Regular Dental Care Keeps Horses Healthy

Sedation and Analgesia Needed for Safe,
Less Painful Procedures

Regular dental care for horses is critical to support overall health and avoid potential problems. Uneven wear or sharp ridges on a horse’s teeth may lead to poor feed utilization, weight loss and poor performance. Annual dental checkups can help to identify and correct any issues that may develop over time.

Horses’ teeth erupt continuously throughout their lifetimes, making regular dental care a necessity. Sharp points and ridges may cause sores in the mouth and affect the horse’s ability to grind and process feed. Symptoms of dental problems may include dropping food while chewing, excessive drooling, chewing with head tilted, discomfort or resistance while wearing or being ridden in a bit, head tossing, facial swellings, weight loss and poor performance. Making an appointment with a veterinarian experienced in dental care to evaluate your horse can help to avoid these issues. An annual dental exam and any recommended care will resolve dental problems before they become severe.

Veterinarians may employ a variety of diagnostic procedures to examine a horse’s teeth. Sedation often helps to facilitate these examinations by calming the horse and making it easier for the veterinarian to diagnose problems. Specific medications, such as detomidine, also provide an analgesic effect that reduces pain for the horse—allowing for less reliance on the twitch and fewer reactions during a painful procedure. Not only do these benefits create a significantly less traumatic experience for the horse, they also help decrease the chance of injury to the owner or veterinarian during a procedure.

“If I think a horse will need standing sedation for a dental procedure, I prefer to use a drug that provides some level of analgesia as well,” said Travis Henry, DVM, of Midwest Equine Services. “Keeping the horse pain-free is especially important for more extensive procedures that may require prolonged sedation.”

DORMOSEDAN^® (detomidine hydrochloride) is an equine sedative and analgesic that may be used to facilitate minor surgical and diagnostic procedures, such as those common in dentistry. Available from Pfizer Animal Health, this non-narcotic drug provides fast-acting and reliable sedation that is dose-dependent—veterinarians can control the depth and length of sedation and analgesia based on the amount of DORMOSEDAN that is administered. These properties have led many veterinarians to utilize DORMOSEDAN for standing procedures in which both sedation and analgesia are required for the comfort of the horse and the safety of the veterinarian. DORMOSEDAN has a wide margin of safety and has been available in the U.S. for more than 16 years.

“DORMOSEDAN provides reliable results that veterinarians often need when performing dental procedures,” said Henry. “With this drug I can achieve the exact level of sedation I need with a single drug—there’s no need to worry about the interactions that can occur when multiple drugs are used.”

As with other α₂-agonists, bradycardia and partial AV and SA blocks can occur with decreased respiratory rates. Occasional reports of anaphylactic-like reactions have been observed. The use of epinephrine should be avoided since epinephrine may potentiate the effects of α₂-agonists. Do not use in horses intended for food. For full prescribing information please visit www.equineresources.com/pdf/Dormosedan
information.pdf.

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