BAEN Message Board: Re: I side with the vets

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Re: I side with the vets

Posted by Gail Ivey on 11/5/2009, 8:24 pm, in reply to "I side with the vets"
66.245.59.216

1)the float bangs into the jaw and teeth as you float.

No, it doesn't, unless the person is hamfisted with no ability to control the float. If the person is just running the darn thing back and forth like they're sawing on a fiddle, that's not a skilled float, that's just horse torture.

2)the must keep their jaw wrenched open for much much longer.

I just saw a vet do a power float on a horse where they had the horse's mouth opened for two to three minutes at a time. I start freaking if it goes longer than 90 seconds. The dentist who used hand tools only on my horse this year barely had the speculum apart, just enough to get his arm inside, and probably for less than a minute at a time. My horse couldn't eat a carrot the next day, but ate everything else just fine, which means no serious jaw soreness. By contrast, when my old mare got power floated by a dentist the first time, she couldn't even eat hay until the next day when I got her some acupuncture treatment and buted her.

3)The float blade is not guarded so its very common to cut the soft tissue as you float.

That's why the GOOD dentists wrap their fingers around the float and FEEL what they're doing. No cuts for my horse, thank you. Even a tiny nick can cause a systemic infection and sepsis. One of the vets/dentists who worked on my horse was so careful about it that when she accidentally nicked my horse, she worried about it and took some off my bill, plus spent five minutes apologizing to the horse! She nicked my horse with a power tool.

4)because the hand floats take longer the horse often has to be re-sedated several times. This is hard on the kidney and liver and increases the risk of colic.

And again, who is doing this to the horse? The last few dentists who used power tools on my horse worked on them for long enough that they had to be re-sedated, and heavily. The dentist who used only hand tools used only a very light sedation. He didn't NEED to use more because the horse is not being stressed or finding a reason to object. Because he kept the horse relaxed, he was able to finish the job in 20 minutes and did a better job than the last few power floaters did.

So, again, it goes back to WHO is doing the job.

I used to be a fan of power floats for all the same reasons you mentioned. NO more. Tools in the hands of skilled and compassionate people are still just tools. Put those same tools in the hands of the self-gratifying skills and closed-minded opinions and you'll get a different experience, and I guarantee, not a better one.