Equine dental equipment

RE: Equine dental equipment

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Fri, 17 Nov 2017 13:32:28 GMT

[quote user="Gillian Mostyn"]I suspect Marie's patients will be anaesthetised...so although I would also want good kit when my fingers depend on it, maybe it is less critical?[/quote]

You still don't want it breaking in the middle of a procedure – serious injury to the patient would be possible, quite apart from the general hassle and waste of money and time.

[quote user="Luke Edwards"]If it is only going to be used under GA then a Varnell's gag (or perhaps a Gunter gag) might be easier to use and cheaper .[/quote]

A good point. Especially if you are likely to need access to the incisors. Or, for a Haussman gag, those leather-covered bars which replace the standard incisor plates and act on the bars of the mouth. Come to think of it, since antelopes don't have upper incisors, this might be better for them anyway.

[quote user="Wren"]decent motorised set up is upwards of £5k. [/quote][quote user="Wren"]I might be quite wrong but that suggests that you want to deal with fairly coarse or gross stuff, hefty overgrowths and so on, rather than delicate or refined little imperfections. You will surely want motorised equipment.[/quote]

You can easily make your own motorised rasp. You just need a cordless electric drill and a flexible drive from Screwfix, and a tungsten carbide round or bullet-shape bur (not a dinky little thing for modelmaking, something like half-inch or 5/8 diameter) from an engineering tool supplier. Add a combined handle and shield (to protect soft tissues) which you can devise yourself out of, for instance, plastic wastepipe. For real sophistication, hack into the wiring of the drill and add a switch (RS or maybe Maplins) for fingertip control, and for super refinement add a strap to sling it to yourself.

This is what some of us did back in the mid-nineties. I still have (and occasionally use) mine.

RE: Equine dental equipment

Jill Butterworth — Thu, 16 Nov 2017 23:02:47 GMT

Spare mouth pieces

RE: Equine dental equipment

Jill Butterworth — Thu, 16 Nov 2017 23:02:03 GMT

The rasp set

RE: Equine dental equipment

Jill Butterworth — Thu, 16 Nov 2017 23:00:21 GMT

I have a Hausmann's gag and some rasps which I no longer need.

RE: Equine dental equipment

Luke Edwards — Thu, 16 Nov 2017 20:39:06 GMT

Marie,

If it is only going to be used under GA then a Varnell's gag (or perhaps a Gunter gag) might be easier to use and cheaper .

Luke

RE: Equine dental equipment

Wren — Thu, 16 Nov 2017 20:33:06 GMT

[quote user="Gillian Mostyn"]I suspect Marie's patients will be anaesthetised...so although I would also want good kit when my fingers depend on it, maybe it is less critical?[/quote]

To be fair this did cross my mind! But....

RE: Equine dental equipment

Marie Kubiak — Thu, 16 Nov 2017 20:20:39 GMT

[quote user="Gillian Mostyn"]I suspect Marie's patients will be anaesthetised...so although I would also want good kit when my fingers depend on it, maybe it is less critical?[/quote]

Absolutely- these are not amenable to sticking a head collar on and some light sedation. Flat out under full GA is the only option. Though my hand remains vulnerable if everything collapses, it does mean that the animal won't contribute much more to injury!

We have discussed that a limited budget covers only very basic kit- anything more than minor corrections will result in getting outside expertise to attend.

Marie

RE: Equine dental equipment

Gillian Mostyn — Thu, 16 Nov 2017 18:57:56 GMT

[quote user="Evelyn Barbour-Hill"]Beware of ebay gags. What you get may well be absolutely fine. Or it may be of inferior material that could break unexpectedly – disastrous if it happens when your hand is deep in the mouth . I'm not sure how to tell by looking.[/quote]

I suspect Marie's patients will be anaesthetised...so although I would also want good kit when my fingers depend on it, maybe it is less critical?

RE: Equine dental equipment

Wren — Thu, 16 Nov 2017 17:22:26 GMT

[quote user="Evelyn Barbour-Hill"]

[quote user="Marie Kubiak"]It will be all manner of weird creatures potentially, though mainly antelope and zebra [/quote]

I might be quite wrong but that suggests that you want to deal with fairly coarse or gross stuff, hefty overgrowths and so on, rather than delicate or refined little imperfections. You will surely want motorised equipment.

Beware of ebay gags. What you get may well be absolutely fine. Or it may be of inferior material that could break unexpectedly – disastrous if it happens when your hand is deep in the mouth . I'm not sure how to tell by looking.

[/quote]

I think the cost will be the issue here. Perfectly possible to tackle anything except the biggest overgrowths with a reasonable variety of hand floats and good blades, but a decent motorised set up is upwards of £5k. I'd say a decent compromise would be to have someone with the equipment come in and consult on any really bad mouths - I have done this on occasion and it works pretty well.

And I'm with you on the ebay thing. I have seen teeth break off the ratchets of cheap specula, and the results are not pleasant. However it's your arm Michael....

RE: Equine dental equipment

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Thu, 16 Nov 2017 17:02:38 GMT

[quote user="Marie Kubiak"]It will be all manner of weird creatures potentially, though mainly antelope and zebra [/quote]

RE: Equine dental equipment

Marie Kubiak — Thu, 16 Nov 2017 16:20:32 GMT

[quote user="Michael Woodhouse"]

Believe it or not, ebay gags are fine. I have an old one that would have been very expensive and I take the ebay one out in preference. I bet the Kruuse one won't have much change out of £500 and ebay will be £50, it's not 10X better.

Good value for handles is Surgical Holdings, the website is a bit of a PITA but ok.

http://surgicalholdings.co.uk/veterinary/index.php?content=catalogue&category_id=17&sub_id=180

We use Equine Blades Direct for new blades, get the medium TC disposable ones for most jobs.

If you are using them on things other than horses then the slim pony rasps are useful, I sometimes use them on sheep!

[/quote]

Good to know - I had looked at ebay but was wary. That will probably be the option they go for - it is hard to justify £500 when we won't use them much and can't charge for the work to recoup costs!

It will be all manner of weird creatures potentially, though mainly antelope and zebra so thanks for the tip on pony rasps.

Marie

RE: Equine dental equipment

Michael Woodhouse — Thu, 16 Nov 2017 16:11:59 GMT

Good value for handles is Surgical Holdings, the website is a bit of a PITA but ok.

http://surgicalholdings.co.uk/veterinary/index.php?content=catalogue&category_id=17&sub_id=180

We use Equine Blades Direct for new blades, get the medium TC disposable ones for most jobs.

If you are using them on things other than horses then the slim pony rasps are useful, I sometimes use them on sheep!

RE: Equine dental equipment

Wren — Thu, 16 Nov 2017 15:30:55 GMT

Kruuse are very good for the basics. Equine Blades Direct are excellent, but usually pricier.