We're halfway there

Sing it, Bon Jovi, you fabulously feather-maned heart throb.

But also it's in regards to Opie's dental work.

remember this gloriously awful mug?

I didn't get any gory pictures like some of you weirdos may have liked because it turned into a three man operation, and my extra height over Dentist's assistant meant I got to be the Dopie shoulder rest.

Dentist warned me that this could either be really easy--they'd be shallow and he could just pop them out--or it would involve a lot of cutting and blood. BM and I were like, "LOL it's going to be the latter just because he belongs to me." Yeah, it was.

working on the first tooth.

Opie seemed to take his first hit of sleepy drugs well and was soon dragging his lower lip on the ground. Dentist got his scapel and got to work on the first one (the little nubby teeth in the front row). Opie was instantly like, "NOPE." They added the twitch, and Dentist managed to get the first tooth out in a couple of pieces without much issue, but the second one was in deeper. Opie wasn't loving the twitch--he seemed more distracted by it than anything--so they ditched that and opted to add a little more sleepiness on board.

Our barn gets dark when there's snow covering the skylights like there has been lately. For tooth two I held the flashlight which would have been a good opportunity to try to shove my phone in there for pictures, but I was also on bloody scapel holding duty which left both hands occupied.

Tooth three was the big problem. Dentist said it had fused to the jaw which involved crunching and blood and gore and Assistant and I both grimacing and refusing to look while Dentist told her to hold the flashlight steady and I tried to both hold Opie's head up high enough for him to work and not let him throw it too high. It was a hot mess, but he eventually got it cut free.

ewwwwwwwwww.

He let Opie be done there so I'm not sure if he actually got the fourth tooth out while I wasn't paying attention, or if it's still in there. Honestly I got distracted by blood and homeopathic remedy talk. Did you know imitation vanilla on a cotton ball or gauze held against the gums is supposed to help sooth the pain? He also told us a story about a horse that had a lot of scar tissue in its mouth that an old cowboy softened by wrapping a bit with pork skin and leaving it in the horse's mouth. The salt was supposed to soften the skin. Dudes, so distracted, couldn't focus on anything.

i also got distracted by this corgi playing ball, and for that
i'm not sorry.

He'll back in two to three weeks to give Opie a proper float since clearly he didn't want to follow all that with rasps. He said the gums should take about ten days to heal up, and despite the possibility of there being a bit of ridge where the one tooth was really in there, there shouldn't be any issues. Opie should be able to go right back to normal food along with a few days of Bute to help with any soreness.

Opie, for his part, immediately went to scavenging the second he was unclipped despite Dentist being adamant on the No Food rule while waking up from sleepy drugs. I'd gotten there early to get in a ride since I wasn't sure how long he was going to be out of commission for (we'll play it by ear...or mouth?), so he only got half his hay and grain before I stole him away, and then only had time to finish the other half of his grain before Dentist arrived. I stripped his stall while he was "waking up" mostly to get rid of all the blood before an unsuspecting stall cleaner got to the crime scene, but it didn't stop Dopie from trying to shovel shavings into his dripping mouth.

there might be one nugget of grain in there, you never know!

He finally took the most half-assed nap ever while Dentist did two other horses, but by the time they got to the third, Opie had peed and was starting to half-ass weave so I kicked him outside.

not at all a sleepy horse.

Bit-wise, Dentist was surprised that he stuck his tongue out with the french link, and thought that him reverting to keeping his tongue in his mouth with the single joint might have come more from pushing the tongue back than him actually liking it more. I don't know what to think. Opie is generally so quiet in the contact that he hasn't seemed to care one way or the other about what's in his mouth.

already back to business

He'll obviously get at least a couple days off, and we'll see how he looks and feels from there. In the meantime, Hubby got a ton of media from our ride this weekend so I should be able to eek out one riding post this week.

Feel free to ask questions about the procedure. I'm sure I missed a lot that he did tell me, but if I didn't think to ask it myself I'll be sure to ask next time he's out! I think this shit is pretty cool myself if exceedingly disgusting.