Affordable Dental Care, Absolutely Possible

Remember my sticker shock from last years dental bill? Well I was not happy to go that direction again. So bless FaceBook, I saw an ad for a Virginia Dentist with reasonable prices.

McCarthy Equine Dentistry

Routine Float:

$85 if one horse is floated at a barn

$75/horse if two horses are floated at the same barn

$65/horse if three or more horses are floated at the same barn

Discount also applies to private owners that schedule themselves together and are within 5 miles of each other.

Farm Call Fees For Barns Greater Than 100 Miles

100-150 miles from our home $10/horse
151-200 miles from our home $15/horse
201 or more miles from our home $20/horse.

The most anyone will ever pay for one horse is $105. That would be for a single horse floated at a barn more than 200 miles from us. We believe you will not find many other practitioners out there that offer the quality of work we do for these prices. 

A routine float is where the sharp points are removed and the mouth is completely balanced. It allows the horse to chew more effectively, reduces dropped and wasted feed, and helps increase weight on older horses and those that are "hard keepers". For riding horses, bit seats are offered at no additional charge. There are also no additional charges for reductions of waves, ramps, hooks, or other occlusion abnormalities. Even if the horse requires an extensive amount of work, you will not see it added to your bill. We believe this is part of balancing the mouth and should be performed during every float. We realize this goes against the business model of many EqDT's who charge additional fees for these reductions. That is not how we conduct our business and you can rest assured you know what your fee will be before Sean even starts his work. 

This dentist also has a flat rate for Rescue Horses of $60. He travels to VA, WV, PA, MD and even Wellington and Ocala FL. It took a bit to get our guys scheduled because this guy stays busy. He was well worth the wait.
Sean worked with the horses, letting them meet him and settle. Since VA requires a vet for any use of power tools, he only used hand tools this visit. We did get to see his power float and it was much better than the drill kind the vet had. The big plus to his tools, no sedation needed. His website shows a horse being power floated without sedation. It is great to know that option is available if we need it.

DaVinci was up first. Sean checked his alignment and grind. He kept in mind his age when working on his teeth. He was even able to work on his incisors, which some horses are not thrilled with. Plus he made sure to remove a big spot of tartar.

Dottie came next. Though she is younger than DaVinci, her teeth are much older. Some are down to the gums. Sean checked for sharp edges, but decided to leave the little she has. Dottie has been able to eat her food and recently has put on good weight. Her chopped hay and chaffhaye diet is something she can manage with the little teeth left. Sean did not even charge us an exam fee.

With Rosemary we were able to feel her sharp edges. Some of her riding issues could definitely be caused by that. She reacted while Sean was working and he made sure to find the trouble spot. After he did the work, he put on her riding bridle and driving bridle to check the fit of her bits.

Ember got his introduction to dentistry during this visit. He has a bump on his cheek that Sean carefully checked out. He was patient with Ember's coltish behavior. Eventually he will take out Ember's wolf teeth, but this time he only did like rasping. He only charged the $20 exam fee. Ember was less cooperative for the vet the next day. His mystery bump should go away on its own. The vet thought it was from those sharp baby teeth.

Mystery bump

Comrade had some corrective work needed. He had a wave going on which Sean definitely wanted to correct before he had the cupping issues older horses get. Comrade also got incisor work too.

Roscoe was actually the hardest one for Sean to work on. He was a bit of a shit. He had some weird shifts of his rear teeth toward the palette. Sean dealt calmly with Roscoe's antics and got the work done. He did not address his "smile" because he wanted to end on a good note.

Bad hair day :)

Well if you have been keeping track of the totals at the bottoms, you can see that we paid under $300 for five horses. For comparison, we paid about $1200 for six horses last year. Sean actually went into dentistry after not being able to find affordable care for his own horses. He provides quality work for affordable prices so that horses do not suffer. Horses are expensive and sometimes things like dental work are put off to pay for day to day necessities. This guy was the answer to all our worries. My horses did not have to be sedated, were much calmer and received the work they needed. Affordable dental care is absolutely possible and McCarthy Equine provides quality without billing high quantity. Such a relief!

Sticker Shock

When we moved to Peggy's, some things had to change due to the new location. This included getting a new vet and a new dentist. Last year the vet served both functions. I was a little unhappy that the only option was a power float requiring sedation, which is extra money. We dealt with it. This year we have since changed vets and used their dental service.

Well again we were stuck with the power float and sedation. Unfortunately the horses seemed really sore after the work. And the ones that were the most sore were not the ones with ulcers. I do believe you can do too much at one time. This vet used a head stand and everything.
So at the end Peggy and Mom waited for the totals. Peggy got her bill first for Comrade and about died. They charged $220 for one horse. Mom was amazed and worried what hers would be with five horses. It was $995. That was almost 3x what we paid last year. Insane. Not happening again. We may use the other vet for dental and this vet for everything else. Or we may just use an actual dentist and pay for the vet to sedate.

It kills me because a power float is supposed to be a more accurate, easier method especially since the horse is sedated, but you pay so much more for it. Plus I can't understand why the sedation is not included in the cost of the float since you have to have it. If your horse needs more than average, okay charge extra.

So much about owning a horse has increased in cost, but somehow we make it work. I hope I can start taking a lesson a month soon. It's tough since for the price of one, I used to take four. Ah well, I don't plan on giving up the horses, so time to tighten up the finances.

Sleepy Pony and A Show Update

This would be a show review except that I don't have the pictures and videos ready yet. I will say it was a very long day and Comrade and I parted company for the first time. The boys were super and behaved. They each spent a lot of time on the trailer alone and together all throughout the day. We only had to shut the escape door at times when Roscoe got excited about the Appie/cross mare at the next trailer. I love that they just chill during the down time. We did not have any big wins, but we all were proud of them both. More about the show later.

Well Roscoe got lucky today. He got to have his wolf teeth pulled...Finally. I braided his forelock and tucked it up out of the way. Then I knotted his tail up so he did not step on it. When the vet came he explained that he would sedate him then put on a rig that would help hold his head up. Can you guess what my job was? Yep I held the rope attached to his head. That got some Cob grunts.

What a heavy head as he tried to use the wall to help

 Roscoe got some really good drugs though, right in the blood. He was out in no time. I wondered if he would stay up. He did. The vet located the nubs, then used what looked like a punch tool on them. Then he was able to pull them out. They were a lot smaller than I expected.

His wolf teeth

 Roscoe was happily in La La land and did not react at all since he was numbed too. The vet rinsed him before filing down some edges near the sites. At the grinding noise the grey boys were like "What the Hell? We just got that done." I had to tell them they were not participating this time.
Once he was filed and rinsed, he was released. Roscoe was snoring and wobbling. He only almost fell once while I watched, but boy was he out. I had to laugh when I really looked at him. Most boys drop when sedated. Well Roscoe had everything tucked up so high he looked like a gelding. I guess he heard my comment to the vet that Roscoe was lucky he was only losing teeth, when boys tend to lose their balls at the same time. He only let them hang again once he was waking up. Ah, Boys :)
The best part was that it ended up being $132 which was over $50 cheaper than the vet originally said. A couple hours later Roscoe was awake enough to go sniff poop and drop some stud splats. Back to normal and our cue it was time to go to work.

You can see his instability

Hang lip, still dripping some blood

Dental Appointment

My ponies were overdue for having their teeth done. More so than we originally thought, but no one was having any issues. Our dentist came out yesterday and when he left he said "You have a good bunch of horses." He is pretty old and does not do hard to handle horses anymore, so that was good to hear. Mom let the Appy go first, don't get me started about that, and he worked in the newly cleared stall. He is a chatty kind of guy and was totally silent working with that mare. Mom just avoided the area until it was time for ours.
This was Roscoe's first full work up. Where our vet told us to wait longer to pull his wolf teeth, the dentist felt he should have had them out awhile ago. Ah well, what can you do. He gave us a name of a dentist, who is also a vet, that can do the work quickly but well. So we have that to look forward to. Other than not knowing what was happening and moving a bit, Roscoe did really well. Mom found out later that the 3yr old stallion did better than the 11yr old Appy. Explains why he was so quiet working with her. The dentist charged extra for the Appy, but not Roscoe. Says a lot huh?

Rosemary our drama queen behaved, but she did it while turning herself like a pretzel while looking like a hunchback. The dentist said "She's really flexible." Silly pony!

Dottie seems to have lost a tooth. The dentist said that draft horses age faster so he sees lost teeth earlier. We will have to keep an eye on her chewing abilities.

DaVinci despite his age, has all his teeth and looks great. His biggest issue is he has melanomas in the corners of his mouth, just like Barry. If they get bigger, I will have to try the hackamore on him so we can avoid a bit.

Winston had no issues teeth wise. Heck Mom said that the dentist did not even "oink" at any of the horses, which is his normal comment for Winston.The dentist used to ride Polo ponies which are pretty thin, so most other horses he would call fat.

This dentist is pretty old school, but he is worth using because he is a fount of knowledge. It is like listening to the history channel for horses. Plus his manner is so calm, my horses have not needed to be sedated. He gives them a chance and works with them. I really like the fact that he only does what is needed and is careful what he takes off of older horses. Anything that will extend the life of their teeth. Sometimes he did not even charge of for the work on the old pony we had.

Great dentists like farriers and vets, are the greatest part of the extended network that keeps our horses healthy. We always try to keep him happy. Next time we may not include the Appy in the appointment so he has the chance to say no to working on her.