Okay, so the equine-focused vet students* get to do this fantastic rotation where we learn all these secret side-note skills that are actually fundamental to equine practice. One of these skills is equine dentistry.
When you float (file) a horse's teeth, you're basically scraping away at sharp points and/or hooks on the teeth that you can't see very well. This happens in a long, narrow, dark oral cavity that is also home to an insanely powerful tongue. The tongue is always trying to get in your way. You can use hand floats (which sounds like the sane option), or you can do what we did and use power floats - which are kind of like tiny long electric sanders mounted on a power drill.
We practiced on cadaver heads for a day. The next day, we teamed up to float teeth on living horses. This is how that process was supposed to happen:
1. Greet horse.
2. Sedate horse, place jugular catheter.
3. Position horse in dental station, begin IV infusion of sedation.
4. Place speculum (keeps the horse's mouth open for you), perform oral exam.
5. Float teeth.
6. Return horse to paddock.
Our dental stations were located at various intervals in a narrow corridor surrounding the back of a large run-in shed. So, one side was the wall of the shed and the other was the chain-link fence forming the edge of the field.
This is how our first horse's float went:
1. Greet horse.
2. Sedate horse, horse bounces around. Place jugular catheter.
3. Position horse in dental station, begin IV infusion of sedation. Hang IV bag on chain-link fence.
4. Place speculum, perform oral exam. Another horse in field reaches through fence, grabs IV tubing, destroys infusion set-up. Drugs fountain liberally from IV bag over horse and vet students.
5. Re-sedate horse. Re-start IV infusion of sedation (new bag!), hang bag on opposite wall.
6. Instructor walks through IV tubing, gets tangled.
7. Re-sedate horse.
8. Float teeth.
9. Horse takes quite some time to wake up from sedation.
10. Return horse to field.
Okay, so that could have been significantly worse. Here is how our second horse's float went:
1. Greet horse.
2. Sedate horse, place jugular catheter.
3. Horse becomes insanely ataxic, nearly falls down.
4. Flag down passing instructor.
5. Instructor is alarmed, considers reversing the sedation.
6. Discover that the horse has a history of neurologic problems, probably has lymphoma.
7. Decide not to float teeth.
8. Return horse to field.
All in all, it was a good day. Learning!
*Before I wanted to be an oncologist, I wanted to be an equine surgeon. Yes, those specialties are really different. This is why I'm taking all the equine rotations even though I'm going into a (mostly) small animal field.