of the horse to manufacture his own B vitamins (normally produced in abundance) as well as vitamin C (ascorbic acid), which is important for the horse's immune function. A healthy horse manufactures sufficient quantities of his own vitamin C, but many older horses, which suffer from pituitary dysfunction (a common result of the aging process) show low blood levels of C, which might make them vulnerable to viral infections.
Geriatric horses can also suffer from decreased kidney and/or liver function, both of which can have an effect on nutrient utilization. Horses are unique in that they excrete excess dietary calcium in their urine, not in their manure as most other species do-so if kidney function becomes impaired, stones of calcium oxalate can build up in the kidney or bladder. There also is the potential for calcium to build up to dangerous levels in the bloodstream. Horses with kidney failure need to be placed on a low calcium diet (less than 0.45% of the overall ration), and protein and phosphorus also should be reduced (to less than 10%, and less than 0.3%, respectively), contrary to the usual recommendations for older horses...."

All categories of horses are dealt with and in the articles you can read about mycotoxins, fibre, herbs and colic, just to name a few. A clear section on the horse's digestive system explains its functions.

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To visit the Hygain site, click on the logo:

Petalia for Reliable Information.

Occasionally a site is chosen for good content and the Petalia site is worth a mention.  It provides information about interesting topics and is easily readable.  Petalia Australia is a comprehensive resource of professional pet, equine and farm animal advice, information and products online.  It features accurate and reliable animal health information, interactive tools and products recommended by veterinarians, a secure online shopping facility and a vet locator to find and communicate with your veterinarian online.

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To visit the horse section of the Petalia site, click on the logo:

Veterinary Community Resource.

To visit the University of Sydney Veterinary Education and Information site, click here:

Australian Thoroughbreds.

The Thoroughbred industry in Australia is one of the truly great industries especially in economic and social terms. No other industry can attract wealthy people to breed and race thoroughbreds at huge cost and so provide countless jobs in geographical areas where jobs are difficult to find.  Australia is one of the world's great producers of thoroughbreds and is well served by Thoroughbred Breeders Australia. Their site is valuable for all horse owners.

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To find out more about Thoroughbred Breeders Australia, click here:

Find Horse Information the Easy Way.

For those of you who scratch their head trying to find good horse information on the Internet, here are some hints. As voluntary editor for the Open Directory Project, the world's largest human edited directory, I recommend it to view information by category.  You can also search at the top of each page.  Here are some interesting categories from DMOZ Open Directory:

Health-Animal-Veterinary Medicine-Veterinarians
Health-Animal-Mammals-Equine-Dentists
Another very good way of finding information is to use the extensive search features of: 
GOOGLE Advanced Search 

A great Australian site is the Horse Directory , it has sensible categories with most Australian information you may be searching for.

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Horsedirectory Australia is a very useful site for those wishing to find Australian info. You can select your state and choose from many categories. Click the logo:

Veterinarians and Dentistry.

Dr Geoff Tucker has specialized in equine dentistry for a few years now and, like many of us, he has developed his own techniques. He has said to me many times that he is not in favour of aggressive treatment methods and that we need to respect natural (dental) structures. I quote this from his web site http://www.theequinepractice.com/ :

BELIEFS AND PHILOSOPHIES

Horsemanship is better than drugs and force.

Proper and judicious use of pain medication is indicated in about 1 of every 5 horses, not in every horse.

The use of hand tools and the hand as a mouth speculum is effective in addressing every edge of every tooth.

Every edge of every tooth must be made smooth to achieve comfort for the horse

Floating should be done every 6 months in horses between 5 and 25 years of age to be preventive in bit issues. On occasion some horses need it more often. Some, due to limited use or if they are over 25 years old only need an annual float.

Horses between 2 ½ and 5 years of age should be floated every 3 to 6 months depending on their training schedules. The teeth are softer and become sharp more quickly plus 24 baby "caps" are shed during this time and are replaced by sharp permanent teeth.

Good dentistry has been practiced for generations. While some changes are good, not all changes in technique or technology benefit the horse. The philosophy here is simple. If the change helps the horse, it is made. If it only helps the floater, the change is not made.

To visit Geoff Tucker's site click on the image:

RSPCA "You and Your New Horse" Seminars. The following information has been provided by RSPCA Education at Burwood Victoria (Australia)   You and Your New Horse Seminar Are you thinking about buying your first horse or pony? Are you a first time horse owner? For many people the fulfillment of getting their first pony or horse is a dream come true, but then comes the practicality of having to care for it. To assist people who are interested in the responsibilities and enjoyment of horse ownership, the RSPCA will present a seminar, 'You & Your New Horse'. The seminar is aimed at educating people about the responsibilities of horse ownership with a focus on improving the quality of horse care. The seminar will suit those who are first horse owners or for those who are thinking of buying their first horse or pony. To help people understand the management issues of horses, the RSPCA has put together an interactive, hands-on practical information seminar that is suitable for adults and kids 14 and over (please note that 14 and 15 years olds must be accompanied by an adult). Topics to be covered: what you need for your horse purchasing your horse keeping a horse feeding your horse safety around horses what can happen if you don't look after your horse Demonstrations by: farrier equine dentist saddle fitter equine vet There will also be a variety of informative displays where you can have your questions answered.   Contact Education: Download a booking form Download a brochure   Date: Saturday July 19th 9.15am - 4.00pm Where: RSPCA Burwood 3 Burwood Highway Burwood East VIC 3151   Melways Ref: 61 F6   Entry Fee: $35 Individual $25 Student (ID req) $75 Family All children aged 14 - 15 must be accompanied by an adult. The seminar is not suitable for children under 14.   Bring a picnic lunch   Tea, Coffee, Cordial provided   Bookings Essential: Phone (03) 9224 2286   Email: education@rspcavic.org.au     Javascript Menu by Deluxe-Menu.com

To find out more about the RSPCA and Education, click on the image on the right or call: (03)9224 2286  (Australia)

If you cannot see navigation buttons on the left, click here:

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