I went to the barn on Monday (Feb 16th) to work my 2yo filly, Olena Pleny, and saw that she had a bloody mouth. Upon inspection, I noticed that the 2 front teeth were pulled forward about a 1/2" out of alignment. From what we can tell (the vet and I) is that she must of been nipping the panels on her outside stall and she must of got her teeth hung on them, panicked and pulled back. Therefore she pulled her teeth forward and tore the gums in the process.

The vet decided that since she still had her baby teeth and the permanet teeth were still up in her gums enough that they should be fine and it not effect them coming in straight. He suggested that we wire the front teeth down so that the gums would heal correctly. He widened the space between a couple of teeth down on each side of her mouth so that the wire could fit between the teeth in order to tighten it to hold the front ones in place.

I have a link below of the pics that were taken with a cell phone during the process that probably took about 45mins after giving her a sedative and numming the gumline. They are not too clear but enough to get what was done. I thought it was pretty amazing.

The first photo is what I found when I got to the barn. Notice the panels in the background. That is what we are thinking that she must of hung them on.

The second photo is of the vet making the gap in her teeth a little wider for the wire to fit between.

The third photo is a little blurry but you can see the brown line across the front teeth. That is the wire. It will stay in for about 3 to 4 weeks, and then it will be removed. During that time, I am to give her daily "bute" for the inflamation and pain, and daily antibiotics in her feed in the evenings for 10days.

Wow, what a mess!!!! Can't wait to get the bill for this one. Anyone experience the same?

Olena Plentys Braces :: Lena's Braces slideshow by courtate - Photobucket

I'm so sorry about Olena Plenty I don't know about equine dental..
but braces should be fine. They don't seem to be dangerous.

Well, thank you. I just feel really lucky that they were her baby teeth and not the permant teeth. So we will come out of it okay. Just the shock of what happened was hard to take. I have been told several times that you could put a horse in a padded room and it would still find a way to get hurt!!!!

No problem. I'm glad Olena Plenty is going to be okay, I believe you can
put a horse in a padded room but they still can get hurt.
I kind of don't get why, such smart animals hurting themselves.
Well, it's not that bad though, your lucky they were baby teeth
I'm glad

wow ive never heard of horse braces!!! amazing what can be done these days huh?
lucky they were just baby teeth. i hope it all goes well, good luck with the little one =)

The bad thing is that since she is young, she can't seem to leave things alone. On the third day, the braces went missing. The vet said that as long as she has not pulled them out no more than a 1/4" out of alignment, she should be fine. But if she does pull them out further than that, we will have to put them back on. Apparently horses heal really quickly. So for now she kind of looks goofy until her permanet teeth come in. It is kind of funny really when she does the mare smilling that they do, you can see the silly beaver teeth!!! We have to laugh at her. It is almost as if she knows it gives her a goofy smile and likes to have us laugh at her being silly!!!

Oh, she messes with them? Do you have
a pic of her "goofy" face?

No, but I wish I did. You know how it goes, when the kodak moment shows up, there is no camera around!

Oh yea, thats true.