What does it mean to have a horses teeth floated?

Question

What does that mean and what is the procedure. Why does it need to be done? Just wondering.

Answer 1

A horse's teeth will continue to grow and develop sharp spots. This can cause damage to the inside of the mouth as well as poor chewing and loss of nutrition from feed. Floating is actually filing the teeth down to make proper contact. It is done with a long file. Any vet can do this for you.

Answer 2

To float a horses teeth basically is like having them filed down.

There are some horses, especially older ones, that there teeth grow and it makes it so the horse can't eat. The horse is in a lot of pain, so you have either the vet or someone specialized in this proceedure come and float the teeth. If your horse doesn't have it done it will die. Because it can't eat.

This is a painless proceedure for the horse and is just like filing your nails. Depending on where you live and who does this proceedure it can vary in price.

Every 6 months (when your vet should come and give your horse a check up, or at least once a year) Just ask your vet to look at your horses teeth and he can tell you if they need to be floated. He could also tell you who would be able to do this.

Every horse has this done (or just about every horse) at least once in their life time, and it is really no big deal.

Hope this cleared it up!

Answer 3

Floated means.....filed. When horses chew after a certain period of time there teeth in the back become uneven, this makes them sharp sometimes so sharp that when they chew they can actually cut the inside of there mouth. Depending on the horse this procedure sometimes has do be done every 6 months to a year and some horses can go years without it.
The signs of a horse needed there teeth floated are.....losing alot of grain out of there mouth when they eat, weight loss or sometimes when they are grazing you will see large clumps of grass fall out of there mouth because they cannot chew it up properly. This can affect the attitude of your horse while riding him, because the bit in his mouth pulling or hitting on those teeth that are in need of floating is very painful which sometimes will cause them to throw there head or sometimes rear or buck.
The procedure is done by your equine veterinarian and it only takes a few minutes, they most usually do this without a sedative. They put this vice in there mouth that holds it open and he will use a file on his teeth. It is very important for your horses health and comfort that you get this done. Good luck and happy trails.

Answer 4

As certain conditions develop the horse's teeth must be once again made level through use of a dental rasp. This process is called "floating," the purpose of which is to rasp off the excess tooth material in order to create a level "table" for the molars to come together. The type of rasp used varies according to the size of the horse's mouth and relative hardness of his teeth.

Answer 5

Floating a horse's teeth is when a veterinarian or equine dentist uses a large file and smoothes the sharp edges of a horse's molars.

Answer 6

Horses often get hooks on their teeth that cut into their gums etc and therefore they r floated which basically means having them filed/rasped down. An equine dentist uses a rasp and files down the teeth which should be down at least once a year.

Answer 7

It's when they file any sharp edges off and make sure the horses teeth line up correctly so they can properly chew their food. Horses teeth grow their whole life and can sometimes wear unevenly.

Answer 8

the horses teeth r filed down until the top and bottom will touch all the way around and the teeth r smooth,,,it prevents the waste of feed n this way the horse can completely chew his food

Answer 9

a horses tooth proceed to advance in the time of its existence, and interior the returned of the mouth a horse has what are spoke of as, wolf tooth. while they proceed to advance, they advance into pointed and sharp, which makes it painful for the pony to devour. So the tooth could be filed down each and every now and then so as that the pony does not start to drop pounds. that's a standard technique that is finished at domicile on your horses corral.

Answer 10

sometimes if a horse is starting to lose condition even when well fed its because of the molars not meeting properly to grind the food,

read this web page

http://www.kbrhorse.net/hea/float.htmly digested.