Dental Vet; Equine vet practice for dental health and surgery

06/08/2026

What is this?! What on earth would a dental vet need a tiny pipe cleaner for??

06/08/2026

Cold start to a beautiful day

04/08/2026

04/08/2026

Pressurised water is absolutely necessary to deliver safe and effective dentistry.
- cooling
- maintaining visibility
- removing feed
- cleaning in between teeth

That is why this vet practice has 100L of clean pressurised water available right from our trailer.

29/07/2026

With such low strangles vaccine availability across NZ, how good is this? Thanks Rach!! Vet nurse has allocated our available vaccines to horses due their booster, to ensure we are able to keep everyone’s boosters up to date during this strangles outbreak. Some new stock has arrived, so we again able to vaccinate new horses.

24/07/2026

Wolf tooth extraction: a common post on this page because it is a simple procedure, that has painful consequences when botched.

⏰ Wolf teeth are best removed at 1-2 years of age:

- when their attachments are still weak.
- requires your young stock to be handled well. As an aside, a good reason to attend one of our first aid and handling for the vet presentations.

🦷 Wolf teeth come in all different shape and sizes, and often have one or multiple curved roots. Some are completely covered by soft tissue (‘blind wolf teeth’). Only careful elevation can successfully lift wolf teeth out.

🍀 The procedure requires injected sedation, pain relief and a nerve block administered by a vet.

🍀 Remove wolf teeth at least 4 weeks before starting a horse. Too many come in literally on their way to the breakers! Who would want to place a bit on an open wound and then sit on it?? Our brave and skilled horse starters deserve safety, and your horse deserves a pain free start.

23/07/2026

Tooth extraction in the field.
Minis often have poorly positioned or shaped teeth (dysplasia).
- This leads to problems shedding baby teeth.
- Feed accumulation and periodontitis (gum disease). Notice on this scope the feed accumulation on your right hand side of the crown (this is the buccal aspect and interproximal space of 208).

Nerve blocking and deep elevation of the retained baby teeth is required to lift them out successfully.

I then start on an ‘orthodontic’ process to move the tooth over time. Similar to braces. Results depend on the shape and angulation, and the age of the horse. In my view, the most important reason to see horses 1 - 6 year old, every 6 months.

Once crowded teeth start causing gum disease (research shows 60% of horses have gum disease), you’re dealing with a whole different cattle of fish.

This goes largely untreated until the smell, balls of food, pus or loose tooth is noticed on the outside of the head… because teeth are outta sight outta mind.

23/07/2026

Today a donation goes the extra mile 🎀🎀

Help us reach more families like Jo's who are struggling with the financial & emotional pain of terminal cancer.

22/07/2026

First aid kits back in stock! Guaranteed better quality yet significantly more economical than building your own or buying a commercial one.

Talk to us for any indicated prescription add ons or electrolytes, ointments etc.

16/07/2026

A bit of creativity! I am working on a historical display for our coffee room.

Did you know, that veterinary dentistry was super advanced in Europe between WWI and WWII?

Especially German veterinary surgeons had equipment and treatment methods (incl fillings!) as advanced as we use today!

They even had hydraulic drills and water flushers…stuff we do not even have now.

We have movies of this vet care, and lots of literature that shows their advanced knowledge of dental diseases.

After the industrial revolution and WWII, horses became less valuable and sadly their welfare and feed conversion therefore were not prioritised. The economic and social devastation of WWII, and the loss of German science also contributed to dentistry skills being lost.

The art of tooth floating with manual rasps remained an important part of husbandry in the Americas. I suspect this is where the traditional notion comes from, that doin’ teeth means rasping teeth or dental equilibration. Some of these old hand floats are pictured below.

It is so helpful though, to understand that dental diseases have been researched and recorded for centuries. And before the devastation of WWII, an impressive level of dental care was offered to horses. A much higher level than many horses are offered today in NZ.

Much of the advanced dentistry I offer at Dental Vet today, is not new age, woke or a new fad. No, for the last 25 years we have been rediscovering what German vets were applying many moons ago.

You can watch those old videos at our vet practice during your horse’s treatment. Then you can tell me how it compares!!