stood still as Trotter walked up to the bay, where the two sniffed noses. Trotter nuzzled the bayâs lower neckâthe highest point he could reachâuntil the bay lowered its head and gently exhaled. Then Trotter turned and continued his pursuit of stray hay on the floor.
Jessica scrambled up from the floor and gave Annie a hard look.
âDrugs,â they said simultaneously.
* * *
Annie never liked to see a horse sedated although she knew the horse hated it even more than she did, deprived of its natural senses and therefore, in its mind, more vulnerable to unknown prey. And there was the fear that the twelve-hundred-pound swaying animal would actually fall while under the influence and not be able to get up.
Jessica knew all about Annieâs fears and pooh-poohed the latter, insisting that if Annie would simply stop resting her butt on the bayâsâwhich was heavily leaning into Annieâs thigh at this pointâall would be fine.
Annie politely thanked her for her opinion but didnât believe her.
Now, with the bayâs eyelids dropping and its head lowered halfway to the ground, Jessica was able to delicately probe inside its mouth to her heartâs content. She whistled an old Travis tune as she peered and poked.
âOh, oh, oh.â
âWhat do you mean,oh, oh, ohâ?â
âSome yahoo took a power saw to his mouth and cut off his premolars to the bone.â
Annieâs mouth tingled. More silence.
âYupâthree-zero-six is cut right to the gum line. Iâll bet my Tucker saddle weâve got a tooth root abscess. And voilà ââJessica fiddled a bit more inside the droopy bayâs mouthââan already fragile tooth has splintered into a jillion glittering little pieces.â She stood up from her squatting position and stretched her back.
âOne more time for the medically-challenged?â asked Annie.
Jessica sighed. âIn recent years, motorized floating, rather than using the traditional rasp, has become all the rage. Itâs fine, and, in fact, quite efficient, as long as the user knows what heâs doing. This vet obviously didnât. Young horsesâ teeth are changing all the time. They donât need much outside help.â
âJessica. The pointâplease.â
âJudging by his mouth, Iâd say this guy is only about three years old. You donât need to do much to a horseâs mouth at that ageâjust make sure that any emerging points are taken off, and the mouth is developing nicely. Thereâs nothing wrong with this fellowâs mouth except an overindustrious vet who whittled away his surfacing teeth so much that bone infection may very well have set in.
âMy guess is that when the trailer overturned, the horse clamped down and broke an already fragile tooth. It would have occurred anyway, sooner or later, although perhaps not this severely.â
âWhat can you do?â
âTake some X-rays, find out the extent of the damage, and go from there.â
An hour later, Annie was peering over shadowy images Jessica had produced from her portable digital X-ray machine.
âSee that first check tooth?â Jessica pointed to an image on the screen. âThanks to our saw-happy vet, the lamina dura is almost completely eroded.â
Glancing at Annieâs pleading look, Jessica smiled. âAnnie, the bottom line is that the traumatized tooth lost its ligamentous attachment, which caused significant paradental disease. The infection has gone straight down to the root, and the broken tooth is wallowing in the pus.â
Annie felt dizzy. Visits to the dentist were never high on her list, and when she did, she begged for massive doses of nitrous oxide.
âThis is one of the teeth horses use most often to chew,â Jessica continued. âEating is a side to side motion. Trouble is, every time our guy takes a bite on the wrong side, heâs in real
Madeleine Urban, Abigail Roux