Retired quarter horse, loosing weight and having difficulty eating.

Misty is 26 years old and enjoys a quiet life being pampered by her owner. She was slowly losing weight for the last 3 or 4 months. She was dropping food as she chewed and had a very bad odor from her mouth.

An oral examination showed some teeth with sharp points , two worn out teeth, lacking any enamel, and a lot of periodontal disease.

Periodontal disease is inflammation and infection of the gums around and between teeth and the supporting soft tissue surrounding the tooth. It may start as a small pocket of food being retained at the gum line where two cheek teeth meet. Food that is retained is subject to bacterial digestion and this causes odor, receding gums, infection between the teeth and eventual tooth loss.

Misty had a more severe case of periodonitis.  Food was packed between several teeth, causing severe gum inflammation and pain.  Her mandibular lymph nodes were enlarged from the chronic oral infection.

The food is trapped between the teeth. Simply removing the food would not solve the problem. The food would become entrapped again after one or two days. The Treatment is to enlarge  the gap so if food gets in, it can come out easily.

I reexamined Misty 5 weeks after treatment. She had stopped dropping food when chewing, no odor was detected from her mouth and she started gaining weight again.

Periodontal disease is not just a disease of the mouth. The perio-pockets harbor bacteria that are in close contact with blood vessels. This has the potential for bacteria to travel from the mouth, throughout the body and cause systemic infection.