Donkey Torture At Gate Farm©
by Leslie Heulitt
Sometimes we people that have been in the animal business for many years forget how simple procedures like giving shots, deworming, doing feet and floating teeth, can really intimidate new owners to the industry. Were supposed to be sharing our hard learned knowledge and giving sage advice, not scaring people to death!
Dr.
Ron checks out the job before giving sweetie a big kiss!
That's why I was appalled to read Lois Foresters article "Dentistry and Donkeys" in the winter of '95 issue of the "Brayer". Forrester made a quick, simple, painless, routine procedure sound absolutely horrifying !! Quote "A sedative shot is given in advance of floating so the donkey is asleep when the work is done. I have done it when they are awake but because of the roughness of the procedure and the blood and saliva involved it is hard to hold them still without great exertion. It is ghastly to watch floating or assist" unquote.
Nonsense, part of Foresters problem is her vet is using a large horse rasp on a miniature and probably tearing up the soft tissue in the poor little donkeys mouth along with filing its teeth. Hence the blood, saliva and inability to control her charge. Even a good donkey is not going to stand still if you are hurting it!
Dr.
Ron Checks Carla's bite
Note
larger rasp used on Sweetie a standard Jennet as she stands quiet on a loose
lead.
For as long as I can remember June has been equine
dental month on my farms, every equine on the place in June gets a look about
the mouth. So one fine day late last June the handsome Dr. Ron and sweet
Sue arrive to do the dastardly deed, FLOAT TEETH ! ! There were 21 victims
slated for tooth torture that sunny June morning and this is how it went. 
India say - "no big deal" Get your donkey's teeth done!
One by one we marched the victims up, Sue would flush any food or debris out of their mouths with a huge stainless steel syringe filled with plain water, than Dr. Ron would examine the mouth and rasp their teeth the whole procedure taking 5 or 6 minutes per animal. Please not in the accompanying photos all the animals standing. Please note the photos on all the animals standing on loose leads! Even 'Ole Sara who had only been here a few days, submitted to this procedure being held with just my finger tips!
While we were working I asked Dr. Ron these
questions:
Q. Dr. Ron is floating an equines teeth a routine procedure?
A. Yes
Q. At what age should you start checking teeth? Then how often?
A. A foal should be checked at birth to see if its bite is correct, again
at six or eight months, then a yearling. Some animals will need more
attention than others. Miniatures tend to have sharper protrusions than
larger stock. I have a 27 year old quarter horse mare that only needed her
teeth floated once and a three year old that needs her teeth done every few
months.
Q. How many equines do you float a year?
A. The practice probably examines 2000 to 3000 equine mouths a year but
not all need to be floated.
Q. What percentage of these are problem
animals?
A. We have to sedate less than 1%.
'Ole Sara had only been here a week, but we managed to do her just lightly
holding her halter!
Q. Would you consider floating teeth a rough
procedure, creating lots of blood and saliva?
A. NO !
Q. During a routine examination what other
problems do you look for?
A. I look for cracked or broken teeth, retained caps, foreign material,
tumors, abscesses, (which you can sometimes smell) and not the location of any
wolf teeth, although I don't pull them unless their going to be a problem.
20
seconds of "the Pinch your nose Polkou" a variation of the
Twitch.
Dr. Ron also stressed the importance of not over rasping and making your donkey a smooth mouth. Since donkeys cut and crush their forage by grinding from side to side it is normal and necessary for the teeth to have some edges. 4 or 5 strokes of the rasp on each arcade should be sufficient. He also noted that donkeys and horses chew with their mouths open so dropping hay or grain while eating does not necessarily mean a dental problem.
Last but not least Dr. Ron shared my concern about how one would prevent a sedated donkey, that was laying down with its head tipped up (as in Foresters photo) from aspirating the water used to flush out its mouth down into the lungs, creating a much more serious problem.
Anyway the whole 21 head took just three hours, we DID NOT rush and that included an iced tea on the back porch while Dr. Ron pursued the Forester article. Well I'll fess up, not everything went super smooth, of course Ed (that ugratefull, bleep, bleep) didn't want anyone messing around with his mouth, guess he thought he could drag Dr. Ron around like he does us, wrong ! ! After 20 seconds of doing the "pinch your nose polka" with Dr. Ron. Ed settled down like a good boy with his little charges gathered around giving emotional support.
and
Ed stands, submits, gives in - whatever!! He was a good boy and learned he
won't be hurt by this procedure. Note his little charges offering support!
Since in all my years of owning horses, ponies and donkeys I could NOT remember ever having a bad experience floating teeth (and the bad experience do tend to stick in ones mind) I paid more attention , who knows, I'm just a poor W.V. hillbillyette, maybe I'd been missing something all these years! Nope I hadn't, no blood, no saliva not much energy expended holding the victims and I can live with 20 seconds of fuss from ED cause that's just Ed's way. Nobody really like having water squirted in their mouth but when the actual rasping started it acted like a tranquilizer and I could feel each donkey relax into me, poor tortured darlings.
So please don't be afraid to get your donkey darlings teeth done, it's important and NO BIG DEAL ! ! ! But do get your vet or equine dentist to use the proper tool for the job. Tooth rasps come in two sizes large for the big'uns and small for the little'uns. I figger you know what you got. That's all for now.
From the Other Side of the Mountain, Leslie
